European Space Agency

Image: Jupiter showcases aurorae, hazes (NIRCam widefield view) View the full article

A new map of Mars is changing the way we think about the planet’s watery past, and showing where we should land in the future. View the full article

Week in images: 15-19 August 2022 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Image: The 12-member crew of Concordia research station woke up to a most welcome sight in early August: sunrise, after four months of Antarctic darkness. The return of the sun is a major milestone for the isolated and confined crew; they are three-quarters of the way through their Antarctic residency and will soon prepare to welcome the summer influx of researchers at the base. ESA-sponsored medical doctor Hannes Hagson snapped this picture from the Station’s front door in early on 5 August. “Time here has the strange quality of both passing really quickly and very slowly at the same time,” he shared, “and in just two days we expect the return of the sun to grace us here at 75 degrees south! The returning daylight certainly has us all cheered up and starting to sense the beginning of the final part of this adventure.” The winter months in Antarctica are tough, with temperatures dropping below −80C under a pitch black sky. To combat winter blues, the crew keep busy, celebrating mid-winter (and the half-way point in their Antarctic stay) in June with their own traditions and taking part in the Antarctic Winter Games in July. Stations with a winter crew across Antarctica participate in a series of physical challenges and friendly competition. With August comes not only sunlight, but production work for the Antarctic Film Festival, with each base submitting an original piece. Check out last year’s winning entry from Concordia in the Open category. Of course, it’s not all fun and games. Hannes has been busy with biomedical research, as he continues to gather data from crew urine, stool and blood samples, as well as cognitive and psychological measures through questionnaires to study the effects of isolated, confined and extreme environments on the human body. In October the crew will begin to prepare the base for the summer campaign. Rooms and tents must be prepared for the 40 or so incoming researchers. Follow Hannes along on this adventure on the Concordia blog. View the full article

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ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen of Denmark is set to return to the International Space Station for his first long-duration Station mission. With only one year left before his launch in mid-2023, a name for the mission has been chosen: Huginn. View the full article

Image: A special Moon snap View the full article

See all 22 artworks submitted for the Art for Artemis project on display at the Waterfront in Bremen, Germany. The formal opening of the exhibition is on 22 August at 17:00 CEST with ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter and will be open to the public throughout the Artemis I mission to the Moon and back. View the full article

Video: 00:02:50 The series of heatwaves we are currently experiencing in western Europe is a clear sign of human-induced global warming. ESA’s Clement Albergel explains how we monitor these events using satellites such as the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission and puts them in the context of the long-term climate data record generated via ESA’s Climate Change Initiative. View the full article

Image: Water levels on the Rhine River have continued to drop owing to soaring temperatures and lack of rainfall - preventing many vessels from navigating through the river's waters at full capacity. These Copernicus Sentinel-2 images show the stark difference between August 2021 and August 2022. View the full article

Europe’s first commercial satellite capable of being completely reprogrammed while in space is now in commercial use. View the full article

Week in images: 08-12 August 2022 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Video: 00:03:26 ESA and NASA are working hand in hand before the first Artemis mission to the Moon through a series of joint mission simulations. Teams based at the Erasmus Support Facility (ESF) at ESA’s ESTEC facility in The Netherlands, the German Space Operations Centre at ESA’s Columbus Control Centre in Oberphfaffenhofen and NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston are combining their expertise in a series of exercises to ensure a successful launch. When it comes to simulations, it’s important that not everything goes perfectly right as it recreates - in real time - different stages of the mission to monitor the spacecraft’s position, propulsion, power, avionics and thermal properties. The European team, consisting of 40 people from ESA and industry, apply their considerable expertise from working on the European Service Module (ESM) to any unexpected problems. The ESM will provide power for the Orion spacecraft and propel it along its orbit to the Moon. The film includes soundbites from ESA Mission Integration & Performance Engineer: Gullaume Poinnier, ESA Erasmus Support Facility Manager: Kevin Pasay, ESA System Engineer; Oliver Mongrard and ESA ESM Engineer, Francois Trinquard. Please find additional footage and interviews on ESM - https://www.esa.int/esatv/Videos/2021/10/European_Service_Module_B-Rolls and https://www.esa.int/esatv/Videos/2021/10/A_European_push_to_the_Moon View the full article

We all wish that we could sometimes see into the future. Now, thanks to the very latest data from ESA’s star mapping Gaia mission, astronomers can do just that for the Sun. By accurately identifying stars of similar mass and composition, they can see how our Sun is going to evolve in the future. And this work extends far beyond a little astrophysical clairvoyance. View the full article

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Every 60 seconds the equivalent of a lorry-load of plastic enters the global ocean. Where does it end up? Right now, researchers simply don’t know. But in a bid to help find out, an ESA-led project developed floating transmitters whose passage can be tracked over time, helping in turn to guide a sophisticated software model of marine plastic litter accumulation. View the full article

Week in images: 01-05 August 2022 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Image: Pure gold pin for space testing View the full article

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti was launched to the International Space Station on 27 April as a part of Crew-4 for her second mission, Minerva. One hundred days in, mission Minerva is still going strong. From completing cutting-edge research in the world’s only orbiting laboratory to sharing daily life on the Space Station via TikTok, it’s all in a day’s work for an ESA astronaut. View the full article

Video: 00:03:00 ESA and NASA’s Artemis I spacecraft is cleared for launch after a series of final tests at the US Kennedy Space Center in Florida. ESA’s European Service Module (ESM) will provide electrical power and propel the uncrewed Orion capsule in an extended orbit around the Moon, setting the scene for future crewed missions. ESA has already delivered its second ESM for Artemis II and is currently building its third ESM. Eventually, Artemis III will return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in 50 years with the ESM supplying their life support in the form of water, food and oxygen. ESA is also making a major contribution to the Gateway including refueling and habitation modules and enhanced lunar communications. The Gateway will act as a permanently crewed space station in orbit around the Moon, a thousand times further away than the International Space Station from Earth, ushering in a new era of lunar exploration. The film includes soundbites from ESA’s Director of Exploration, David Parker, and ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen. View the full article

On 23 December 2021, Copernicus Sentinel-1B experienced an anomaly related to the instrument electronics power supply provided by the satellite platform, leaving it unable to deliver radar data. Since then spacecraft operators and engineers have been working tirelessly to rectify the issue. Unfortunately, despite all concerted efforts, ESA and the European Commission announce that it is the end of the mission for Sentinel-1B. Copernicus Sentinel-1A remains fully operational and plans are in force to launch Sentinel-1C as soon as possible. View the full article

The Cartwheel Galaxy, a rare ring galaxy once shrouded in dust and mystery, has been unveiled by the imaging capabilities of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The galaxy, which formed as a result of a collision between a large spiral galaxy and another smaller galaxy, not only retained a lot of its spiral character, but has also experienced massive changes throughout its structure. Webb’s high-precision instruments resolved individual stars and star-forming regions within the Cartwheel, and revealed the behaviour of the black hole within its galactic centre. These new details provide a renewed understanding of a galaxy in the midst of a slow transformation. View the full article

The specially trained woolly astronaut, Shaun the Sheep, has been assigned a seat on the Artemis I mission to the Moon. Shaun’s assignment was announced by ESA’s Director for Human and Robotic Exploration Dr David Parker. View the full article

Utah’s Great Salt Lake dropped to its lowest recorded water level last month as a megadrought persists across the US southwest, forcing the fast-growing city to curb its water use. From space, satellite images show how water levels have fallen from 1985 to 2022 – exposing large expanses of lakebed. View the full article

Week in images: 25-29 July 2022 Discover our week through the lens View the full article