European Space Agency
The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organization of 22 member states dedicated to the exploration of space. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, ESA has a worldwide staff of about 2,200
2,709 topics in this forum
-
- 0 replies
- 288 views
Video: 00:13:21 Satellites in orbit underpin our modern lives. They are used in many areas and disciplines, including space science, Earth observation, meteorology, climate research, telecommunication, navigation and human space exploration. However, as space activities have increased, a new and unexpected hazard has started to emerge: space debris. If space debris – uncontrolled human-made objects such as spent upper stages of rockets and pieces of satellites – hits a satellite, it could cause serious damage, which can even end a mission (as has happened in the past). If debris crashes on Earth’s surface, it could potentially hit populated areas. In this second v…
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 257 views
Twenty-five years ago, Copernicus set out to transform the way we see our planet. Now, well established as the largest environmental monitoring programme in the world, it returns a whopping 16 terabytes of high-quality data every single day. To mark a quarter-century of European success in space, we look back at a selection of 25 Copernicus highlights. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 301 views
Image: First Mars livestream: the movie View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 259 views
Video: 00:12:38 Innovation is triggered by many drivers. One of these is the constant need for ESA to develop innovative solutions, such as unique spacecraft technologies. In this first video, Nicolas recalls how he and his team had to think outside the box to find a solution for ESA to communicate with Ulysses. The spacecraft was flying around the north pole of the Sun, which is much farther in deep space than satellites had been launched up to that point. The success of this solution motivated the decision to build ESA’s first deep-space communications antennas in New Norcia, in Australia, thus enabling many ESA scientific firsts in deep-space exploration. The a…
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 437 views
View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 296 views
Week in images: 29 May - 02 June 2023 Discover our week through the lens View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 264 views
The food we eat determines how we feel, and nothing beats a good fry-up, although in moderation of course. As we prepare for missions to the Moon and on to Mars, astronauts will be happy to hear from researchers that one staple comfort food is not out of reach, even in space: fries. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 349 views
View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 377 views
Image: A delicate tracery of dust and bright star clusters threads across this image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The bright tendrils of gas and stars belong to the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068, whose bright central bar is visible in the upper left of this image. NGC 5068 lies around 17 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. This portrait of NGC 5068 is part of a campaign to create an astronomical treasure trove, a repository of observations of star formation in nearby galaxies. Previous gems from this collection can be seen here and here. These observations are particularly valuable to astronomers for two reasons. The first is…
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 284 views
A new mosaic of Mars marks 20 years since the launch of ESA's Mars Express, and reveals the planet’s colour and composition in spectacular detail. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 295 views
Image: 20 years and counting: Mars Express in numbers View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 253 views
Image: From the Chugach Mountains on the right to the Cook Inlet on the left, this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image features the varied landscape surrounding Anchorage, the largest and most populous city in the state of Alaska in the United States. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 317 views
Image: Trial by sound View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 2.2k views
Join us live to follow the ‘Ready for the Moon’ event, a high-level political conference on the challenges and ambitions for Europe's space sector. ESA Web TV will broadcast on its Channel Two the conference, including the media briefing on 2 June starting at 14:00 CEST (13:00 BST). View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 483 views
Earth observation has been essential in identifying and monitoring climate change. Satellite data form the baseline for effective European mitigation and adaptation strategies to support the Green Transition, the European Union to reach its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, as well as its Green Deal. ESA has now concluded its initial phase of a pilot initiative in Austria that demonstrates the untapped potential of space technologies by providing actionable Earth observation information to accelerate the Green Transition for both society and the economy. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 341 views
The main procurements batch of Galileo Second Generation initiated last summer has been finalised, leaving the system ready for its In Orbit Validation development phase. Today, following the opening session of the European Navigation Conference (ENC), ESA Director of Navigation Javier Benedicto invited Thales Alenia Space (Italy), Airbus Defence and Space (Germany) and Thales Six GTS (France) to sign the respective contracts commencing System Engineering Support for the next generation of Europe’s navigation satellite system. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 501 views
Everything burns. Given the right environment, all matter can burn by adding oxygen, but finding the right mix and generating enough heat makes some materials combust more easily than others. Researchers interested in knowing more about a type of fire called discrete burning used ESA’s microgravity experiment facilities to investigate. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 258 views
For one hour on Friday 2 June, join ESA on YouTube for a space first as live images stream down direct from Mars – this will be the closest you can get to a live view from the Red Planet. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 421 views
Registration is now open for ESA’s first-ever Earth Observation Commercialisation Forum. Taking place at ESA Headquarters in Paris from 30 to 31 October 2023, investors, institutions, entrepreneurs and companies of any size from the Earth observation sector will now be able to come together and discuss the commercial potential and challenges of Earth observation, together with the technical, industrial and risk-capital support available to European companies. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 464 views
Interaction between moon’s plumes and Saturn’s ring system explored with WebbA water vapour plume from Saturn’s moon Enceladus spanning more than 9600 kilometres — long enough to stretch across the Eurasian continent from Ireland to Japan — has been detected by researchers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Not only is this the first time such water ejection has been seen over such an expansive distance, but Webb is also giving scientists a direct look, for the first time, at how this emission feeds the water supply for the entire system of Saturn and its rings. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 242 views
Flight controllers at ESA’s mission control centre in Germany have been busy this week, working with instrument teams on the final deployments to prepare ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) for exploring Jupiter. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 251 views
Week in images: 22-26 May 2023 Discover our week through the lens View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 454 views
Image: This radar image from Copernicus Sentinel-1 shows the city of São Paulo and part of the homonymous state in southeast Brazil. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 242 views
Video: 00:02:10 Detect, fetch and collect. A seemingly easy task is being tested to find the best strategy to collect samples on the martian surface, some 290 000 km away from home. Testing technologies for Mars exploration is part of the daily job of Laura Bielenberg, an ESA young graduate trainee for the Mars Sample Return campaign. The test takes place at the rock-strewn recreation of the Red Planet at ESA’s ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. The nickname of this test site is the ‘Mars Yard’ and is part of the Planetary Robotics Laboratory. The tube is a replica of the sample caches that NASA’s Perseverance rover is leaving on Mars hermetical…
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 308 views
Earth’s declining ice is without a doubt one of the clearest signs of climate change. A new high-resolution sea-ice concentration data record has just been released as part of ESA’s Climate Change Initiative – providing new insights of sea ice concentration across the globe. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency,