ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
By cultivating human endothelial cells in space, researchers are gaining knowledge about the way our blood vessels function. This could help prevent and treat diseases such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, diabetes and thrombosis here on Earth, while keeping astronauts healthy in space.
In this video, biochemist and molecular biologist Dr Markus Wehland discusses the Spheroids experiment, which ran on the International Space Station during ESA astronaut Tim Peake’s Principia mission in 2016.
Cells cultivated in microgravity during this experiment assembled into globular and tubular structures. These structures were similar to the inner lining of blood vessels inside our bodies, but had never been achieved before by scientists cultivating cells on Earth.
Knowledge about cell growth and structure gained through this study could aid the development of tissue engineering techniques to replace damaged blood vessels in patients. It could also improve the efficiency and safety of drugs that help regulate vessel development.
It is good news for those affected by cardiovascular disease and a great example of the way in which research in microgravity is enhancing life on Earth.
The step to space research is closer than you might think. Get involved with spaceflight research via www.esa.int/spaceflightAO. Find out about our commercial partnerships and opportunities in human and robotic exploration via www.esa.int/explorationpartners to run your research in microgravity as well.
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ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
The Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite takes us over part of northeast Kenya – an area east of the East African Rift in this week’s edition of the Earth from Space programme.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Following the launch of Aeolus on 22 August 2018, scientists have been busy fine-tuning and calibrating this latest Earth Explorer satellite. Aeolus carries a revolutionary instrument, which comprises a powerful laser, a large telescope and a very sensitive receiver. It works by emitting short, powerful pulses – 50 pulses per second – of ultraviolet light from a laser down into the atmosphere. The instrument then measures the backscattered signals from air molecules, dust particles and water droplets to provide vertical profiles that show the speed of the world’s winds in the lowermost 30 km of the atmosphere. These measurements are needed to improve weather forecasts. As part of the working being done to calibrate this novel mission, scientists have been taking similar measurements from an aircraft carrying an airborne version of Aeolus’ instrument. The pilot flies the plane under the satellite as it orbits above so that measurements of wind can be compared.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Juice, ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, is set to embark on a seven-year cruise to Jupiter starting May 2022. The mission will investigate the emergence of habitable worlds around gas giants and the Jupiter system as an archetype for the numerous giant planets now known to orbit other stars.
This animation depicts the journey to Jupiter and the highlights from its foreseen tour of the giant planet and its large ocean-bearing moons.
An Ariane 5 will lift Juice into space from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou. A series of gravity-assist flybys at Earth (3), Venus (1) and Mars (1) will set the spacecraft on course for its October 2029 rendezvous in the Jovian system.
It is expected that a number of instruments will be activated during the gravity assists (indicated by the different coloured beams scanning across the planets) and measurements will be taken for calibration and to check the health of the instruments. The visualisations of the Earth flybys show the closest approaches over the planet according to current planning – over the South Pacific Ocean, Argentina and Peru, respectively. Throughout the animation, the instrument beam colours correspond to example observations by JANUS (green), MAJIS (red), UVS (purple), Gala (Blue) and RIME (grey), which are cameras, spectrometers, laser altimeter and radar.
During the Venus flyby, limited observations can be made because the spacecraft will be oriented to protect it from the heat of the Sun experienced in the inner Solar System. The Mars flyby will see Juice fly over the planet’s south pole to make scientific observations.
Juice will start its science mission about six months prior to arriving in orbit around the gas giant, making observations as it approaches its destination. Once in the Jovian system, a gravity-assist flyby of Jupiter’s largest moon Ganymede – the largest moon in the Solar System – helps Juice enter orbit around the gas giant 7.5 hours later.
While in Jupiter orbit, the spacecraft will study the Jovian system as an archetype for gas giants, making observations of its atmosphere, the magnetosphere, its rings and satellites.
During the tour, Juice will make two flybys of Europa, which has strong evidence for an ocean of liquid water under its icy shell. Juice will look at the moon’s active zones, its surface composition and geology, search for pockets of liquid water under the surface and study the plasma environment around Europa.
A sequence of Callisto flybys will not only be used to study this ancient, cratered world that may too harbor a subsurface ocean, but it will change the angle of Juice’s orbit with respect to Jupiter’s equator, making it possible to investigate the polar regions and environment at higher latitudes.
