The annual conference of the Israeli Astronomical Society was held on Friday 30/12/2005 at Eshkol Pis in the city of Raz, a date like no other for summaries. The events of the year in space were summarized by Tal Inbar, researcher at the Fisher Institute and vice president of the Israel Space Association. "This year was active and successful for many space projects
Avi Blizovsky, Tal Inbar
* On January 14, the European Huygens spacecraft, which is part of the American Cassini mission, landed. The spacecraft also took pictures during its descent into Titan's atmosphere and several pictures from the surface of the ground. Much of the scientific data is still being analyzed. This is an event that will never happen again (the first landing on Titan), it is a complex mission and it was saved by a student who noticed that the Doppler effect was not taken into account. As for the question of whether there are microorganisms on Titan, there are opinions here and there. The mission lasted longer than expected and in the end the possibility of receiving the data ran out because Cassini had already passed over the horizon.
* In January 2004, Bush arrived at the Johnson Center and presented his idea of returning to the moon in 2020. It took NASA a year and nine months, and in September 2005, it also revealed its space vision, which includes various spacecraft, starting with a launcher based on existing shuttle technology with increased boosters, A spacecraft that resembles the Apollo spacecraft with a landing vehicle. Many criticize the idea and call it Apollo Plus - 4 astronauts instead of three, an addition of several days. Not an unusual innovation.
* Five years of operation of the International Space Station. According to Inbar, this is a flight to nowhere. "I believe that every cent of the money invested in the station is a waste of money, because the same things would be done much cheaper and much better if they gave it to Russia to build. If they said it was a way station to Mars and even the moon, I would say that it is justified. The space station is the justification for the shuttle program and the shuttle program is for bringing the equipment to the shuttles.
* And more on the topic of the International Space Station: the third space tourist or as it is called today private space explorer Greg Olsen performed experiments for a company he manages in the field of space and therefore he coincidentally justified the new title.
* And another landmark, the SOHO research satellite celebrates ten years of activity in space. Helevin continues to work well and brings good results. In general, we saw an accumulation of old spaceships that are still working - Voyager, which reached the edge of the solar system. Voyager was launched in 1977 and is still operating. The person who operates Wager and the Mars vehicles is the JPL Center (the Jet Propulsion Laboratory). And as of this moment, there are several groups operating in the center of this space that control the operation of 37 different spacecraft.
* There were also failures this year, but there were relatively few launch failures, one failure was very sad - a spaceship called Cosmos-1, which was intended to be propelled by a laser beam that would illuminate solar sails. It was launched on 22/6/2005 from a submarine with a ballistic missile, the missile's computer did not give a command in time to turn off the engine of the first stage and was not separated from the other stages. There is already an announcement about the construction of Cosmos 2.
* Here in Israel, the budgeting and transfer of funds for the Venus research satellite has been completed - Venus is a satellite that cost 60 million dollars, a collaboration between the Israeli and French space agencies. The main companies are the aerospace industry, which is responsible for the satellite chassis, Rafael, which is responsible for the spacecraft engine, and Alup's optical probe. The aerospace industry unveiled an advanced photography satellite called OpSite, which is also based on a platform similar to that of Venus. An Israeli company was established for the development, production and marketing of micro-satellites. The company was established by the aerospace industry and Rafael and was announced at the Paris Air Salon. The company's goal is to be the creator of Israeli micro-satellites. The first product is the Venus satellite. Air, Rafael and Elbit and since its establishment other industries have joined. The goal of the union is coordinated action of Israeli companies, mainly in front of European space tenders
* The US returned to space with humans via the space shuttle Discovery after two and a half years of not being able to fly since the Columbia disaster. The space shuttle, after a lot of money was invested in it to fix the foam problem - 1.7 billion dollars, but again a piece of foam was released while the space shuttle and the crew were in space, NASA announced that the shuttle is grounded and will not fly again. There is no launch date for the next team. The problems haven't been solved, because they don't know what all the mechanisms are that cause the foam to fall out, in those areas where there is a problem, they simply won't put foam. On January 31, 2006, a seminar is scheduled to be held by the Israel Space Agency together with the Ministry of Science and Technology, and one of the guest lecturers will be Elaine Collins, the mission commander.
And more news:
* The Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly SIRTF) observed infrared light in the light of planets outside the solar system.
* Deep Impact - collision of a sub-spacecraft with a comet. The Americans are good not only at astrodynamics but also at dates - July 4th.
* The spaceship Spaceship 1 won the X Prize competition in October 2004. About two months ago, the spaceship was hung in the gallery of the Space Museum in Washington downwind of St. Louis.
* China returned to space with two people - two people in the Shenzhou 6 spacecraft. A more ambitious mission than Shenzhou 5. Two people who took off their suits inside the spacecraft and wore normal clothes, and unusually, this entire mission was broadcast live on television - on the channel CCTV captured by Yes Scouts. The launch of the next Shenzhou spacecraft was announced in 2007.
On November 10, Venus Express, a European spacecraft that is very similar to Mars Express, was launched. The spaceship will do good things including a spaceship that will come in with a balloon.
* Amos 3 was launched this year - a stock market offering to raise money. It is Israel's third satellite designed to replace Amos 1 which will mark ten years in space.
* The last Titan 4 launcher with a 20 ton spy satellite. This rocket launched many satellites - Voyager, Viking and the Gemini astronauts.
* Charles Branson's Virgin Galactic which will start in 2007 also announced the establishment of a space launch base in New Mexico.
* Iran launched a small photography satellite from a Russian missile. Not a threat yet.
* The Japanese spaceship Yabusa - it is not certain if it hit the spaceship and if it will or will not return to Earth. She transferred high resolution photographs.
* To sum up this year, the first satellite in the Galileo series was launched, designed to compete with GPS and provide civilian applications for planes, vehicles and ships. 30 satellites in 3 main orbits. Israel paid membership fees - NIS 100 million. The cost of the project is 10 billion dollars, so if we receive a small part of the orders to supply systems to the European satellites, we will have a large salary.
