ESA microwave engineers took apart an entire Galileo satellite to reassemble its navigation payload on a laboratory test bench to run it as though it were in orbit – available to investigate the lifetime performance of its component parts, recreate satellite anomalies, and test candidate technologies for Galileo’s future evolution. Located in the cleanroom environment…
Wind Satellite Shows Off
Before ESA’s Aeolus satellite is packed up and shipped to French Guiana for liftoff in August, media representatives had the chance to see this wind measuring Earth Explorer satellite standing proud in the cleanroom. Like all of the Earth Explorers, Aeolus was built to show how cutting-edge space technology can shed new light on the intricate workings…
Image: First Light From HyperScout Imager
This first-light image from the miniature HyperScout instrument aboard ESA’s newly launched GomX-4B CubeSat, shows the southern coast of Cuba. GomX-4B, launched with partner nanosatellite GomX-4A on 2 February, is a multi-technology demonstration mission that is testing intersatellite radio links and micro-propulsion technologies , as well as this hyperspectral imager, developed by cosine Research in…
Sentinel-3B Launch Preparations In Full Swing
With the Sentinel-3B satellite now at the Plesetsk launch site in Russia and liftoff set for 25 April, engineers are steaming ahead with the task of getting Europe’s next Copernicus satellite ready for its journey into orbit. After arriving at the launch site on 18 March, the satellite has been taken out of its transport container and…
World-First Firing Of Air-Breathing Electric Thruster
In a world first, an ESA-led team has built and fired an electric thruster to ingest scarce air molecules from the top of the atmosphere for propellant, opening the way to satellites flying in very low orbits for years on end. ESA’s GOCE gravity-mapper flew as low as 250 km for more than five years…
Swarm Trio Becomes A Quartet
With the aim of making the best possible use of existing satellites, ESA and Canada have made a deal that turns Swarm into a four-satellite mission to shed even more light on space weather and features such as the aurora borealis. In orbit since 2013, ESA’s three identical Swarm satellites have been returning a wealth…
The Size Of A Cereal Box – ESA’s First Satellite Of 2018
ESA’s first mission of the year was launched today: GomX-4B is the Agency’s most advanced technology-tester yet, featuring a hyperspectral camera and tiny thrusters to manoeuvre thousands of kilometres from its near-twin to try out their radio link. These CubeSats are built around standard 10×10 cm units by GomSpace in Denmark. As ‘six-unit’ CubeSats they…
Putting Everyday Computer Parts To Space Radiation Test
ESA’s next mission, the miniature GomX-4B, includes a piggyback experiment to test how well everyday commercial computer memories perform in the radiation-soaked environment of space. Ready to be launched from China this Friday, GomX-4B was built from six standard 10 cm CubeSat units by GomSpace in Denmark. Its main goal is to test radio links…
CubeSats For Hunting Secrets In Lunar Darkness
Imagine sending a spacecraft the size of an airline cabin bag to the moon – what would you have it do? ESA issued that challenge to European teams last year, and two winners have now been chosen. The Lunar Meteoroid Impact Orbiter, or Lumio for short, would circle over the far side of the moon…
Machine Intelligence On The ISS
Artificial intelligence already helping astronauts on the International Space Station is also providing a promising approach for solving crimes. In an era of security concerns across Europe, the smart use of police data is critical for uncovering leads. It can detect suspicious patterns, reconstruct scenes and highlight promising avenues of investigation. The origins of…
Image Of The Day: Rover Sunset
A rover crawls over rocky terrain on Spain’s Canary Island of Lanzarote, also known as the island of a thousand volcanoes. A drone follows it closely from the sky as the Sun sets. This crawler–flyer combination was part of a test campaign that brought together geology, high-tech survey equipment and space exploration. For five days…
Photo Of The Day: Liquid Propellant Tanks For NASA’s Powerful Space Launch System Rocket
NASA’s powerful Space Launch System rocket is a few steps closer to launching the Orion spacecraft now that its liquid propellant tanks are ready for testing. Assembled by the world’s largest robotic rocket welder at NASA’s Michoud facility in New Orleans, USA, the liquid oxygen tank seen here is ready for qualification, while the remaining three tanks…
Photo Of The Day: 3-D Printed Planetary Models
