NASA releases Global Exploration Roadmap, launches 2012 Lunabotics Mining Competition

By Courtney E. Howard

The Aerospace industry is alive with a flurry of activity. Executive Editor Courtney E. Howard has talked previously about NASA’s Lunabotics Mining Competition in which U.S. and international undergraduate and graduate students design and build a remote-controlled or autonomous robot that could potentially be used for future exploration of the moon. NASA has opened registration for the 2012 competition. Visit www.nasa.gov/lunabotics for more.

NASA officials also have released The Global Exploration Roadmap (GER), the culmination of work over the past year by 12 space agencies, which identifies two potential pathways of robotic and human missions covering a 25-year period. NASA officials are interested in gaining feedback on the GER. Download the PDF from www.nasa.gov/exploration/about/isecg and submit comments to HQ-GER-Comments@nasa.gov.

The SES-2 commercial communications satellite, built by Orbital for SES World Skies, launched aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. Ariane 5 is manufactured under the European Space Agencey and CNES by prime contractor Astrium, an EADS company in Europe. Ariancespace operates and launches the vehicles from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana.

SES-2 carries a commercial payload of 24 active C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders, as well as Commercially Hosted InfraRed Payload (CHIRP) for the U.S. Air Force. CHIRP uses a wide field of view sensor to validate space-based infrared technologies from geosynchronous orbit.

These three newsworthy events are just the tip of the iceburg. Be sure to visit http://avionics-intelligence.com to stay current on the latest aerospace news.