During the tour there will also be unique periods to observe events such as moon transits. The example in this animation shows Europa and Io passing in front of Jupiter on 27 January 2032. This type of event is rare, with less than 10 expected to occur during Juice’s tour of the Jovian system.
A sequence of Ganymede and Callisto flybys will adjust the orbit of Juice to enable it to enter orbit around Ganymede, marking it the first spacecraft to orbit another planet’s moon (aside from our own). The elliptical orbit will be followed by a 5000 km altitude cicular orbit, and later a 500 km circular orbit.
Ganymede is unique in the Solar System in that it is the only moon to have a magnetosphere. Juice will investigate this phenomenon and the moon’s internal magnetic field, and the interaction of its plasma environment with that of Jupiter. Juice will also study the moon’s atmosphere, surface, subsurface, interior and its internal ocean, investigating the moon as a planetary object and possible habitat.
Over time the 500 km orbit will naturally decay – eventually there will not be enough propellant to maintain it – and it will make a grazing impact on the surface. The animation concludes with an example of what the approach to impact could look like.
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ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Science is the underpinning theme of ESA, driving the spiral of inspiration, innovation, information exchange and interaction with our stakeholders. In this video, Günther Hasinger, ESA Director of Science, reflects on the growth of ESA’s space science programme over the past decades, as well as on its current and future challenges. He also highlights the importance of long-term strategic planning and international cooperation in these endeavours, and finally looks back at some recent successes of ESA’s space science missions.
Science is everywhere at ESA. As well as exploring the Universe and answering the big questions about our place in space we develop the satellites, rockets and technologies to get there. Science also helps us to care for our home planet. All this week we’re highlighting different aspects of science at ESA. Join the conversation with #ScienceAtESA.
Credits: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona (Huygens landing); ESA/Rosetta/Philae/ROLIS/DLR, Stefano Mottola (Philae landing); ESA/Planck Collaboration (cosmic microwave background); ESA/Gaia/DPAC (Milky Way); MPG/ESO (Eagle Nebula, visible); ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/Hill, Motte, HOBYS Key Programme Consortium (Eagle Nebula, far-infrared); ESA/XMM-Newton/EPIC/XMM-Newton-SOC/Boulanger (Eagle Nebula, X-rays); NASA, ESA/Hubble and the Hubble Heritage Team (Pillars of Creation); ESO (Pillars of Creation, ground-based view); Koppelman, Villalobos & Helmi, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen (Milky Way simulation); ESA/XMM-Newton/F. Nicastro et al./R. Cen (warm-hot intergalactic medium); ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO (Mars surface); ESA/NASA/JPL/ASI/Univ. Rome (Mars, liquid water under south pole); NASA/JPL-Caltech (Mars view); ESO, M. Kornmesser, L. Calcada (`Oumuamua animation)
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ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
What’s the difference between spotting asteroids in space, and debris objects in Earth orbit? At first, both look like tiny dots streaming across the sky, against a backdrop of twinkling stars. As part of its Space Safety & Security activities, ESA brings together experts in asteroid and debris detection, asking what these two vital fields have in common, and how they can protect us from hazards in space.
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ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
50 years after the first human landed on the Moon, what is next? The exploration of our Moon is a global endeavour with Europeans and commercial actors playing a large role. The European Space Agency has developed an exploration programme based on four main missions.
Luna Resurs is a partnership with the Russian agency Roscosmos that will carry European technology to land precisely and safely on the Moon (PILOT) and to extract and analyse samples of the lunar terrain (PROSPECT).
Orion and the European Service Module will return humans to the Moon and take advantage of the new technology for human space transportation. Orion, the NASA spacecraft, will bring humans farther than they have never been before. ESA is providing the service modules that will provide propulsion, life support, power, air and water, and control the temperature in the crew module.
ISRU aims to extract and process resources on the Moon into useful products and services: “In-situ resource utilisation”. A mission to explore lunar resources could be a reality from 2025. The goal is to produce drinkable water or breathable oxygen on the Moon.
The Heracles mission could take of in 2028 to allow us to gain knowledge on human-robotic interaction while landing a spacecraft on the Moon, collecting samples with a rover operated from the lunar Gateway and send samples back to Earth.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
The Moon has been circling the Earth for over four billion years, but where did it come from?
