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A Japanese H-2B rocket was put into orbit on Tuesday from the Tanegashima Space Center with an automatic cargo loaded with more than 4.1 tons of batteries, experiments, and space-based launching equipment. of water and food for the International Space Station.
The unmanned cargo ship took off Tuesday from Tanegashima's No. 2 launch pad, a seaside spaceport located on an island in southern Japan.
The 56-foot (56-meter) H-2B rocket made a seemingly trouble-free countdown on Tuesday. After filling the rocket with very cold liquid hydrogen and liquid hydrogen propellants, the H-2B launch team led by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries agreed to proceed with the final launch preparations, resulting in two main engines LE-7A supplied with liquid at T-minus 5.2 seconds.
After a computerized checkup, the H-2B rocket launched four powerful lanyard thrusters to get away from the Tanegashima Space Center with more than 2 million pounds of thrust.
The take-off took place at 01:05 local time in Japan, two weeks after the previous H-2B countdown was stopped by a dramatic fire on the launch pad.
Japanese engineers canceled the first attempt to launch the mission on September 10th after the fire and ground crews returned the H-2B rocket to its assembly building for inspection. Officials determined that the fire was probably caused by static electricity and high concentrations of oxygen from the main engines of the rocket during the countdown to 10 September.
After implementing "non-specific corrective actions", MHI returned the H-2B rocket to the launch pad half a day before the launch on Tuesday to launch a new countdown.
No such problem occurred on Tuesday and the H-2B rocket quickly returned to the southeast to climb the space above the Pacific Ocean. The precise launch time on Tuesday was to allow Japan's eighth H-2 transfer vehicle to enter an orbit aligned to the International Space Station's orbital plane, paving the way for an automated laser-guided rendezvous on Saturday. .
The H-2B rocket dropped its four powerful thrusters, its payload fairing and its first stage during the first six minutes of the mission. A second stage propelled by a single LE-5B engine running on hydrogen put the supply ship HTV in preliminary orbit about 15 minutes after takeoff.
Japanese mission controllers confirmed that the barrel-shaped HTV had been launched into a target orbit and that the cargo ship began charging its batteries with its solar panels mounted on the body.
Tuesday's launch made the H-2B rocket a success over eight after its launch on Japan's first HTV replenishment mission in 2009.
Mission HTV 8 is also known as Kounotori 8. Kounotori means "white stork" in Japanese.
Equipped with some 3,377 kilograms of equipment, experiments and provisions for the crew, the Kounotori 8 spacecraft will approach the space station on Saturday in autopilot mode. The space station crew will use the robotic arm built in Canada by the Canadian laboratory to capture the HTV reserve ship at about 7:15 am EDT (11 am GMT) on Saturday, then bring the spacecraft to a docking port in the module. Harmony of the station.
The crew inside the station will start unpacking cargoes inside the HTV pressure logistic carrier. Meanwhile, robots outside the station will extract a pallet from the HTV's non-pressurized luggage hold containing six lithium-ion batteries to improve the electrical system of the space station.
Astronauts Nick Hague and Andrew Morgan aboard the space station will conduct five spacewalks – the first is scheduled for October 6 – to begin the installation of new batteries, which will replace the old and less efficient nickel-hydrogen batteries of the solar panel module P6. the far port side of the backbone of the station.
The Kounotori 8 mission will deliver the third set of six lithium-ion batteries to upgrade the four huge external power modules built in the United States, each with 73-meter (240-foot) solar panel wings. The sixth HTV mission in 2016 brought the first set of new batteries to the station, followed by a second batch last year for the Kounotori 7 replenishment mission.
A final series of six batteries will be launched during the ninth HTV flight next year.
Each solar panel section feeds two power channels with 12 nickel-hydrogen charge batteries, and NASA replaces the old batteries in the power trellis section with six lighter-weight, more efficient lithium-ion batteries.
JAXA uses HTV missions as part of its contribution to the space station program. Each cargo freighter HTV is about 10 meters long and 4.4 meters in diameter.
The Kounotori 8 mission also carries food, drinking water, a high pressure gas tank to recharge the oxygen and nitrogen atmosphere of the space station, as well as exit tools in the area. Space, such as high-definition cameras and hardware for a series of planned repair outlets. later this year for the cosmic ray experiment of the alpha-2 magnetic spectrometer.
The HTV will also provide payloads for research at the space station.
One of the experiments will highlight a high-speed laser laser communication system developed by JAXA and Sony Computer Science Laboratories. The technology demonstrator will test a laser link with a ground station capable of supporting wider bandwidth communications than radio systems.
"This technology, which uses a laser for communication of mass data in orbit, will probably be widely used not only in the telecommunications sector but in the future as a means of communication in the field of exploration. "said Koichi Wakata, a Vice President of JAXA, in a statement. "More specifically, it can be used as a means of communication between the Earth and the International Space Station, the Moon and Mars. There is a wide range of potential applications, such as communication with lunar rovers. "
The SOLISS experiment (small optical link for the International Space Station) will be mounted on an experiment platform located outside the Japanese Space Station Kibo laboratory module.
"Sony CSL is taking advantage of in-orbit demonstrations to complement our long-range laser communication system," said Hiroaki Kitano, president of Sony CSL. "This will be the first step for Sony to build on the results of these demonstrations and put them into practice in the company as we market them.
"The possibility of using Kibo for in-orbit demonstrations makes it possible to significantly advance the research and development of the optical communication system, much faster than if we had launched ourselves a small satellite for the same purpose", said Kitano. . "The SOLISS system is built from mainstream components. After the demonstrations, we will recover the SOLISS unit and carry out follow-up analyzes, which we believe will further accelerate our marketing process. "
The Hourglass experiment from Japan was also launched during the eighth HTV mission to help scientists study the behavior of soil and rock particles under low gravity, simulating the conditions that future probes might encounter on a small planet. or an asteroid.
New equipment for a rack of cell biology experiments is also being installed in the space station of the Kounotori 8 spacecraft, expanding the station's capacity for biological research.
Three CubeSats also go to the station inside the Kounotori 8 spacecraft. Once at the station, the astronauts will transfer them to the Japanese Kibo module, where they will install them in a flyer to put them back into orbit. an airlock.
The 2-pound (1 kg) NARSSCube 1 nanosatellite was developed by the Egyptian National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Science, in partnership with the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan. He is wearing a low resolution imaging camera.
The AQT-D CubeSat, which weighs 3.7 kg and has the size of a shoebox, will demonstrate a water-based satellite propulsion system. The mission of the AQT-D is led by the University of Tokyo.
Rwanda's first satellite, named RWASAT 1, was also launched on Tuesday. According to officials, the satellite will facilitate monitoring of agriculture and the environment.
The Japanese Freight Delivery Flight HTV is the first of two missions to the International Space Station in less than 24 hours.
A Russian Soyuz ferry is due to depart Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with the Russian cosmonaut, NASA astronaut and the first Emirati space plane. The Soyuz MS-15 space shuttle will arrive at the station less than six hours after takeoff, while the HTV cargo mission takes a longer rendezvous profile.
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