Will robots replace humans one day? When it comes to space exploration, robots are our precursors, gathering data to prepare humans for deep space. ESA robotics engineer Martin Azkarate discusses some of the upcoming missions involving robots and the unique science they will perform in this episode of Meet the Experts.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
How do rockets lift off from the ground and how fast do they go? Can we launch rockets from other planets? ESA rocket scientist Kate Underhill answers these questions and offers more fun facts about launchers in this episode of Meet The Experts.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Join ESA astronauts Thomas Pesquet and Matthias Maurer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, USA. In part four of this video series, the astronauts discuss taking photos on the International Space Station.
Though mission details and dates are yet to be confirmed, Thomas and Matthias are the next two European astronauts in line for flights. Thomas has flown to the International Space Station before, while Matthias will fly for the first time.
Prior to a mission, astronauts train extensively to ensure they are familiar with the vast array of systems and operations on board. In this video, the pair reflect on the images Thomas took during his first mission and how he plans to approach space photography the second time around.
This video was filmed in June 2020. At that time, the platform Thomas and Matthias were standing on – in front of a full-scale mock-up of the International Space Station – was the only place at NASA’s JSC that they could interact without face masks. Despite this, the pair were required to maintain social distance at all times as a precaution.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Satellite navigation is a big part of our daily lives. How do our phones and cars know where to go? Nicola de Quattro, head of engineering and innovation at Vitrociset Belgium, explains how sat nav works along with its present and future applications in this episode of Meet the Experts.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Did you know that astronauts on the International Space Station send pictures from space to ground over amateur radio that you yourself can get at home using your computer? Let us show you how to get them, step by step.
Jump to the video tutorial on how to receive SSTV pictures from the International Space Station using:
– Mac OSX: https://youtu.be/VOPxJ7UpUAI
This project would not have been possible without the support of ESA Education, ESERO Ireland, ESERO Denmark, ESERO Spain, ESERO Portugal, ESERO Romania, ESERO Italy, ARISS and Goonhilly Earth Station.
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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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Is there a planet like our Earth out there? Scientists have discovered over 4000 exoplanets, or planets outside of our Solar System, that ESA’s CHEOPS satellite will study in depth. Project scientist Kate Isaak discusses the types of exoplanets discovered and what we can learn from them.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the many colourful curves and folds of the Flinders Ranges – the largest mountain range in South Australia, in this week’s edition of the Earth from Space programme.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Space agency leaders from across the globe – including France, India, Italy, Japan, Norway, Spain, the U.S. and the European Space Agency – offer their congratulations for the successful launch of the Mars Perseverance Rover on July 30, 2020. After a 7-month journey to the Red Planet, Perseverance will land in Mars’ Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021.
In this “On the Go” episode of #EZScience, we’re on the scene at Kennedy Space Center with the rocket that will take the Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity helicopter to Mars.
ABOUT THE SERIES: In our #EZScience video series with the National Air and Space Museum, NASA’s associate administrator for science Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen and Museum director Dr. Ellen Stofan talk about the latest in planetary science and exploration.
This video shows Jezero crater, the landing site of the @NASA Mars 2020 Perseverance rover on the Red Planet, based on images from ESA’s Mars Express mission. The planned landing area is marked with an orange ellipse.
Scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida on 30 July 2020 on board an Atlas V rocket, the Perseverance rover will land on 18 February 2021 in Jezero crater.
An impact crater with a diameter of about 45 km, Jezero is located at the rim of the giant Isidis impact basin. Morphological evidence suggests that the crater once hosted a lake, some 3.5 billion years ago.
Jezero possesses an inlet- and an outlet channel. The inlet channel discharges into a fan-delta deposit, containing water-rich minerals such as smectite clays. Scientists believe that the lake was relatively long lived because the delta may have required 1 to 10 million years to reach its thickness and size. Other studies conclude that the lake did not experience periods of important water-level fluctuations and that it was formed by a continuous surface runoff. This makes Jezero crater to a prime target for the search for potential signs of microbial life, because organic molecules are very well preserved in river deltas and lake sediments.
The animation was created using an image mosaic made from four single orbit observations obtained by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on Mars Express between 2004 and 2008. The mosaic combines data from the HRSC nadir and colour channels; the nadir channel is aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, as if looking straight down at the surface. The mosaic image was then combined with topography information from the stereo channels of HRSC to generate a three-dimensional landscape, which was then recorded from different perspectives, as with a movie camera, to render the flight shown in the video.