In this video, Ralf Jaumann, planetary geologist at the German Aerospace Centre, DLR, discusses the four theories that could explain the origin of the Earth-Moon system.
There are four theories about the origin of the Earth-Moon system.
The first is that Earth captured a celestial body in its orbit. Another possibility is that a rapidly rotating Earth could have thrown material out to form the Moon around it. A third theory is that Earth and the Moon formed at the same time out of the same material. Today, most scientists believe the Moon is ‘Earth’s child’ – a large body collided with Earth, destroying our planet’s mantle and sending material into orbit from which the Moon formed. This ‘big splash’ theory would explain why the Moon’s rocks are similar to those on Earth.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
The ESA Director General’s annual new year press breakfast held at ESA’s headquarters in Paris, France, on 16 January 2019. Jan Wörner talked about the achievements of 2018 and the highlights for 2019, with a particular focus on Space19+, the ministerial conference to be held in Seville, Spain, in November 2019. The event was concluded with an interactive question-and-answer session with Director General and ESA’s Programme Directors.
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ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA Web TV talks with ESA’s Director General Jan Wörner about the plans for ‘Space19+’, ESA’s next Ministerial Council, and its benefits for citizens.
Ministers from ESA’s Member States will come together in Seville, Spain, 27-28 November 2019, to secure financing for ESA’s activities in the coming years.
In this interview the Director General discusses the Space19+ proposal including his plans for space programmes to be carried out by the Agency beyond 2019, covering all aspects of space activities: science and exploration, applications, access to space, operations, research and development. The Space19+ plan also puts ESA in a world-leading position in the emerging field of space safety and security.
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ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
To explore some of the biggest questions in astronomy, ESA operates a fleet of space science missions that are exploring our Solar System and observing the Universe across the electromagnetic spectrum.
In this video, Günther Hasinger, ESA Director of Science, reflects on current challenges in space science, from planets and life to the fundamental workings of the Universe. Then, María Santos-Lleo, XMM-Newton Science Operations Manager, explains how ESA’s flagship X-ray observatory collects data from some of the most energetic sources in the cosmos. Finally, Bruno Merin, Head of the ESAC Science Data Centre, shows how data from ESA’s space science missions are stored and made available to the worldwide community.
Explore the Universe with ESASky, an online application that allows users to visualise the sky as observed by ESA’s astronomy missions: http://bit.ly/ESASky
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ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
On 25 December 2003, ESA’s Mars Express entered orbit around the Red Planet. The spacecraft began returning the first images from orbit using its High Resolution Stereo Camera just a couple of weeks later, and over the course of its fifteen year history has captured thousands of images covering the globe.
This video compilation highlights some of the stunning scenes revealed by this long-lived mission. From breathtaking horizon-to-horizon views to the close-up details of ice- and dune-filled craters, and from the polar ice caps and water-carved valleys to ancient volcanoes and plunging canyons, Mars Express has traced billions of years of geological history and evolution.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA is looking forward to another interesting year in 2019.
ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano will return to the International Space Station, in Science Cheops will look at exoplanets, while the EDRS-C satellite will start the era of super-fast data relay on orbit.
In Kourou preparation will go full speed for Vega-C, a more powerful version of ESA’s light weight launcher, also paving the way for future Ariane 6.
And in November in Spain at ‘Space 19+’, the Council at Ministerial level, ESA will propose to its Member States a bold vision for a strong Europe in space.
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ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
This year saw ESA’s science exploration mission BepiColombo begin its seven year cruise to the innermost planet of our Solar System: Mercury. This timelapse recalls some of the preparations that went into readying the mission at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
The mission, a joint endeavour between ESA and JAXA, comprises three spacecraft modules: ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter that will study all aspects of Mercury from their complementary orbits around the planet, and ESA’s Mercury Transfer Module that will bring them to the planet using a combination of solar electric propulsion and nine planetary flybys.
The video includes testing of the individual spacecraft units, stacking of the three modules and a protective sunshield into their launch configuration, integration of the spacecraft inside the launcher fairing, roll out to the launch pad, and finally launch itself. The mission lifted off at 01:45:28 GMT on 20 October 2018.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA can look back at a fulfilling year. It has been a year marked by new Earth Observation missions to analyse and protect our planet, in particular the completion of the first wave of Copernicus Sentinel satellites and the launch of Aeolus. Galileo also reached an important milestone – there are now 26 satellites in orbit. Other achievements include the October launch of BepiColombo, the ESA-JAXA mission to study Mercury, and the almost continuous presence of ESA astronauts on the International Space Station.
What was your favourite moment? Tell us in the comment section.
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ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Over the last two decades, space agencies have created more comfortable conditions on the International Space Station, but we need to explore the concept of ‘living in space’ much further if humans are to ever live and work on another world, such as the Moon or Mars.
ESA’s Discovery and Preparation Programme works to prepare ESA for the future of space exploration. As part of this programme, ESA has worked with academic and industrial partners on a huge number of studies that lay the groundwork for living in space.
The technology that exists today could easily take us to the Moon and beyond, but it is studies like those carried out under the Discovery and Preparation Programme that will make a trip resourceful, sustainable and productive.
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ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Nur wenige Stunden nach dem ESA-Astronaut Alexander Gerst von seiner Horizons-Mission auf der Internationalen Raumstation ISS zurückgekehrt ist, gibt er ein kurzes Interview in der Forschungseinrichtung :envihab auf dem Campus des Deutschen Zentrums für Luft- und Raumfahrt in Köln.
Alexander Gerst kehrte am 20. Dezember 2018 zusammen mit den Besatzungsmitgliedern Serena Auñón- Chancellor und Sergei Prokopyev in der Sojus MS-09 auf die Erde zurück – demselben Raumschiff, dass sie am 6. Juni 2018 zur Station brachte.
Die Landung des Trios in der kasachischen Steppe markierte nach über sechs Monaten im Weltraum den erfolgreichen Abschluss der so genannten ISS Expedition 56/57. In dieser Zeit führte Alexander Gerst über 60 europäische Experimente durch, wurde der zweite europäische Kommandant der Internationalen Raumstation, nahm sechs Raumtransporter in Empfang, installierte die erste kommerzielle Forschungsanlage im Columbus-Labor der ESA, sendete eine wichtige Botschaft zum Klimawandel für Delegierte der COP24-Klimakonferenz, machte Echtzeitaufnahmen von einem Sojus-Startabbruch und vieles mehr.
Horizons war Alexander Gersts zweite Mission auf der Internationalen Raumstation – die erste im Jahr 2014 trug den Namen Blue Dot. Er hat nun 363 volle, allerdings nicht aufeinanderfolgende Tage im Weltraum verbracht (an seinem 364. Tag kehrte er nach Hause zurück).
In Köln angekommen, wird Alexander Gerst eine Vielzahl an Bord der ISS durchgeführter wissenschaftlich-technischer Experimente auf der Erde mit dem Ziel der vergleichenden Betrachtung und Bewertung der Daten wiederholen. Hinzu kommen medizinische Untersuchungen sowie viel Sport und körperliches Training zum Zwecke der Regenerierung und Rehabilitation.
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ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Just hours after returning from his Horizons mission on the International Space Station, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst gives a short interview at the German Aerospace Centre’s ‘:envihab’ facility in Cologne, Germany.
Alexander returned to Earth alongside crew mates Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Sergei Prokopyev on 20 December 2018 in the same Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft that flew them to the Station on 6 June 2018.
The trio’s landing in the Kazakh steppe marked the successful conclusion of over six months in space during which Alexander conducted over 60 European experiments, became the second ever European commander of the International Space Station, welcomed six resupply vehicles, installed the first commercial facility for research in the Columbus laboratory, delivered an important message on climate change for leaders at the COP24 climate change conference, captured real-time footage of a Soyuz launch abort and much, much more.
#Horizons was Alexander’s second mission to the International Space Station – the first was Blue Dot in 2014.
Now back in Cologne, Alexander will take his time to readapt to Earth’s gravity supported by ESA’s team of space medicine experts. He will also continue to provide ground-based data for researchers to support experiments performed in space.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst recorded a message in German to his future grandchildren from the International Space Station’s Cupola observatory during his Horizons mission in 2018. Although this message is addressed to his descendants, it applies to all of us. Everyone should contribute to the protection and improvement of this planet we call home.
