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Tag: ESTEC

  • ESTEC: a day in the life

    ESTEC: a day in the life

    A composite day at ESTEC, the European space research and technology centre, as depicted in time-lapse format.

    Located in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, ESTEC is Europe’s largest place for space, the technical heart of the European Space Agency. For almost all European space missions, the path to space leads through ESTEC.

    Around 2700 people arrive here for work every day, working on a broad range of space activities from scientific exploration to telecommunications, Earth observation to navigation, robotics to human spaceflight.

    A suite of unique laboratories probe every aspect of the space environment, applying decades of hard-won expertise. Seen here is preparation for testing materials in simulated space conditions as well as atomic force microscopy, employing a nanometer-wide tip like a stylus across a record player to reveal surface topography down to the atomic scale.

    Full-scale testing of satellites takes place in the ESTEC Test Centre, including the Maxwell Chamber, kept isolated from the external world for precision electromagnetic testing, and the Large Space Simulator, Europe’s largest vacuum chamber used to reproduce the airlessness and temperature extremes encountered in space. The chamber uses large quantities of liquid nitrogen to mimic the chill of deep space.

    Erasmus is ESTEC’s human spaceflight facility, supporting researchers in the design and performance of experiments in microgravity conditions. Also based there is ESTEC’s Telerobotics lab – developing methods of remotely controlling robots using force feedback, extending the human sense of touch to space. The lab team are putting the finishing touches to the Interact Centaur rover, a robot designed to be operated remotely by astronauts in orbit.

    Want to see more? You can on Sunday 4 October, with your own eyes – register to attend the 2015 ESTEC Open Day! http://www.esa.int/About_Us/ESTEC/See_spacecraft_and_meet_astronauts_at_ESA_s_technical_heart

    Credit: ESA–S. Verzier

  • ESA Summer Teachers Workshop

    ESA Summer Teachers Workshop

    Every summer, ESA’s Education Office welcomes primary and secondary teachers from across Europe to ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre, The Netherlands. Over the course of three days, in the heart of ESA’s largest establishment, the teachers engage in a number of workshops about how space can be used as a context for teaching many subjects. Space experts, both from within ESA and outside, guide the teachers through mainly hands-on practical workshop sessions.

    Credits: ESA

  • ESA Telerobotics Part 2 – Meteron

    ESA Telerobotics Part 2 – Meteron

    In preparation for his 10-day Iriss mission to the International Space Station in September this year, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen is at ESA’s technical centre, ESTEC, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, visiting the Telerobotics and Haptics Laboratory. In this second part of his video diary, Andreas meets Bill Carey to talk about the Meteron project. Andreas will participate in Meteron during his ISS mission.

    Connect with Andreas on social media at http://andreasmogensen.esa.int
    ESA Telerobotics and Haptics Laboratory http://esa-telerobotics.net/

    ESA Telerobotics Part 1 – Haptics
    https://youtu.be/RkOZe0XVRcg

    More videos from Andreas:
    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbyvawxScNbsCtYE7cHbqq9O6JvA-HPOL

  • ESA Telerobotics Part 1 – Haptics

    ESA Telerobotics Part 1 – Haptics

    In preparation for his 10-day Iriss mission to the International Space
    Station in September this year, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen is at
    ESA’s technical centre, ESTEC, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, visiting
    the Telerobotics and Haptics Laboratory. Andreas catches up with Andre
    Schiele, head of the laboratory, to learn more about the robotics
    activities he will be participating in during his mission.

    Connect with Andreas on social media at http://andreasmogensen.esa.int
    ESA Telerobotics and Haptics Laboratory http://esa-telerobotics.net/

    ESA Telerobotics Part 2 – Meteron
    http://youtu.be/5Lis9fPXr7E

    More videos from Andreas:
    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbyvawxScNbsCtYE7cHbqq9O6JvA-HPOL

  • Rosetta Spacecraft at ESA’s ESTEC Test Centre

    Rosetta Spacecraft at ESA’s ESTEC Test Centre

    The road to humankind’s first rendezvous with a comet began at ESA’s technical centre in the Netherlands. The pioneering Rosetta spacecraft and its Philae lander were tested in simulated space conditions to ensure they could withstand the difficult journey.

    Credits: ESA

  • ESA ESTEC Large Diameter Centrifuge

    ESA ESTEC Large Diameter Centrifuge

    Video of the ESA ESTEC LDC from the central gondola, accelerating and decelerating.

    Credits: Life & Physical Science, Instrumentation and Life Support Laboratory, TEC-MMG Department

  • ESTEC Shake

    ESTEC Shake

    This version of the “Harlem Shake” video, called the “ESTEC Shake”, was filmed on a real ‘electrodynamic shaker’, normally used to test spacecraft at the European Space Agency’s technical centre, ESTEC, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. One of the major risks faced by satellites stems from the high vibrations they experience during launch. It is essential to test spacecraft and their components under similar conditions on such shakers to make sure they will survive the violent ride into space.
    ESA’s Test Centre is the largest centre of its kind in Europe, and one of the largest in the world.

    The video was filmed by ESTEC volunteers, in their own time, at zero cost, while the shaker unit was being reconfigured. Strict safety, security and cleanroom procedures were followed during filming.

    More about ESA’s ESTEC Test Centre
    http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering/About_ESTEC_Test_Centre2

    More about the “Shaker”
    http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering/Electrodynamic_shakers

    Music: “Harlem Shake”, by Baauer (Mad Decent), www.maddecent.com

  • The Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) – An Innovative Teamworking Method

    The Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) – An Innovative Teamworking Method

    Traditionally, engineers faced with the task of designing a new, complex system or structure – a car, an aircraft or a satellite – work sequentially, one step at a time, passing the design from engineer to engineer. This is inefficient and consumes time and resources.

    For more than a decade, many of ESA’s sophisticated spacecraft have been designed with the help of the CDF, making use of very advanced iterative techniques – hence its title ‘concurrent’.

    Concurrent engineering puts all related engineers, with all their brain power and required tools together with the final user representative – or customer – in the same location at the same time. This allows for iterative design at a fast pace, with customer and designers agreeing requirements and taking decisions in real time to ensure the best design for the right cost and an acceptable risk.

    This process has been developed and honed so it is now common to produce a risk assessed conceptual space mission design complete with various options and including scheduling, testing and operations in a matter of weeks.

  • ESTEC: ESA’s Space Research and Technology Centre

    ESTEC: ESA’s Space Research and Technology Centre

    ESTEC: ESA’s Space Research and Technology Centre