Copyright:
Animation: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Music: Björn Schreiner
Soundtrack logo: Alicia Neesemann
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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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet has been assigned to the second operational flight of @SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, launching to the International Space Station in 2021. Thomas’ second mission to the International Space Station will be called Alpha. This is after Alpha Centauri, the closest stellar system to Earth, following the French tradition to name space missions after stars or constellations.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
This week’s edition of the Earth from Space programme features a radar image of the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer has been training at @NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA. In this video, he walks us through training for a spacewalk with NASA colleagues in the 12 m deep Neutral Buoyancy Facility (NBL).
Matthias travelled to Houston from Europe with fellow ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet. Thomas has flown to the International Space Station before, while Matthias is training for his first Space Station mission. Mission dates are yet to be confirmed, but as the next two ESA astronauts in line for flights, the pair are working to ensure they fully trained and ready.
Due to the current situation with COVID-19, all personnel are required to adhere to special safety precautions while training. These include wearing a mask – as seen in the clip.
Matthias will continue his training in Houston over the next weeks and months. Stay tuned for further footage of his training and experiences.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Discovered in March 2020, Comet NEOWISE became visible to the naked eye in July, gifting observers in the northern hemisphere with one of the most scenic comets in over 20 years. The comet, which is on an almost parabolic orbit and had its closest approach to the Sun, or perihelion, in early July, reaches its closest point to Earth on 22–23 July, before zipping back towards the outer Solar System.
In this video, ESA Research Fellows Rachana Bhatawdekar and Sandor Kruk share their experience and explain how to observe and image the comet in the sky. Next, ESA Research Fellow Charlotte Götz tells us more about comets and their tails, and how ESA’s future Comet Interceptor mission, to be launched in 2028, is going to wait for such a ‘great’ comet that has not been discovered yet. The spacecraft will sit in a parking orbit around the Lagrange point L2, 1.5 million kilometres away from Earth, until an interesting ‘pristine’ comet visits the inner Solar System. It will then intersect the comet’s orbit to study its nucleus, gases, dust, and plasma environment.
Jump to the different segments of the video: 00:00 – 1:22 – How to see comet NEOWISE 1:23 – 2:42 – How to take a picture of comet NEOWISE 2:43 – 6:17 – Comets and Comet Interceptor
Image credits: Rachana Bhatawdekar, Sandor Kruk, Mark McCaughrean, Kai Noeske (2020) Thumbnail image: Courtesy Mark McCaughrean, 12 July 2020 (Wassenaar, The Netherlands)
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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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
On July 21, NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Robert Behnken will conduct a spacewalk to perform a number of tasks designed to upgrade station systems. Coverage will begin around 7:15 a.m. EDT, and may last up to seven hours. This will be both astronauts’ 10th spacewalk outside the orbital lab and Behnken’s final before returning to Earth on SpaceX’s Dragon Endeavor on August 2.
As we explore Mars and other places in the solar system that might have life, scientists who work in Planetary Protection are busy making sure that we don’t contaminate them. While engineers prepare the Perseverance Rover for launch, Lisa Pratt, NASA’s Planetary Protection Officer, is making sure that it’s not carrying too many spores — cells that could re-activate and transport Earthly bacteria to Mars. It’s especially important to keep Perseverance clean because it will collect samples on Mars that will one day return to Earth. Learn what your hand sanitizer has in common with NASA’s clean rooms, and how scientists are thinking about protecting Mars in terms of future human missions.
Microbial life is known to survive in all sorts of extreme environments by going into a dormant state. Could they have survived long trips around our galaxy to seed life on Earth? Astrobiologist Nicol Caplin talks extreme life in this episode of Meet The Experts.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Join ESA astronauts Thomas Pesquet and Matthias Maurer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, USA. In part one of this video series, the two astronauts compare notes on their journey to date as they prepare for missions to the International Space Station.
Though mission details and dates are yet to be confirmed, Thomas and Matthias are the next two European astronauts in line for flights. Thomas has flown to the International Space Station before, while Matthias will fly for the first time.
Prior to a mission, astronauts train extensively to ensure they are familiar with the vast array of systems and operations on board. In this video, the pair discuss how training for a second mission differs from a first mission, the challenges of training during a global pandemic, and how flying to the Station on US commercial crew vehicles may differ from flying on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
This video was filmed in June 2020. At that time, the platform Thomas and Matthias were standing on – in front of a full-scale mock-up of the International Space Station – was the only place at NASA’s JSC that they could interact without face masks. Despite this, the pair were required to maintain social distance at all times as a precaution.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft has sent back its first images of the Sun. At 77 million kilometres from the surface, this is the closest a camera has ever flown to our nearest star. The pictures reveal features on the Sun’s exterior that have never been seen in detail before.
Launched on 10 February 2020, the spacecraft completed its commissioning phase and first close-approach to the Sun in mid-June. Since then, science teams have been processing and examining this early data.
The spacecraft is currently in its cruise phase, on its way to Venus, but will eventually get even closer to the Sun.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
The first images from ESA’s Solar Orbiter, captured around the spacecraft’s first close pass of the Sun, some 77 million kilometres from its surface, are already exceeding expectations revealing interesting new phenomena on our parent star.
This animation shows a series of close-up views captured by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) at wavelengths of 17 nanometers, showing the upper atmosphere of the Sun, or corona, with a temperature of around 1 million degrees.
These images reveal a multitude of small flaring loops, erupting bright spots and dark, moving fibrils. A ubiquitous feature of the solar surface, uncovered for the first time by these images, have been called ‘campfires’. They are omnipresent minuature eruptions that could be contributing to the high temperatures of the solar corona and the origin of the solar wind.
Captured on 30 May 2020, when Solar Orbiter was roughly halfway between the Earth and the Sun, these are the closest views of the Sun ever taken, allowing EUI to see features in the solar corona of only 400 km across. As the mission continues, Solar Orbiter will go closer to the Sun and this will increase the instrument’s resolving power by a factor of two at closest approach.
The colour on this image has been artificially added because the original wavelength detected by the instrument is invisible to the human eye.
The circle in the lower left corner indicates the size of Earth for scale.
The extended grey shape visible at times moving across the field (00:00-00:25; 01:00-01:28; 01:50-02:00; 02:52-03:27) is not a solar feature but is caused by a sensor artefact.
Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
The first images from ESA’s Solar Orbiter are already exceeding expectations and revealing interesting new phenomena on the Sun.
This animation combines a series of views captured with several remote-sensing instruments on Solar Orbiter between 30 May and 21 June 2020, when the spacecraft was roughly halfway between the Earth and the Sun ¬– closer to the Sun than any other solar telescope has ever been before.
The red and yellow images were taken with the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) in the extreme ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum, at wavelengths of 30 and 17 nanometers, respectively.
The close-up views by EUI show the upper atmosphere of the Sun, or corona, with a temperature of around 1 million degrees. With the power to see features in the solar corona of only 400 km across, these images reveal a multitude of small flaring loops, erupting bright spots and dark, moving fibrils. A ubiquitous feature of the solar surface, uncovered for the first time by these images, have been called ‘campfires’. They are omnipresent minuature eruptions that could be contributing to the high temperatures of the solar corona and the origin of the solar wind.
The EUI images are followed by three views based on data from the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) instrument. The blue and red view is a ‘tachogram’ of the Sun, showing the line of sight velocity of the Sun, with the blue side turning to us and the red side turning away. The following view is a magnetogram, or a map of magnetic propertied for the whole Sun, featuring a large magnetically active region in the lower right-hand quadrant of the Sun. The yellow-orange view is a visible light image and represents what we would see with the naked eye: there are no sunspots visible because the Sun is displaying only low levels of magnetic activity at the moment.
On larger scales, the Metis coronograph blocks out the dazzling light from the solar surface, bringing the fainter corona into view. Metis observes the corona simultaneously in visible light (shown in green) and ultraviolet light (shown in red) for the first time with unprecedented temporal coverage and spatial resolution. These images reveal the two bright equatorial streamers and fainter polar regions that are characteristic of the solar corona during times of minimal magnetic activity.
On even grander scales, the Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) telescope takes images of the solar wind – the stream of charged particles constantly released by the Sun into outer space – by capturing the light scattered by electrons in the wind. The first-light image from SoloHI is shown at the end, as a mosaic of four separate images from the instrument’s four separate detectors. In this view, the Sun is located to the right of the frame, and its light is blocked by a series of baffles; the last baffle is in the field of view on the right-hand side and is illuminated by reflections from the solar array. The partial ellipse visible on the right is the zodiacal light, created by sunlight reflecting off the dust particles that are orbiting the Sun. The signal from the solar wind outflow is faint compared to the much brighter zodiacal light signal, but the SoloHI team has developed techniques to reveal it. Planet Mercury is also visible as a small bright dot near the lower edge of the upper left tile.
Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
How do we control a spacecraft from Earth and will satellites in space be autonomous one day soon? ESA mission control experts answer these questions and discuss the challenges of manoeuvring a mission from the ground in this episode of Meet the Experts.
* Erratum: the title of the last 3 speakers is ‘spacecraft engineer’ instead of ‘safecraft engineer’ as stated in the video.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
NASA’s next Mars rover has a name – Perseverance. Like every exploration mission before, our rover is going to face challenges, and it’s going to make amazing discoveries.
The time at hand is hard. We have already surmounted many obstacles on our way to Red Planet, but as humans we will not give up. We will always persevere.
Targeted for launch in July 2020, NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover will search for signs of habitable conditions on Mars in the ancient past and for signs of past microbial life itself.
Tune in for our next International Space Station spacewalk!
On Wednesday, July 1, NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Robert Behnken will begin the 229th spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance and upgrades. Astronauts Cassidy and Behnken will exit the station’s Quest airlock to replace aging nickel-hydrogen batteries for one of two power channels on the far starboard truss with new lithium-ion batteries that arrived on a Japanese cargo spacecraft last month. The spacewalk will begin at around 7:35 a.m. EDT, with an expected duration of 7 hours.
The latest asteroid news and updates from the European Space Agency hosted by award-winning science and space journalist Richard Hollingham. Richard is the presenter of the Space Boffins podcast, space correspondent for BBC Future and an ESA TV launch commentator.
The programme – hosted from Richard’s home in the East of England – will include features and discussions with leading asteroid experts. Guests include Antarctic meteorite hunter Dr Katie Joy from the University of Manchester, Professor Alan Fitzsimmons – who’s working on ESA’s asteroid intercept mission HERA, Dr Natalie Starkey from the Open University and ESA asteroid tracking expert Dr Detlef Koschny.
We’ll also hear from astronauts, researchers working on ESA’s new asteroid tracking telescopes and Brian May giving us the low-down on the challenges of asteroid rendezvous.
You can also find the a local Asteroid Day Programme in the following languages:
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Descubre las últimas noticias y la información más reciente de la Agencia Espacial Europea en una charla moderada por Mariella Graziano, una de las divulgadoras STEM más activas en España y Europa, y directora del departamento de Sistemas Espaciales y Robótica en la multinacional tecnológica española GMV, profundamente implicada en el desarrollo de la misión de defensa planetaria HERA de la ESA. Entre los invitados a la charla habrá divulgadores, científicos, astrónomos y expertos que trabajan para comprender la fascinante ciencia de los asteroides y meteoritos, así como los riesgos potenciales de los asteroides que orbitan cerca de la Tierra (tanto a nivel europeo, como la contribución española). Una sección de este programa contará incluso con la presencia de astronautas que explicarán las razones por las que debemos ser conscientes de los potenciales peligros que los asteroides pueden suponer para nuestro planeta.
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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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Un vivace incontro ospitato da Ettore Perozzi, maggiore esperto di difesa planetaria presso l’Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, ASI. Ospiti di riguardo includono esperti ASI e di Agenzia Spaziale Europea (ESA), INAF, e Minor Planet Center dell’Unione Astronomica Internazionale.
Rappresentazioni artistiche e di musica dal vivo saranno parte dell’evento, oltre all’astronauta dell’ESA Luca Parmitano che si unirà alla chiacchierata in collegamento da Houston, Texas.
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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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Bruce Benamran, l’un des youtubers scientifiques les plus regardés de France, animera une discussion passionnante autour des astéroïdes. Il abordera avec un panel de six experts plusieurs thèmes, dont les missions de défense planétaire et les opportunités futures offertes par l’exploitation des astéroïdes. Ian Carnelli (ESA), Aurélie Moussi (CNES), Patrick Michel (CNRS – Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Naomi Murdoch (ISAE-Supaero), Marc Serres (l’Agence spatiale luxembourgeoise) et l’astronaute de l’ESA Léopold Eyharts participeront à cette fascinante conversation; il expliqueront la manière dont les astéroïdes se sont formés et présenteront les découvertes scientifiques récentes et les défis à venir.
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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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Ice and snow can be a hot topic when talking about climate. The polar regions are very fragile and can tell us a lot about how Earth’s climate is changing. Andrew Shepherd of the University of Leeds is a leading climate scientist working with ESA and NASA. In this episode he explains how we can separate the effects of weather versus climate from data records and the role of space in studying changes to our planet in real-time and in the future.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Tune in for our next International Space Station spacewalk! On Friday, June 26, NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Robert Behnken will begin the 228th spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance and upgrades. Astronauts Cassidy and Behnken will exit the station’s Quest airlock to replace aging nickel-hydrogen batteries for one of two power channels on the far starboard truss with new lithium-ion batteries that arrived on a Japanese cargo spacecraft last month. The spacewalks will begin at around 7:35 a.m. EDT, with an expected duration of 7 hours.
