News

A new remote sensing data project, RITA KAUGSEIRE, has been kicked off. The goal of the project is to find ways to use remote sensing data for the elaboration and development of public services. The two-year study is carried out by a consortium led by Tartu Observatory. The results will be implemented by multiple ministries to create and develop services in their fields.

Today, on December 11, small enterprise entrepreneurs gather at UT Tartu Observatory to gain advice about electronic device development from experts. On Thursday, December 13, the seminar takes place in Tallinn.

Next week, on November 14 and 15, the BalticSatApps project partners meet in Tartu to discuss previous work and talk about upcoming activities. The project aims at speeding up the market uptake of Earth observation satellite data in the Baltic Sea Region by utilising societal challenges and needs along with the developer community as innovation drivers.

BepiColombo, the joint mission of the European and Japanese space agencies (ESA and JAXA), will take orbiters to the smallest and least explored planet of our solar system – Mercury. The rocket that was launched from the French Guiana on October 20 is carrying two satellites that will make it to Mercury in seven years. Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and exploring it will help understand how planets like Earth evolve and what the conditions that enable life in different parts of the Solar System are.

From November 8–9, a proposal writing workshop for space projects will take place in Riga. Participants will receive practical advice on how to fund projects that are directly or indirectly connected to space. There will also be an opportunity to ask experts for feedback on specific project ideas and proposals.

The European Student Earth-observer (ESEO) is completed and hopefully already next month, two cameras made by Estonian students will be sent into orbit with it. One of the objectives of the European Space Agency (ESA) student satellite ESEO is to take photos of the Earth for educational, research and outreach purposes. The possible applications of the cameras range from monitoring plankton blooms to changes in the polar ice caps.

Yesterday, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper visited University of Tartu Observatory. She talked about two space shuttle missions and her way of becoming an astronaut. Stefanyshyn-Piper is the eighth woman to have done a spacewalk.

A 6-unit CubeSat developed by the Lithuanian company NanoAvionics is being tested this week in the space technology laboratory of UT Tartu Observatory. Such a large spacecraft has not been tested in Estonia before. Tartu Observatory engineer Mari Allik, who is conducting the tests, stated that the cooperation between the developing space technology company and our laboratory is very important. According to the European Space Agency, our labs are able to provide services that are mostly suitable only for the large space country laboratories.

Today is the beginning of the summer school focused on micro- and nanosatellites and co-organized by the observatory. Top scientists from space research institutions around the world such as NASA will present at the summer school.

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An Estonian student can be considered one of the absolute winners of this year’s International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) because his team won the team competition. Estonians also had great results individually. The event took place from November 12 to 21, 2017 in Phuket, Thailand. Five students represented Estonia: