The Office for Transfer of Aerospace Technologies "RISK-SPACE-TRANSFER", Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, under the auspices of the Embassy of France in Bulgaria and with the support of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Hemus-95 Foundation, is organizing on June 3-4, 2022, the first international hackathon in Bulgaria – DefInSpace within the International Defence Equipment and Services Exhibition "HEMUS 2022", Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 01 - 04 June 2022.

DefInSpace 2022 is the first international competition for innovation focused on the application of space technology in the field of defense and security. Initiated by the French Space Command in France (Commandement de l'Espace) and organized by the French Aerospace Cluster "Aerospace Valley" in 2021.

DefInSpace 2022 2022 is open to participants over the age of 18, students and young employees of companies with no more than three years seniority, who are willing to address challenges tasked by the French Space Command related to space traffic management. Participants register individually or as a team of 2 to 5 members. The rules for participation are published on the official DefInSpace webpage: https://www.definspace.fr/en/reglement

Space traffic management is a topic of growing importance to humanity due to the significant increase in the launch of artificial satellites into Earth orbit and the European Union's plans to develop a policy on the EU's ability to track space objects and create international regulations for the responsible and safe use of outer space.

The winning teams in the Bulgarian edition of DefInSpace 2022 will have the opportunity to represent Bulgaria in Paris at the international final, which will be held on June 28, 2022. The grand prize is a trip to the spaceport in French Guiana and attend the launch of a satellite.

The topic of the Hackathon is suitable for the participation of students from military schools, universities, as well as representatives of scientific and business organizations working in the field of security and aerospace technology. Business organizations have the opportunity to participate as partners in the Hackathon, providing additional prizes for participants, and will have the opportunity to participate in the presentation of the results of the Hackathon on 04.06.2022, as well as to promote their activities through national and international platforms related to the Hackathon.

Registration for DefInSpace Bulgaria: https://www.eventbrite.fr/e/definspace-bulgaria-tickets-321645168357

For additional information: http://rst-tto.com, office@rst-tto.com

Short information for the work of SRTI-BAS team within project: "Action 2019-2-49 Developing Support for Monitoring and Reporting of GHG Emissions and Removals from Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry"

Video materials of expert team members:

   Prof. Georgi Jelev - Director SRTI-BAS
   Ph.D. Kameliya Radeva - Project coordinator
   Associate Professor, Ph.D. Lachezar Filchev - position in the project: "GIS and Remote Sensing on agricultural lands and forestry"
   Eng. Ph.D. Silvia Kirilova - position in the project: "GIS and Water monitoring"
   Associate Professor, Ph.D. Deyan Gotchev - position in the project: "Remote sensing and atmospheric pollution"

This information has been published under Specific agreement for grant №2019/SI2.818795/07(CLIMA) for the implementation of FPA 275/G/GRO/COPE/17/10042, signed by European Commission on 18/12/2019 for "Action 2019-2-49 Developing Support for Monitoring and Reporting of GHG Emissions and Removals from Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry"

After a brief shutdown of science instruments and a period in ‘safe standby’ due to Coronavirus 19 pandemic, ESA’s planetary missions are getting back, including ExoMars TGO mission.

The Liulin-MO dosimeter, developed at STRI-BAS, successfully operated aboard TGO during its transit to Mars in 2016, on the first High elliptic Mars orbits in October 2016 – March 2017, and on Mars circular orbit since April 2018 till noon March 28, 2020, when it was turned off together with all science instruments. Liulin-MO is a module of the Russian FREND instrument on TGO.

On 09 April 2020 Liulin-MO dosimeter was turned on again. Since then it operates nominally and continue to provide valuable science data for the radiation conditions in Mars orbit.

Liulin-MO was developed at STRI-BAS. Its development was supported by 2 Contracts of SRTI-BAS with the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences –Moscow (IKI-RAS) and by a project under inter-academic cooperation between SRTI-BAS, IKI-RAS and the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The operations works and Liulin-MO data analysis in SRTI-BAS are supported by Contract No. 4000117692/16/NL/NDe funded by the Government of Bulgaria through an ESA Contract under the PECS (Plan for European Cooperating States).

On March 24, 2020 the European Space Agency (ESA) declared scaling down science missions operations amid pandemic. ESA restricted the on-site personnel at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt. The new adjustments require temporarily stopping instrument operation and data gathering on four Solar System science missions, which have stable orbits and long mission durations but their operations currently require the highest number of personnel on site.

- Two of these missions were lunched quite a while ago, but instruments are still alive and provide data – Cluster (2000) and Mars Express (2003);

- The newest Solar Orbiter, lunched in February 2020, the science instruments on which are not even powered yet;

- And to our regret ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), launched in 2016, currently in orbit around Mars.

The Liulin-MO instrument, developed at STRI-BAS, successfully operated aboard TGO during its transit to Mars in 2016, on the first High elliptic Mars orbits in October 2016 – March 2017, and on Mars circular orbit since April 2018 till noon March 28, 2020, when it was turned off together with all science instruments. From 28th March 2020 onwards Science and Relay operations of TGO will be suspended until further notice.

The development of Liulin-MO was supported by 2 Contracts of SRTI-BAS with the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences –Moscow (IKI-RAS) and by a project under inter-academic cooperation between SRTI-BAS, IKI-RAS and the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The operations works and Liulin-MO data analysis in SRTI-BAS are supported by Contract No. 4000117692/16/NL/NDe funded by the Government of Bulgaria through an ESA Contract under the PECS (Plan for European Cooperating States).

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Roscosmos Space Corporation have decided to postpone the launch of the second ExoMars mission to study the Red Planet to 2022. They announced their decision on 12 March 2020.

The primary goal of the mission is to determine if there has ever been life on Mars, and to better understand the history of water on the planet.

To date, all flight hardware needed for the launch of ExoMars has been integrated in the spacecraft. The "Kazachok" landing platform is fully equipped with thirteen scientific instruments, and the "Rosalind Franklin" rover with its nine instruments recently passed final thermal and vacuum tests in France.

One of the science instruments aboard the landing platform is the dosimeter "Liulin-ML", developed at SRTI-BAS. "Liulin-ML" is a module of the gamma and neutron detector ADRON-EM. "Liulin-ML" passed successfully al tests in Bulgaria, Russia and France.

In the test and calibrations of the dosimeter scientists from the Space research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences -Moscow, Russia and Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia also take part.

In SRTI-BAS the work on Liulin-ML is supported by Contract No. 4000117692/16/NL/NDe funded by the Government of Bulgaria through an ESA Contract under the PECS (Plan for European Cooperating States).

The Trace Gas Orbiter satellite launched under the ESA-Roscosmos project ExoMars reached Mars in October 2016. During TGO transit to Mars our dosemeter Liuli-MO (a unit of the Russian neutron detector FREND) performed perfectly and we obtained unique results about the radiation environment along an Earth-Mars journey. These results are already published in ICARUS journal: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2017.12.034.

The initial Mars capture orbit of TGO was highly elliptic (about 96 000 x 300 km) with an orbital period of nearly 4 Mars days. On March 15, 2017 the delicate aerobraking phase started. The maneuvers aimed to decrease satellite’s velocity and to lower down its orbit. All TGO capacities were directed to execute the quite risky operations as during aerobraking the vehicle is heated and the solar panels and the science instruments could be damaged. On February 20, 2018 the aerobraking phase was successfully finished: TGO reached an orbit with parameters 1050 x 200 km.

On March 12, 2018 started the first checking of the science instruments after the aerobraking, the instruments were sequentially turned on. LIULIN-MO BEGAN OPERATING SUCCESSFULLY AFTER AN YEAR OF SILENCE!

TGO has not yet reached its scientific circular orbit with an altitude about 400 km and a 2 hours period. In order to reach this orbit satellite’s engines will be 10 times switched on till mid April. But we expect that Liulin-MO will be operating at full mode at the end of March.