Damian’s Websurf on Switzerland in Outer Space
Switzerland is not generally known as a space-faring nation, we haven’t launched any rockets into orbit nor has the SSS (Swiss-Space-Shuttle) become a reality yet. And even though the Swiss are well known for establishing thriving colonies in far away places such as Australia, the city of Lunar-Basel on the moon is just wishful thinking of mine.
Most you will however remember our very own Astronaut Claude Nicollier who flew into space on four missions between 1992 and 1999 (http://www.claudenicollier.ch). Some years ago he has released a DVD with the title “Pour l’amour du ciel” in which he describes his work for NASA (http://www.nasa.gov) in America and his current posting for the European Space Agency (http://www.esa.int/ESA).
But this Swiss Astronaut is just one of the contributions that our home country has to offer towards the explorations of our solar system and beyond. As astronomy is one of my hobbies, I have put together a small selection of interesting projects that have swiss involvement.
In June and July of 2003 NASA launched two robot rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, (http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/home/) to Mars in order to study the geology of our red neighbour planet. The goal for each rover was to survive for three months, deploy their scientific instruments, gather data and drive for 1 km on the surface. Well, eleven years later and one of the rovers is still driving around in the dusty environments of Mars, the rover Opportunity has reached over 40 kilometres on his odometer! How is that even possible? Well I would say it has to do with the fact that each of these rovers six wheels is powered by motors which have been developed and built in Switzerland. Each wheel is 26 centimetres in diameter and has a unique spiral pattern that helps the rovers climb rocks and other obstacles. Visit http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov to learn more about these amazing rovers who have answered our age old question on whether water ever existed on Mars.
The success of this mission lead NASA to develop an even bigger rover called Mars Science Laboratory (http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/), which lifted-off in 2011. About the size of my Suzuki Swift with its own nuclear power plant on board this rover, called Curiosity, was the biggest manmade object ever to fly to Mars. Of course the swiss companies that were involved with the first rovers were part of this project as well. And you had the chance to be part of it too, at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/participate/sendyourname/ you were able to put your name down to be included, among many others, on a Microchip which flew onboard the rover to our closest planetary neighbour in our solar system.
Swiss Companies are essential for the successful delivery of satellites into orbit and to be true, my initial statement that there are no swiss rockets, is not quite correct. RUAG Space Switzerland builds what is known as a payload fairing, it is essentially the nose cone of rockets, such as the European Arian 5. Within the highly delicate satellite is being transported, at three-times the speed of sound through our atmosphere to be deployed in outer space (http://www.ruag.com/Aerospace/Space/RUAG_Space_Switzerland).
Many universities back home have dedicated projects together with the European Space Agency, better known as ESA. Visit http://www.esa.int/esaCP/Switzerland_ge.html to get an overview of Swiss involvement’s in the exploration of the universe. The most exciting one for me is the development of SwissCube (http://swisscube.epfl.ch), the first satellite to be completely designed and built in Switzerland. The ETH Lausanne and four specialised tertiary education facilities (Fachhochschulen in Western and Northern Switzerland and the University of Neuenburg) pooled their knowledge and resources to construct this Pico-satellite which weighs only 1 kilogram and all four sides measure 10 centimetres. The launch of this tiny satellite into its 720 km high orbit was completed in 2009 and the mission objective is to measure “Airglow”, a green shimmering above our stratosphere which can only be seen at night at a hight of 100km above the earths surface. This link will bring you to the project webpage (german only) http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMJ9AXRA0G_Switzerland_ge_0.html
Swiss scientist also play a vital role in helping us understand planetary systems beyond our own galaxy. Exoplanets is the scientific name for planets that orbit stars other than our own sun. Astronomers from Geneva have discovered about 40 new planets which brings the number of known Exoplanets to over 1'000. For the European Southern Observatory (http://www.eso.org/public/), Michel Mayor and his team from the observatory of the Geneva university built HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher) which assists with the detection of Exoplanets. As these planets are too far away to be detected by observatories directly, HARPS measures the wobble that stars experience when the gravity of planets around them alters their rotation slightly.
Damian Schaller writes his regluar Websurf column for the Edelweiss magazine, published by the Swiss Club of Victoria (http://swissclubvictoria.com). After 9 years in Australia, he now lives with his wife and daughter in Switzerland.