Alexander’s message is as follows:
Dear grandchildren,
You have not been born yet, and I do not know if I will ever meet you, so I’ve decided to record this message for you.
I’m on the International Space Station in the Cupola Observation Module gazing down at your beautiful planet. And although I’ve now almost spent a year of my life in space and looked at Earth every single day, I just can’t get enough of this view.
I know it probably sounds strange to you, but at the time the Space Station was built and was up here in orbit, not everyone was able to travel into space and see the Earth from a distance. Before me, only around 500 people had the chance. At this very moment, there are 7 billion people living down there on Earth and only three of them live in space. And when I look down at the planet, I think I need to apologise to you.
Right now, it looks like we – my generation – are not going to leave this planet in its best condition for you. Of course, in retrospect many people will say they weren’t aware of what we were doing. But in reality, we humans know that right now we’re polluting the planet with carbon dioxide, we’re making the climate reach tipping point, we’re clearing forests, we’re polluting the oceans with garbage, we’re consuming the limited resources far too quickly, and we’re waging mostly pointless wars.
And every one of us has to take a good look at themselves and think about where this is leading. I very much hope for our own sake that we can still get our act together and improve a few things. And I hope that we won’t be remembered by you as the generation who selfishly and ruthlessly destroyed your livelihood.
I’m sure you understand these things much better than my generation. And who knows, maybe we’ll learn something new, such as: taking a step always helps; this fragile spaceship called Earth is much smaller than most people can imagine; how fragile the Earth’s biosphere is and how limited its resources are; that it’s worth getting along with your neighbours; that dreams are more valuable than money and you have to give them a chance; that boys and girls can do things equally well, but that every one of you has one thing that he or she can do much better than all the others; that the simple explanations are often wrong and that one’s own point of view is always incomplete; that the future is more important than the past; that one should never fully grow up; and that opportunities only come along once. You have to take a risk for things that are worth it, and any day during which you discovered something new – one where you gazed beyond your horizon – is a good day.
I wish I could look into the future through your eyes, into your world and how you see it. Unfortunately, that is not possible and therefore the only thing that remains for me is to try to make your future the best one I can possibly imagine.
International Space Station – Commander of Expedition 57 – Alexander Gerst – 25 November 2018 – 400 km above the Earth’s surface
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Follow Alexander and review his #Horizons mission on social media via http://bit.ly/AlexanderGerstESA and on http://bit.ly/HorizonsBlogESA
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ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
The ride home from the International Space Station sees the astronauts brake from 28 800 km/h to a standstill at touchdown in barely three hours. How does the Soyuz spacecraft reenter the atmosphere? And how does the capsule land?
Watch in just two minutes the sequence of events from farewell to landing. This video is based on a training lesson for ESA astronauts, and it features dramatic footage of actual landings.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Experience magical moments from ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst’s Horizons mission in this time-lapse of highlights from space.
Combining thousands of images taken by Alexander over more than six months, this Ultra High Definition video provides a glimpse into spacecraft operations and the beauty of Earth as seen from the International Space Station.
Marvel at orbital sunrises, dancing auroras, city lights, oceans, clouds, the Milky Way, the release of cargo vehicles, a Soyuz launch and more against the thin band of atmosphere that surrounds our planet.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
The most recent trends in sea level rise mean the low-lying Camargue region of southern France could be submerged by the sea by the end of the century.
The sea walls built along the coast in the 1980s have already been broken by the waves, as a combination of rising waters, slowly sinking landmass, and reduced amounts of sediment from the Rhone river spell trouble for this environment.
Anis Guelmami uses Copernicus Sentinel satellites to study wetlands like the Camargue, and he tells us the latest news from space.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Camargue, no sul de França, é uma região famosa pelas paisagens e vida selvagem, mas também um lugar seriamente ameaçado pelas alterações climáticas, por causa da subida do nível do mar.
Os muros de rochas ao longo da costa foram construídos nos anos 80, num esforço fracassado para travar o mar Mediterrâneo. Naquela época, o nível do mar subia apenas alguns milímetros por ano. Agora, os satélites descobriram que as águas estão a subir muito mais rápido do que antes, alimentadas pelo degelo das calotas glaciares e pelo aumento das temperaturas.
Os cientistas estão a usar satélites para compreender melhor o que está a acontecer em regiões como esta e em todo o planeta.
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ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
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