ESA’s Pangaea training course prepares astronauts and space engineers to identify planetary geological features during future missions to the Moon, Mars and asteroids.
The Pangaea campaign – named after the ancient supercontinent – provides the crew with introductory and practical knowledge to find interesting rock samples and assess the most likely places to find traces of life on other planets. Leading European planetary geologists share their insights into the geology of the Solar System.
Theoretical work is followed by field trips to the Ries impact crater in Germany, the sedimentary environment of Geopark Bletterbach in the Italian Dolomites and the volcanic landscapes of the Geopark of Lanzarote, Spain.
Pangaea is the first step in preparing European astronauts to become planetary explorers on missions to other planets, allowing them to effectively communicate with science advisors on Earth.
Through Pangaea, Europe is also developing operational concepts for surface missions where astronauts and robots work together, among themselves and with scientists and engineers on Earth, using the best field geology and planetary observation techniques.
Diego Fernandez and Chris Stewart welcome Earth observation attendants and provide their opening remarks.
Every two years, ESA’s Earth observation summer schools draws young scientists from all over the world to learn more about remote sensing, Earth system science, modelling and monitoring, and how data can be used to better understand the world we live in. In 2018, the two-week summer school is held on 30 July to 10 August. While the students engage in practical sessions in the afternoons, the morning lectures were streamed live.
Ever wondered what it feels like to fly from Alaska to the Andes in 260 seconds? ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst captured this timelapse footage of Alaska, the USA and South America while orbiting Earth on board the International Space Station.
This timelapse is made up of 6,375 images shown 12.5 times faster than actual speed. Music is Our Oasis by Miriam Speyer, sourced from Audio Network Limited.
Māori, as native New Zealanders, refer to their islands as “Aotearoa” or “the land of the long white cloud”. This timelapse from ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst shows Australia and New Zealand shrouded in cloud from the unique viewpoint of the International Space Station.
Comprised of 5,175 photos, this timelapse is 12.5 times faster than actual speed and is set to the soundtrack “Try or Die” sourced from Audio Network Limited.
The date is fixed: you are invited to the annual ESA Open Day at ESTEC, ESA’s technical heart in the Netherlands, on Sunday, 7 October.
The theme this year is ‘A voyage through space with Europe’. We’ll have all ESA establishments represented on site, either with speakers giving talks or live link-ups to the different centres. You’ll be able to meet astronauts, scientists and engineers, plus some special guests. You’ll see how we design space missions, how we develop the technologies needed to go into space and how we simulate space on the ground. With the help of our colleagues from the other ESA centres, we’ll complete the life-cycle of a mission and see how it is launched and controlled once in space!
What is a lunar eclipse? What is a solar eclipse? This short video explains the difference between these regularly occurring events that can be observed from Earth.
The video uses a mix of ground- and space-based imagery of eclipses, including footage from the International Space Station, ESA’s Proba-2 satellite and the Japanese-led Hinode satellite.
Remember: never look directly at the Sun, even when partially eclipsed, without proper eye protection such as special solar eclipse glasses, or you risk permanent eye damage.
Credits: ESA, ESA/CESAR (graphics, ground-based observations), NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (partial lunar eclipse sequence) ESA/NASA (ISS footage), ESA/Royal Observatory of Belgium (Proba-2 footage), NASA/Hinode/XRT (Hinode image).
Orbiting Earth once every 90 minutes, the International Space Station soars into 16 sunrises and sunsets every single day. Many of these sunrises occur while the crew is working or sleeping, but ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst captured this stunning timelapse of a sunrise to share with us here on Earth.
These photos were taken by Alexander at an interval of two per second and the video has been edited at 25 frames per second.
Music: First Survivors 4 by Los Angeles-based British composer, Luke Richards. Sourced from Audio Network Limited.
Iris will provide a safe and secure text-based data link between pilots and air traffic control (ATC) networks using satellite technology.
The programme is developed under a public-private partnership between ESA and Inmarsat, and will help relieve pressure on the aviation sector’s congested radio frequency communication channels.
It will so as part of the European Commission’s Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) masterplan to modernise Europe’s air traffic management.
Europe’s next four Galileo satellites lifted off at 11:25 GMT (13:25 CEST, 08:25 local time) on 25 July from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana atop an Ariane 5 launcher.
