Video Kidibot

Tag: Scientific objectives

  • BepiColombo prepares for Mercury

    BepiColombo prepares for Mercury

    ESA’s first mission to Mercury, BepiColombo, is now set for final thermal tests before launching to the hottest planet in our Solar System in October 2018. Europe said farewell to the spacecraft in July when it was at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, in its launch configuration.

    BepiColombo is a joint mission to Mercury between the ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and consists of two science orbiters: ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter.

    More about BepiColombo:
    http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/BepiColombo_overview2

  • Lisa Pathfinder end of Mission

    Lisa Pathfinder end of Mission

    The LISA Pathfinder mission ends on 18 July 2017 after a successful demonstration of the technology needed to detect gravitational waves in space. These vibrations in spacetime, first predicted by Einstein over a hundred years ago, are produced by huge astronomical events – such as two black holes colliding – and will allow scientists to open new windows into our universe.

    The success of the LISA Pathfinder mission has paved the way for the newly selected LISA mission which, when built and launched, will detect gravitational waves from objects up to a million times larger than our Sun.

    The film features interview soundbites from Dr Paul McNamara, LISA Pathfinder Project Scientist, at the European Space Agency’s European Technology and Science facility (ESTEC) in The Netherlands.

    More about LISA Pathfinder:
    http://sci.esa.int/lisa-pathfinder/