space
Reflecting telescope on the way to the ISS
Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket lifts off from the launch pad at NASA Spaceport on Wallops Island. Photo: Steve Helber/AP/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
A reflecting telescope on the ISS should ensure better water use on Earth. German companies also contributed to the development.
A reflecting telescope developed in Germany, which aims to improve water use on Earth, was sent to the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday.
An Antares 230 rocket with the private space freighter “Cygnus” and almost four tons of cargo took off as scheduled at 6:39 p.m. German time from Nasa’s Wallops Island site in the US state of Virginia. The departure went smoothly, as stated in a live broadcast by the US space agency Nasa on the Internet. Arrival at the ISS is expected on Monday.
The prototype of a new measuring instrument from the ConstellR company in Freiburg, in which the Fraunhofer Institutes in Freiburg and Jena, among others, were involved, is to be installed in the future with, among other things, a thermal infrared camera and a mini-computer for data processing in satellites, which will then display temperature data collect from the surface of the earth. According to ConstellR, the values should help to better estimate water requirements and thus waste less water.