On 20 July 2018 around 21:50 local time, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst welcomed the legendary electronic band Kraftwerk and 7500 visitors to the Jazz Open Festival on Stuttgart’s Schlossplatz – live from the International Space Station, where he will live and work until mid-December 2018. During the call with space, Kraftwerk founding member Ralf Hütter and Alexander played a special duet version of the track Spacelab, for which Alexander had a tablet computer configured with virtual synthesizers on board. With thanks to Kraftwerk for sharing this video footage.
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So begrüßte ESA-Astronaut Alexander Gerst am 20. Juli 2018 um 21:50 Uhr Ortszeit die legendären Elektro-Pioniere Kraftwerk sowie 7500 Besucherinnen und Besucher des Jazz Open-Festivals auf dem Stuttgarter Schlossplatz – und zwar live von der Internationalen Raumstation ISS, auf der er noch bis Mitte Dezember 2018 lebt und arbeitet.
Kraftwerk-Gründungsmitglied Ralf Hütter und Alexander Gerst spielten eine spezielle Version des Tracks Spacelab im Duett an, für das Gerst eigens einen mit virtuellen Synthesizern konfigurierten Tablet-Computer an Bord hatte.
Euronews had a unique chance to visit the Avio rocket factory, situated in Colleferro, just south of Rome, Italy, where engineers are lovingly crafting the next generation of carbon fibre European launchers.
The site is one of the very few space rocket factories in Europe. It’s the place where the lightweight Vega launcher was born, and where the launchers of the future are being created.
Humans will have to breath, drink and eat while living on the Moon. They will need energy to perform tasks using their robotic companions and materials to build structures. For a sustainable approach to space exploration these resources cannot be carried from Earth but have to be found on the Moon itself.
Angel Abbud Madrid is the Director of the Center for Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM), where he leads a multidisciplinary research programme on the human and robotic exploration of space and the utilisation of its resources. He is also the Director of the CSM Space Resources Program, the first academic programme in the world focused on educating scientists, engineers, economists, entrepreneurs and policymakers in the developing field of space resources.
Space Bites hosts the best talks on space exploration from the most inspiring and knowledgeable speakers from the field. Held at the technical heart of the European Space Agency in the Netherlands, the lectures are now also available on YouTube. If you want to know about the present and future challenges of ESA, stay tuned for more.
We are 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 https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
Discover more about our planet with the Earth from Space video programme. In this special edition, ESA’s Aeolus mission scientist, Anne Grete Straume, joins us in the cleanroom at Airbus Defence and Space in Toulouse, France. She explains how winds are generated, how they affect our weather, and how Aeolus will measure the wind and how this information will be used to improve weather forecasts and climate models.
At the Airbus Defence and Space facility in Toulouse, France, ESA’s Aeolus wind satellite has been prepared for its launch on top of a Vega rocket from Kourou in French Guiana. Liftoff is currently scheduled for August. The development of this latest Earth Explorer started 16 years ago and has now finished.
From orbit Aeolus will measure wind profiles on a global scale using a pioneering laser technology. These measurements will greatly benefit existing meteorological models and fill a gap in the observations of wind.
The 2018 European CanSat launch campaign took place from 28 June until 1 July 2018 on the island of Santa Maria, Azores (Portugal).
Hosted by the Regional Fund for Science and Technology (FRCT) in collaboration with local partners. Nineteen teams participated this year: the winners of the CanSat national competitions from Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Nordic (joint competition Finland-Sweden-Norway), Portugal, Poland, Romania, the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK, as well a team from Hungary selected directly by ESA.
The European CanSat competition is only one of ESA’s initiatives to help young people increase their literacy and competence in STEM disciplines and inspire them to pursue a career in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields.
Our alien friend Paxi, ESA Education’s mascot, went to visit American astronaut Mark Vande Hei on board the International Space Station. Vande Hei tells Paxi about how astronauts exercise in weightlessness, an important aspect of living on the ISS.
Hera is the European contribution to an ESA-NASA double-spacecraft mission intended to test whether a kinetic deflection technique can be used to shift the orbit of an asteroid. The target of the mission is a double asteroid system, called Didymos, which will come a comparatively close 11 million km to Earth in 2022. The 800-m diameter main body is orbited by a 170-m moon, informally called ‘Didymoon’.
