ABOUT ESA Space for Europe → the EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY
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→ ALL ABOUT ESA Space for Europe → THE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY From the beginnings of the ‘space age’, Europe has been actively involved in spaceflight. Today it launches satellites for Earth observation, navigation, telecommunications and astronomy, sends probes to the far reaches of the Solar System, and cooperates in the human exploration of space. Space is a key asset for Europe, providing essential information needed by decision-makers to respond to global challenges. Space provides indispensable technologies and services, and increases our understanding of our planet and the Universe. Since 1975, the European Space Agency (ESA) has been shaping the development of this space capability. By pooling the resources of over 20 Member States, ESA undertakes programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country, developing the launchers, spacecraft and ground facilities needed to keep Europe at the forefront of global space activities. ← Cover: ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst during a spacewalk from the International Space Station in 2014 (NASA/ESA) CONTENTS → SPACE TO DISCOVER ......................................... 2 → SPACE FOR EARTH ............................................. 4 → SPACE TO LOCATE .............................................. 6 → SPACE TO COMMUNICATE ......................... 7 → SPACE TO INNOVATE .................................. 8 → ACCESS TO SPACE ....................................... 9 → SPACE FOR LIFE ........................................ 10 The Philae lander took a ‘selfie’of the Rosetta spacecraft at Comet 67P/Churyumov– Gerasimenko from a distance of about 16 km on 7 October 2014 (ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA) science & robotic exploration → SPACE TO DISCOVER Over the past 40 years, Europe has marked a series of firsts in the exploration of the Solar System and of our Universe: from an encounter with Comet Halley in 1986, parachuting a probe on to Saturn’s moon Titan in 2005 and landing on a comet in 2014, to studying our Sun in unprecedented detail and photographing the farthest galaxies. To continue such successful achievements, ExoMars is a cooperation of ESA and ESA is now looking ahead to the next Roscosmos to continue the exploration of the 20 years with its Cosmic Vision programme. Mars. One of its most ambitious scientific This is a way of building on a solid past, and goals is to establish whether life ever existed, working today to overcome the scientific, or is still active on Mars today. This is one of intellectual and technological challenges the outstanding questions of our time, and a of tomorrow. Cosmic Vision is a starting prerequisite to prepare for the future human point for crucial studies in space science, to exploration of the Red Planet. discover if other worlds exist and how life and the Universe evolved from the Big Bang In 2022, JUICE will fly to Jupiter, the largest to now. planet in the Solar System. JUICE will focus on its three largest icy moons, Europa, Several fundamental themes lie at the core Ganymede, and Callisto, to assess the of the Cosmic Vision programme: potential habitability of their hidden deep – the conditions for planetary formation and water oceans. the emergence of life; – how the Solar System works; MONITORING THE STORMY SUN – the fundamental physical laws of the Universe; Solar exploration has always played a key – the origins of the Universe and what it is role in ESA’s space science programme and made of. satellites built in Europe have a long and highly successful tradition in monitoring our EXPLORING OTHER PLANETS star and exploring its environment. Scientists believe that our Solar System Today, many missions study the Sun, our formed about 4600 million years ago. Since source of heat and energy that allows life to then, its planets and moons have all evolved form and evolve on Earth. The joint ESA/NASA in very different ways. To understand how Ulysses has provided us with the first-ever the Solar System works and why Earth is map of the heliosphere from the Sun’s equator unique, ESA has launched a series of highly to its poles. ESA’s four Cluster satellites are successful science missions. investigating the interaction between Earth’s magnetosphere and the solar wind. Mars Express has found water on Mars and is mapping its surface. Venus Express is SOHO, orbiting at a special point in space peering into the dense Venusian atmosphere on the sunward side of Earth, sends images to study the dramatic greenhouse effect. of solar explosions and probes the hidden ESA’s Huygens has landed on Titan, a moon of interior of the Sun. Especially remarkable are Saturn, to study its chemistry and mineralogy. its observations of coronal mass ejections, Rosetta rendezvoused and landed on in which the Sun sends huge puffs of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and electrified gas out into the Solar System. is now helping scientists understand if comets brought water and life to Earth. The Satellites and power