3-D-printed scale models of asteroids and other planetary bodies are used for real-life testing of spacecraft navigation and landing systems – martian moon Phobos seen in the foreground here. “The models are based on accurate digital elevation model data gathered from past space missions,” explains Olivier Dubois-Matra of ESA’s Guidance, Navigation and Control Section. “We then add…
Photo Of The Day: Rover Test In Darkness
ESA’s Rover Autonomy Testbed rover is being run in near darkness by Spain’s GMV company to simulate the low Sun angles experienced at the Moon’s poles. Permanently shadowed craters around the lunar north and south poles are tempting targets for future robotic missions, seeking water ice and other volatiles believed to be deep frozen in the soil.…
Sentinel-2B Launch Preparations Off to a Flying Start
Some of us may be easing ourselves gently into the New Year, but for the team readying Sentinel-2B for liftoff on 7 March it’s full steam ahead. On 5 January, the satellite was shipped from ESA’s site in the Netherlands – where it had been undergoing testing since June – and arrived safe and sound…
Virtual Milky Way
ESA’s Gaia is surveying stars in our Galaxy and local galactic neighbourhood in order to build the most precise 3D map of the Milky Way and answer questions about its structure, origin and evolution. Launched in 2013, Gaia has already generated its first catalogue of more than a billion stars – the largest all-sky survey…
Four Galileo Satellites Headed to Orbit on a Single Ariane 5 Rocket
This month, a single Ariane 5 rocket is set to propel four Galileo satellites into orbit for the navigation constellation’s first-ever quadruple launch. Mission controllers are training intensively for the complex space delivery. On 17 November, an Ariane 5 will use a new payload dispenser to release four identical satellites into orbit in one go.…
CubeSat Times Two
ESA has signed a contract for its biggest small nanosatellite yet: GomX-4B will be a ‘6-unit’ CubeSat, intended to demonstrate miniaturised technologies, preparing the way for future operational nanosatellite constellations. GomX-4B is double the size of ESA’s first technology CubeSat, GomX-3, which was released from the International Space Station last year. “ESA regards CubeSats, based on…
Moon and Mars on a Plane
Who wouldn’t want to run an experiment in lunar or martian gravity? ESA is offering European researchers the chance to test their theories on aircraft flights that offer 20 seconds of reduced gravity. “Partial-gravity flights are rare and offer a unique opportunity to conduct research in conditions that have only been reproduced a handful of times,”…
Vega Releases Five Satellites in Complex Mission
Arianespace launched a Vega rocket on a complex mission early this morning that demonstrated the flexibility of its upper stage and multisatellite carrier. In its first six flights, Vega delivered a wide range of satellites into very different orbits, demonstrating its flexibility. Liftoff of the seventh mission from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana came…
One Billion Stars in 3-D: Gaia’s Billion-Star Map Hints at Treasures to Come
The first catalogue of more than a billion stars from ESA’s Gaia satellite was published today – the largest all-sky survey of celestial objects to date. On its way to assembling the most detailed 3-D map ever made of our Milky Way galaxy, Gaia has pinned down the precise position on the sky and the…
How to Dock CubeSats
The miniature satellites known as CubeSats already play a variety of roles in space. In future they could also serve as the building blocks of other, larger missions by being docked together in orbit. CubeSats are nanosatellites of standardised dimensions based on multiple 10-cm-sided cubes, which ESA is employing for both educational and technology-demonstration purposes.…
Spotlight on Schiaparelli’s Landing Site
Schiaparelli, the Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module of the joint ESA/Roscosmos ExoMars 2016 mission, will target the Meridiani Planum region for its October landing, as seen in this mosaic created from Mars Express images. The landing ellipse, measuring 100 x 15 km, is located close to the equator, in the southern highlands of Mars.…
Aladin Wind Probe Ready for Aeolus
It has been years in the making, but one of the trickiest pieces of space technology ever developed is finally ready to join its satellite for launch by the end of next year. With this milestone, we are another step closer to a better understanding of Earth’s winds. Carrying pioneering lasers, Aeolus will be the…
Satellite to Test Universality of Freefall
France’s Microscope satellite, carrying a set of ESA high-tech thrusters, lifted off last night from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, taking advantage of the same Soyuz launch that took the EU’s Sentinel-1B into orbit. Microscope will test a fundamental principle of physics: the way objects fall under gravity is independent of their mass and…