ESA Science & Technology - Publication Archive

Between 4-7 October 2004, a major symposium dedicated to the scientific aspects of the Gaia mission was held at the Observatoire de Paris, Meudon, France, as "Les Rencontres de l'Observatoire 2004". Attended by 240 delegates, the four-day meeting was an opportunity to present the current status of the Gaia mission to the interested scientific community, and to hear about the results of investigations carried out in the various areas of the mission over the last four years.

The 150 km wide Holden crater lies in an area characterized by high density of valley networks implying conditions conducive to forming of water-related environments. We undertook geological mapping and a stratigraphic survey in order to probe the evolution of water-related landforms and their paleoenvironmental implications. Our investigations lead us to propose that the Holden area was subjected to a "wet" lacustrine phase of Hesperian age and an "icy" phase during the Amazonian. Deltaic, coastal, and lacustrine environments occurred during the ??wet?? phase, some displaying a cyclic depositional pattern presumably related to autogenic processes. Water was delivered to the basin by the Uzboi Vallis and by surface runoff channels from a series of drainage basins along the crater walls. Fan delta geometries and coastal onlap enabled estimation of major water levels. Two levels of major stand of the water have been recognized, possibly reflecting allogenic controls. Geologic units related to this "wet" lacustrine phase were subsequently eroded by glacial abrasion and plucking and were disconformably overlain by glacial deposits of Amazonian age, defining an "icy" phase. These features are consistent with a warm-based glacier entering the Holden crater through the wide Uzboi Vallis to form a proglacial lake in the central part of the crater. Changes in sedimentary units reflect changes of depositional environments probably connected with climatic variation.

Future planetary missions will require advanced, smart, low resource payloads and satellites to enable the exploration of our solar system in a more frequent, timely and multi-mission manner. A viable route towards low resource science instrumentation is the concept of Highly Integrated Payload Suites (HIPS), which was introduced during the reassessment of the payload of the BepiColombo (BC) Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO). Considerable mass and power savings were demonstrated throughout the instrumentation by improved definition of the instrument design, a higher level of integration, and identification of resource drivers.

The higher integration and associated synergy effects permitted optimisation of the payload performance at minimum investment while still meeting the demanding science requirements. For the specific example of the BepiColombo MPO, the mass reduction by designing the instruments towards a Highly Integrated Payload Suite was found to be about 60%. This has endorsed the acceptance of a number of additional instruments as core payload of the BC MPO thereby enhancing the scientific return.

This promising strategic approach and concept is now applied to a set of planetary mission studies for future exploration of the solar system. Innovative technologies, miniaturised electronics and advanced remote sensing technologies are the baseline for a generic approach to payload integration, which is here investigated also in the context of largely differing mission requirements. A review of the approach and the implications to the generic concept as found from the applications to the mission studies are presented.

The Venus Entry Probe is one of ESA's Technology Reference Studies (TRS). The purpose of the Technology Reference Studies is to provide a focus for the development of strategically important technologies that are of likely relevance for future scientific missions. The aim of the Venus Entry Probe TRS is to study approaches for low cost in-situ exploration of Venus and other planetary bodies with a significant atmosphere. In this paper, the mission objectives and an outline of the mission concept of the Venus Entry Probe TRS are presented.

Soft-gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) are galactic X-ray stars that emit numerous short-duration (about 0.1 s) bursts of hard X-rays during sporadic active periods. They are thought to be magnetars: strongly magnetized neutron stars with emissions powered by the dissipation of magnetic energy. Here we report the detection of a long (380 s) giant flare from SGR 1806-20, which was much more luminous than any previous transient event observed in our Galaxy. (In the first 0.2 s, the flare released as much energy as the Sun radiates in a quarter of a million years.) Its power can be explained by a catastrophic instability involving global crust failure and magnetic reconnection on a magnetar, with possible large-scale untwisting of magnetic field lines outside the star. From a great distance this event would appear to be a short-duration, hard-spectrum cosmic gamm-ray burst. At least a significant fraction of the mysterious short-duration gamma-ray bursts may therefore come from extragalactic magnetars.

A conventional Mercury sample return mission requires significant launch mass, due to the large delta-v required for the outbound and return trips, and the large mass of a planetary lander and ascent vehicle. Solar sailing can be used to reduce lander mass allocation by delivering the lander to a low, thermally safe orbit close to the terminator. In addition, the ascending node of the solar sail parking orbit plane can be artificially forced to avoid out-of-plane manoeuvres during ascent from the planetary surface. Propellant mass is not an issue for solar sails so a sample can be returned relatively easily, without resorting to lengthy, multiple gravity assists. A 275 m solar sail with an assembly loading of 5.9 g m^-2 is used to deliver a lander, cruise stage and science payload to a forced Sun-synchronous orbit at Mercury in 2.85 years. The lander acquires samples, and conducts limited surface exploration. An ascent vehicle delivers a small cold gas rendezvous vehicle containing the samples for transfer to the solar sail. The solar sail then spirals back to Earth in 1 year. The total mission launch mass is 2353 kg, on an H2A202-4S class launch vehicle (C₃=0), with a ROM mission cost of 850 Million Euro. Nominal launch is in April 2014 with sample return to Earth 4.4 years later. Solar sailing reduces launch mass by 60% and trip time by 40%, relative to conventional mission concepts.

The Interstellar Heliopause Probe (IHP) is one of four Technology Reference Studies (TRS) introduced by the Planetary Exploration Studies Section of the Science Payload & Advanced Concepts Office (SCI-A) at ESA. The overall purpose of the TRSs is to focus the development of strategically important technologies of likely relevance to future science missions. This is accomplished through the study of several technologically demanding and scientifically interesting missions, which are currently not part of the ESA science programme. The TRS baseline uses small satellites (~ 200kg), with highly miniaturized and highly integrated payload suites. By using multiple low resource spacecraft in a phased approach, the risk and cost, compared to a single, high resource mission can be reduced.

Equipped with a Highly Integrated Payload Suite the IHP will answer scientific questions concerning the nature of the interstellar medium, how the interstellar medium affects our solar system and how the solar system impacts the interstellar medium.

This paper will present an update to the results of the studies being performed on this mission. The current mission baseline and alternative propulsion systems will be described and the spacecraft design and other enabling technologies will be discussed.

The European Space Agency is currently studying the Jovian Minisat Explorer (JME), as part of its Technology Reference Studies (TRS). TRS are model science-driven studies contributing in the ESA strategic development plan of technologies that will enable future scientific missions.

The JME focuses on the exploration of the Jovian system and particularly the exploration of its moon Europa. The Jupiter Minisat Orbiter (JMO) study, which is the subject of the present paper, concerns the first mission phase of JME that counts up to three missions spaced in time by 6 years using pairs of minisats. The scientific objectives are the investigation of Europa's global topography, the composition of its (sub)surface and the demonstration of existence of a subsurface ocean below Europa's icy crust.

The present paper describes the candidate JMO system concept, based on a Europa Orbiter (JEO) supported by a communications relay satellite (JRS), and its associated technology development plan. It summarizes an analysis performed in 2004 jointly by ESA and the EADS-Astrium Company in the frame of an industrial technical assistance to ESA.

It addresses the interplanetary transfer, the hostile radiation environment, the power generation issue, the communication system, as well as the need for high autonomy on-board.

ESA's Science Payload and Advanced Concepts Office (SCI-A) has recently introduced the Technology Reference Studies (TRS) as a technology development tool to provide a focus for the development of strategically important technologies that are of likely relevance for future scientific missions. This is accomplished through the study of several technologically demanding and scientifically interesting missions, which are not part of the ESA science programme.

The goal of the Deimos Sample Return (DSR) TRS is to study the means of collecting a scientifically significant sample from Deimos' surface and returning it to Earth. The DSR mission profile consists of a small spacecraft, launched on a Soyuz-Fregat 2B. After transferring to the Martian system, the spacecraft will enter into a co-orbit with Deimos where it will perform remote sensing observations and ultimately perform a series of sampling maneuvers. Upon completion of sampling the spacecraft will return to Earth, where the sample canister will perform a direct Earth entry.

This paper will outline the preliminary mission architecture of the DSR TRS, as well as the critical technology drivers. This will include an outline of sampling tools and methods appropriate for a small, low gravity body, as well as planetary protection and re-entry technologies.

ESA's Science Payload & Advanced Concepts Office (SCI-A) has introduced Technology Reference Studies (TRS) to focus the development of strategically important technologies of likely relevance to future science missions. This is accomplished through the study of several technologically demanding and scientifically interesting missions, which are not part of the ESA science programme. Presently the Planetary Exploration Studies Section of SCI-A is studying four TRS; the Venus Entry Probe, the Jovian Minisat Explorer, the Deimos Sample Return and the Interstellar Heliopause Probe. These TRS cover a wide range of mission profiles in the solar system with an even wider range of strategic important technologies.

All TRS mission profiles are based on small satellites, with miniaturized highly integrated payload suites, launched on Soyuz Fregat-2B.

This paper describes the current four TRS in further detail and shows how these missions are used to identify and prepare the development of enabling technologies.

The interaction between broadband drift mode turbulence and zonal flows has been studied through the wave-kinetic approach. Simulations have been conducted in which a particle-in-cell representation is used for the quasiparticles, while a fluid model is employed for the plasma. The interactions have been studied in a plasma edge configuration which has applications in both tokamak physics and magnetopause boundary layer studies. Simulation results show the development of a zonal flow through the modulational instability of the drift wave distribution, as well as the existence of solitary zonal flow structures about an ion gyroradius wide, drifting towards steeper relative density gradients.

We have studied the entry paths of solar wind plasma into the magnetosphere during an extended period of northward IMF using an OpenGGCM MHD simulation of the cold dense plasma sheet (CDPS) event observed on October 23, 2003 by the Cluster spacecraft. We find that high-latitude reconnection occurs tailward of both cusps between the IMF and geomagnetic field. The newly created closed magnetic flux tubes capture magnetosheath plasma, and subsequently sink and shrink into the magnetosphere, while convecting tailward. The plasma that enters near the reconnection site is driven sunward and toward the low latitude region initially; it then drifts to the flanks. The captured plasma is characterized by small flow velocity, and it is moderately heated in the reconnection region. In the present case study we find the cold plasma enters the plasma sheet in the near Earth tail where it is observed by Cluster.

The October 22-24, 2003 interplanetary magnetic cloud was characterized by an exceptionally long interval (~32 hours) of nearly purely northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). Following the northward IMF turning Cluster observed a gradual transition to a cold (<1 keV) and dense (~1-2 cm^-3) plasma sheet (CDPS). Cluster observed CDPS continuously for the following ~30 hours while passing through the neutral sheet from the northern to the southern hemisphere. DMSP observations mapped to the equatorial plasma sheet reveal that the CDPS extended to all nightside local times. The FAST satellite observed reversed ion dispersion signatures in the cusp indicative of poleward-of-cusp reconnection, and nearly no polar cap. The CDPS observations show good agreement with a global MHD simulation where the CDPS is formed by poleward-of-cusp reconnection capturing magnetosheath plasma and convecting it to the tail. The process shrinks the size of the lobes (and therefore the polar cap) significantly, as observed.

XMM-Newton EPIC observations of PSR B0656+14, PSR B1055-52, and Geminga have substantially increased the collection of statistics available for these three isolated neutron stars, so apparently similar to deserve the nickname of the Three Musketeers, given to them by Becker & Trumper. Here we take advantage of the EPIC statistics to perform phase-resolved spectroscopy for all three objects. The phase-averaged spectrum of the Three Musketeers is best described by a three-component model. This includes two blackbody components -a cooler one, possibly originating from the bulk of the star surface, and a hotter one, coming from a smaller portion of the star surface (a "hot spot") -plus a power law. The relative contributions of the three components are seen to vary as a function of phase, as the stars' rotation brings into view different emitting regions. The hot spots, which have very different apparent dimensions (in spite of the similarity of the three neutron stars polar cap radii) are responsible for the bulk of the phase variation. The amplitude of the observed phase modulation is also markedly different for the three sources. Another striking aspect of our phase-resolved phenomenology is the apparent lack of any common phase alignment between the observed modulation patterns for the two blackbody components. They are seen to vary in phase in the case of PSR B1055-52 but in antiphase in the case of PSR B0656+14. These findings do not support standard and simplistic models of neutron star magnetic field configuration and surface temperature distribution.

The origin of the solar wind in solar coronal holes has long been unclear. We establish that the solar wind starts flowing out of the corona at heights above the photosphere between 5 megameters and 20 megameters in magnetic funnels. This result is obtained by a correlation of the Doppler-velocity and radiance maps of spectral lines emitted by various ions with the force-free magnetic field as extrapolated from photospheric magnetograms to different altitudes. Specifically, we find that Ne⁷⁺ ions mostly radiate around 20 megameters, where they have outflow speeds of about 10 kilometers per second, whereas C³⁺ ions with no average flow speed mainly radiate around 5 megameters. Based on these results, a model for understanding the solar wind origin is suggested.

We report the discovery of persistent hard X-ray emission extending up to 150 keV from the soft gamma-ray repeater SGR 1806-20 using data obtained with the INTEGRAL satellite in 2003-2004. Previous observations of hard X-rays from objects of this class were limited to short duration bursts and rare transient episodes of strongly enhanced luminosity ("flares''). The emission observed with the IBIS instrument above 20 keV has a power law spectrum with photon index in the range 1.5-1.9 and a flux of 3 milliCrabs, corresponding to a 20-100 keV luminosity of ~10³⁶ erg s^-1 (for a distance of 15 kpc). The spectral hardness and the luminosity correlate with the level of source activity as measured from the number of emitted bursts.

The scientific objectives of an advanced NeUtral Atom Detector Unit (NUADU) designed for the Chinese Double Star Polar Mission, which is scheduled for launch in July 2004, are described. The potential during this mission to realize, hitherto unprecedented, integrated studies of global dynamic magnetospheric processes through combining with NUADU data contemporaneous measurements made aboard the CLUSTER II, IMAGE and TWINS spacecraft is also discussed and a short technical account of NUADU provided.

We present the analysis of XMM-Newton observations of three X-ray weak quasars: PG 1001+054, PG1535+547 and PG 2112+059. All objects are absorbed by ionized material showing high column densities, N_H = 2.9 x 10²² cm^-2 to N_H = 1.9 x 10²³ cm^-2, and ionization parameters, xi = 147 erg cm s^-1 to xi = 542 erg cm s^-1. The spectra of PG1535+547 requires an additional partial covering by neutral material with a column density of N_H approx 9 x 10²² cm^-2 at a covering factor of approx 0.96. The spectra of PG1535+547 show systematic residuals in the energy range from sim 4 keV to sim 6 keV, which are inconsistent with Kalpha-fluorescence-emission of neutral or ionized iron under the assumption of a Gaussian line profile. They can be described with a relativistic disk line (Laor) and establish therefore the second X-ray weak quasar with such a spectral characteristic. Our results together with the findings of Brinkmann et al. (2004) and Piconcelli et al. (2004a), indicate that warm absorbers characterized by high column densities and ionization parameters are typical of X-ray weak quasars. The occurrence of a variable relativistic broad Fe Kalpha fluorescence line in two out of the five well studied X-ray weak quasars might indicate a second general characteristic of the entire object class. Based on observations obtained with XMM-Newton, an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and NASA.

This report of the ESA-ESO working group on Extra-Solar Planets, produced by the first joint ESA-ESO working group (Chairman: M. Perryman, ESA, Co-chair: O. Hainaut, ESO), summarises the direction of exo-planet research that can be expected over the next 10 years or so, identifies the roles of the major facilities of the two organisations in the field, and concludes with some recommendations which may assist development of the field.

It is believed that core-collapse supernovae (CCSN), occurring at a rate ~once per century, have seeded the interstellar medium with long-lived radioisotopes such as ⁶⁰Fe (half-life 1.5 Myr), which can be detected by the gamma-rays emitted when they beta-decay. Here we report the detection of the ⁶⁰Fe decay lines at 1173 keV and 1333 keV with fluxes 3.7 ± 1.1 × 10^-5 photons cm^-2 s^-1 per line, in spectra taken by the SPI spectrometer on board INTEGRAL during its first year. The same analysis applied to the 1809 keV line of ²⁶Al yielded a line flux ratio ⁶⁰Fe/²⁶Al = 0.11 ± 0.03. This supports the hypothesis that there is an extra source of ²⁶Al in addition to CCSN.