and communications BepiColombo mission will explore Mercury, systems on the ground are vulnerable to the closest planet to the Sun, to learn how this ‘space weather’, and their engineers planets near stars form and evolve. can now be alerted in good time. ↖ In November 2014, ESA's Rosetta mission rendezvoused and landed on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko ↖ Sunshield test unit on James Webb Space Telescope unfurled for the first time (NASA) ← Solar Orbiter will study our star, the Sun, and the solar wind at close range 2 stars and galaxies are born. A new generation In 2017, Solar Orbiter will fly to within of telescopes, such as the James Webb Space 42 million km of the Sun, even closer than Telescope, will investigate supernovas, black Mercury, to study our star and the solar holes and quasars. They will provide scientists wind at close range. with insight into the birth and evolution of planetary systems. LOOKING DEEP INTO THE UNIVERSE The Euclid mission will try to answer Space-based telescopes, such as Hubble one of the biggest questions in modern and ESA’s XMM-Newton and Integral, are cosmology: why is the Universe expanding studying the Universe beyond the visible at an accelerating rate, rather than slowing light, observing hot places around black holes down due to the gravitational attraction of and exploded stars and monitoring celestial all the matter in it? Studying galaxies up to objects with extreme gravity, density and 10 billion light years away, Euclid will plot the temperature. Planck and Herschel are looking evolution of the Universe’s structure over deeper into space to study the birth of the three-quarters of its history. Universe and to solve the mystery of how → SUN Name Launch Mission ESRO-2 1968 Cosmic and X-radiation from the Sun ISEE-B 1977 International Sun-Earth Explorer → ExoMars Ulysses 1990 First spacecraft to overfly the Sun’s poles mission (ESA/AOES) SOHO 1995 Studying the Sun’s core, outer corona and solar wind → SOLAR SYSTEM AND SUN–EARTH INTERACTIONS Cluster & Double 2000 Interaction of the solar wind and Star (with China) 2003/2004 Earth’s magnetosphere Name Launch Mission Solar Orbiter 2017 Study of the Sun from close range Aurora 1968 Polar frontiers of the Van Allen radiation belt → ASTRONOMY AND THE EXOTIC UNIVERSE HEOS-1 1968 Interplanetary magnetic fields Boreas 1969 Polar frontiers of the Van Allen TD-1A 1972 Measuring ultraviolet radiation from radiation belt 15 000 stars HEOS-2 1972 Interplanetary magnetic fields Cos-B 1975 Gamma-ray studies ESRO-4 1972 Upper atmosphere temperature IUE 1978 Ultraviolet observations of 10 000 variations celestial objects GEOS-1 1977 Plasma particles and waves in Exosat 1983 X-ray emissions of astronomical Earth’s magnetic field phenomena GEOS-2 1978 Movement in Earth’s upper Hipparcos 1989 Position measurements of 120 000 stars atmosphere Hubble Space 1990 Orbiting astronomical observatory Giotto 1985 Fly-past of Comet Halley and Telescope Comet Grigg‒Skjellerup ISO 1995 Exploring the infrared Universe Cassini‒Huygens 1997 Exploring Saturn’s system and descending onto its largest moon XMM-Newton 1999 The most sensitive X-ray observatory Titan to date Mars Express 2003 Studying the atmosphere, Integral 2002 Observing the most energetic surface and subsurface of the phenomena in gamma rays Red Planet Herschel 2009 Infrared emissions from stars and SMART-1 2003 Testing solar-electric propulsion galaxies and studying the Moon’s surface Planck 2009 Studying the Cosmic Microwave Huygens 2004 Probing the atmosphere and Background radiation surface of Titan Gaia 2013 Precision mapping of one billion stars Rosetta 2004 Orbiter of Comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko and LISA Pathfinder 2015 Technology test for LISA mission Philae lander Cheops 2017 Studying exoplanets around nearby Venus Express 2005 Exploring Venus and its bright stars atmosphere JWST 2018 Second-generation space telescope BepiColombo 2016 Exploring the planet Mercury Euclid 2020 Probing dark matter, dark energy and ExoMars 2016 Mars orbiter and lander the expanding Universe ExoMars 2018 Mars rover and surface platform Plato 2024 Studying extrasolar planetary systems JUICE 2022 Characterising conditions of ocean- Athena 2028 X-ray astronomy bearing moons around Jupiter 3 earth observation → SPACE FOR EARTH What is happening to our planet? Satellites are unique in their ability to constantly monitor the entire Earth: they can provide crucial information about our ever-changing planet. From space, we monitor many natural and man-made events, from floods and forest fires, to changes in ice cover, rising sea levels and oil slicks. ESA’s Earth observation satellites environmental and civil security data and have given Europe a leading role in information for its citizens. understanding the global environment, increasing our knowledge about Earth’s The success of Copernicus is being achieved weather and climate change. Since the largely through ESA’s well-engineered 1970s, the Meteosat series of weather Space Component to provide essential satellites has provided a wealth of data satellite data according to European policy for the meteorology community.