In 2022 NASA’s DART spacecraft will first perform a kinetic impact on the smaller of the two bodies, then Hera will follow-up with a detailed post-impact survey that will turn this grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and repeatable planetary defence technique.
Hera will also gather crucial scientific data on asteroids as a whole by carefully studying the exterior and interior properties of both bodies in the system. The spacecraft will also host two 6-unit cubesats that will be deployed near Didymos to perform, for the first time ever, multi-point measurements in a “mother-daughter” configuration. A novel intersatellite link will be used to establish a flexible communications network supporting the close-proximity operations in very low-gravity conditions, a crucial step for future exploration activities around small bodies.
Hera, a further optimisation of ESA’s earlier proposed Asteroid Impact Mission, is currently in Phase B1 of mission development in preparation of the Agency’s Council of Ministers at European Level in late 2019.
Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, and John Mather, senior project scientist, comment on an independent review board’s findings on the agency’s James Webb Space Telescope. Webb is now targeting March 2021 as a new launch date, after the board assessed delays in integration and testing. NASA and the board unanimously agree that Webb can still achieve mission success.
Enjoy this animation visualising BepiColombo’s launch and cruise to Mercury. Some aspects have been simplified for the purpose of this animation.
The joint ESA-JAXA mission comprises the European Mercury Planetary Orbiter and Japan’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, which will be transported to the innermost planet by the Mercury Transfer Module. The animation highlights several key milestones, including the solar array and antenna deployments once in space, through to the arrival at Mercury seven years later. When approaching Mercury, the transfer module will separate and the two science orbiters, still together, will be captured into orbit around the planet. Their altitude will be adjusted until the Magnetospheric Orbiter’s desired orbit is reached. Then the Planetary Orbiter will separate and descend to its lower orbit, and the two craft will begin their scientific exploration of Mercury and its environment.
This unique video shows a full launch of the Soyuz MS-09: from liftoff to orbit.
Watch the launch from inside the crew capsule with first-ever shots from outside the spacecraft recorded by cameras fixed to the exterior of the Soyuz.
The intense launch lasts less than ten minutes whereby the Soyuz spacecraft is propelled 1640 km and gains 210 km altitude. Every second for nine minutes, the spacecraft accelerates 50 km/h on average as the rocket’s boosters burn their fuel and are discarded.
See the astronaut’s reactions and what the spacecraft looks like as the main steps are carried out to get into orbit:
-00:12 Launch command issued
-00:10 Engine turbopumps at flight speed
-00:05 Engines at maximum thrust
00:00 Launch
+1:54 Separation of emergency rescue system
+1:57 First stage separation
+2:38 Fairing separation
+4:48 Second stage separation
+4:58 Tail adapter separation
+8:45 Third stage engine cut off having arrived in orbit
+8:49 Soyuz separation, deploy solar arrays and antennae
The astronauts, from left to right, are NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor, Roscosmos commander Sergei Prokopyev and ESA astronaut and flight engineer Alexander Gerst launched in the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station on 6 June 2018. ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and ESA television host Richard Hollingham provide commentary taken from the live event.
Hunched in their Sokol flight suits that offer protection in case of fire or depressurisation, the trio stay in the crew capsule of the Soyuz – the only module that is also designed to survive a return to Earth. The bags above their heads contain supplies for the International Space Station as every bit of space is used.
During a Soyuz launch astronauts typically experience forces of up to 4g – having to work while being pressed into their seats with a force that is four times more than the gravity felt on Earth. The Soyuz commander uses a stick to press buttons as they are too far away from the control panel.
The fluffy toys above the astronauts’ heads are mascots and good luck charms but also serve as a simple but effective test to see when the spacecraft is in orbit: when they start to float the spacecraft is weightless and orbiting Earth. Above Sergei is the mascot for the 2018 FIFA soccer World Cup held in Russia. Alexander took German children television icon “Die Maus” with him.
The launch went as planned as the 50-m tall Soyuz rocket propelled the astronauts to their cruising speed of around 28 800 km/h.