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us with this false-colour image over part of the Andes mountains, in southern Peru, in this week’s edition of the Earth from Space programme.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
In orbit for more than a decade, ESA’s Earth Explorer satellite SMOS has not only exceeded its planned lifespan, but also surpassed its original scientific goals. Built to demonstrate new technology in space and address gaps in our scientific understanding of how Earth works as a system, this remarkable mission is now also being used for a number of practical applications. With drought seemingly more commonplace, entrepreneurs are using information on soil moisture from SMOS and data from other satellites to generate commercial data products for the insurance market, ultimately bringing benefits to farmers.
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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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA astronauts Samantha Cristoforetti and Luca Parmitano join the 2019/20 Moon Camp Challenge winning teams for a 1-hour webinar. Connecting from all over the world, the teams have their questions answered live by the ESA astronauts.
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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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
With around two and half hours set aside for exercise every day, skipping the gym is not an option for astronauts on the International Space Station. ESA’s team of astronaut trainers are responsible for developing specialised training programmes to prepare astronauts for spaceflight and combat the effects of microgravity on the body.Astronaut Fitness Expert, Dr. Nora Petersen, discusses training astronauts and how the programme may change for future missions to the Moon and Mars.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
** English and German subtitles are available for this clip under settings, subtitles/CC. **
ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer travelled to Houston, USA for training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. In this video he shares his first few weeks of refresher training, with a glimpse behind the scenes.
Matthias travelled to Houston, USA from Europe with fellow ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet. Thomas has flown to the International Space Station before, while Matthias is training for his first Space Station mission. Mission dates are yet to be confirmed, but as the next two ESA astronauts in line for flights, the pair are working to ensure they fully trained and ready.
Due to the current situation with COVID-19, all personnel are required to adhere to special safety precautions while training. These include wearing a mask – as seen in the clip.
Matthias will continue his training in Houston over the next weeks and months. Stay tuned for further footage of his training and experiences.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Soon a Vega will launch from Kourou carrying a payload of several satellites. These will be delivered into orbit by a new multi-payload system developed by ESA. Among these small satellites, E-SAIL. This microsatellite is dedicated to supporting maritime traffic and making seafaring safer. It is part of ESA’s SAT-AIS programme, which aims is to increase the coverage of the Automatic Identification System for ships. This system is a short-range coastal tracking system currently used on ships that makes traffic safer but which has a limited range. With microsatellites from the SAT-AIS programme such as E-SAIL maritime shipping can be made safer across the oceans.
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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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Multiple small satellites will be launched at once on the Vega VV16 mission from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. This flight will demonstrate the modular SSMS dispenser resting on its upper stage intended to bring routine affordable launch opportunities for light satellites from 0.2 kg CubeSats up to 400 kg minisatellites.
Until now the smallest classes of satellites – all the way down to tiny CubeSats, built from 10 cm modular boxes – have typically ‘piggybacked’ to orbit. They have to make use of any spare capacity as a single large satellite is launched, meaning their overall launch opportunities are limited.
The new Vega Small Spacecraft Mission Service switches this into a ‘rideshare’ model, with multiple small satellites being flown together, splitting the launch cost.
SAB Aeropsace in the Czech Republic and Bercella in Italy designed and manufactured this modular dispenser for ESA’s Vega prime contractor Avio. The component structures are made of very low-density aluminium ‘sandwich’ panels protected by carbon fibre reinforced polymer skins. This makes it very lightweight and rigid.
The SSMS comprises two main sections, the hexagonal lower section can hold six nanosatellites or up to a dozen CubeSat deployers while the upper section section is used for microsatellites, minisatellites and small satellites. The lower section can also be used independently, coupled with a larger satellite replacing the top section.
The hexagonal module, a central column, towers, a supporting platform and a set of standard satellite interface spacers are assembled to suit each mission and combination of satellites. For this flight, a configuration called Flexi-3 weighing just 330 kg is being used.
This demonstration flight aims to prove the technical and financial viability of the rideshare service. ESA has collaborated with the European Union, which has partly funded this mission within the Horizon 2020 programme. This is part of the Contribution Agreement between ESA and the EU on space technology activities signed on 16 April 2019.
The animation shows the separation of the ESAIL mission which is a joint ESA LuxSpace project to extend the monitoring of maritime traffic beyond existing land-based tracking of Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) through the means of an array of microsatellites: SAT-AIS.
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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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
Professionals in the space sector don’t try to predict the future, but a dedicated team prepares for it. The Advanced Concepts Team (ACT) is ESA’s multidisciplinary team of future concepts researchers that explore solutions to potential problems in space many decades from now. Young Graduate Trainee Belinda Rich works on Advanced Materials for Space Habitats and discusses the ACT’s work in this area as well as in artificial intelligence, fundamental physics, neuroscience, energy systems, mission analysis and 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 http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