For this launch the astronauts took 34 orbits of Earth over two days to arrive at their destination spending their time in the cramped orbital module of the Soyuz that is no larger than a car. With limited communications and living space the astronauts had time to adapt to weightlessness and reflect on their mission ahead. They aligned their spacecraft with the International Space Station and approached the orbital outpost for docking on 8 June 2018. The files for this video were downloaded by the astronauts after arriving at the Space Station.
Alexander is a returning visitor to the International Space Station, the first of ESA’s 2009 class of astronauts to be sent into space for a second time. During the second part of his mission Alexander will take over as commander of the International Space Station, only the second time an ESA astronaut will take on this role so far.
Enjoy this compilation of with the last images taken by Rosetta’s high resolution OSIRIS camera during the mission’s final hours at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. As it moved closer towards the surface it scanned across an ancient pit and sent back images showing what would become its final resting place.
Credits: Images: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA – CC BY-SA 4.0
Image compilation: ESA–D. C. Jimeno and M. P. Ayucar
Discover more about our planet with the Earth from Space video programme. In this special edition, ESA’s Aeolus Project Manager, Anders Elfving, joins us in the cleanroom at Airbus Defence and Space in Toulouse, France, to talk about the challenges in developing the mission’s pioneering laser technology.
You’ve probably seen atoms like this emoji ⚛ everywhere from science textbooks to the logo for The Big Bang Theory. But what does an atom really look like? The truth is much stranger.
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A new crew aboard the space station, Curiosity rover’s new science findings on Mars, and – Celebrating 60 years of NASA … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!
This video is available for download from NASA’s Image and Video Library: https://images.nasa.gov/details-NHQ_2018_0608_Curiosity%E2%80%99s%20New%20Mars%20Science%20Results%20on%20This%20Week%20@NASA%20%E2%80%93%20June%208,%202018.html
After orbiting Earth 34 times to catch up to the International Space Station, the car-sized spacecraft carrying ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst, NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Roscosmos commander Sergei Prokopyev, arrived at the Station two days after launch.
The German astronaut is a returning visitor to the International Space Station, the first of ESA’s 2009 class of astronauts to be sent into space for a second time. During the second part of his mission Alexander will take over as commander of the International Space Station, only the second time an ESA astronaut will take on this role so far.
The mission is called Horizons as a symbol for the unknown and what lies beyond – reflecting on ESA’s strategy to extend human and robotic exploration beyond Earth orbit. While in space, Alexander will work on over 50 European experiments, including testing ways of operating and working with robots to develop techniques required for further human and robotic exploration of our Solar System.
At 11:12 GMT (13:12 CEST), 6 June 2018, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst was launched into space alongside NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Roscosmos commander Sergei Prokopyev in the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
5G, the next generation of communication services, will deliver ultra-fast speeds, connect all people and devices to the internet and minimise delays. It will affect everybody, changing the way we communicate, work and interact with technology.
Space has an invaluable role to play in the 5G ecosystem. Satellites can extend, enhance, and provide reliability and security to 5G like no other, helping to deliver its promise of global, ubiquitous connectivity, with no noticeable difference to the end-user. ESA’s Satellite for 5G (S45G) programme aims promote the value-added benefits of space to 5G, by developing and demonstrating integrated satellite- and terrestrial-based 5G services, across multiple markets and use cases.
Our alien friend Paxi, ESA Education’s mascot, went to visit American astronaut Mark Vande Hei on board the International Space Station. Vande Hei shows Paxi the views outside of the Cupola, the biggest window on Earth in the International Space Station.
Explore the Philippines’ Mount Mayon, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, in this episode of Earth from Space, presented by Kelsea Brennan-Wessels from the ESA Web TV virtual studios.
See in this time-lapse how the Sentinel-3B satellite was prepared for its liftoff on 25 April 2018 from Plesetsk in Russia.
Sentinel-3B joined its twin, Sentinel-3A, in orbit. The pairing of identical satellites provides the best coverage and data delivery for Europe’s Copernicus programme – the largest environmental monitoring programme in the world. The satellites carry the same suite of cutting-edge instruments to measure oceans, land, ice and atmosphere.
Credits: Directed by Stephane Corvaja, ESA; Edited by Manuel Pedoussaut, Zetapress; Music by Hubrid-Rockot
