ESA Highlights 2016 Clara Cruz Niggebrugge clara.cruz.niggebrugge@esa.int

ESA activities highlights 2016 Rosetta ExoMars Earth Observation Copernicus Navigation - Galileo Telecommunication satellites Astronauts “Moon village” long-term plan

Rosetta & comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Still producing valuable information and close up photographs: new photo gallery online! Mission extended from December 2015 to September 2016 !!! Rosetta arrived at Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 6 August 2014, and after an initial survey and selection of a landing site, Philae was delivered to the surface on 12 November. Artist impression of landing Philae Photo of comet 67P on 31 December 2015 More information: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta

November 2015: ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has made the first in situ detection of oxygen molecules outgassing from a comet, a surprising observation that suggests they were incorporated into the comet during its formation.

67-P 16 December 2015 OSIRIS wide-angle camera image taken on 16 December 2015, when Rosetta was 111.9 km from the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The scale is 10.96 m/pixel.

67-P 20 December 2015 Following perihelion and a far excursion, we are now back at closer distances

Rosetta: looking at the end Likely scenario: Rosetta to fly in highly elliptical orbits – perhaps as low as 1 km – in August, before moving out to a more distant point for a final approach that will set Rosetta on a slow collision course with the comet on 30 September 2016. Main issues to solve meanwhile Reduced solar power As the comet recedes from the Sun, the amount of sunlight falling on Rosetta’s solar panels will drop significantly. Spacecraft in space for over 12 years,: degradation of the solar arrays expected to further reduce the available power. Solar conjunction By September-October 2016, Rosetta and the comet will appear very close to the Sun as seen from the Earth, making the uplinking of operational commands and the downlinking of scientific data extremely challenging. On 1 October 2016, the spacecraft will enter a period of conjunction, i.e. it will be behind the Sun as seen from Earth. Reduced data rates far from Earth The increased distance from Earth and apparent proximity to the Sun lead to a significant drop in data rates. These low data rates, combined with reduced power availability, will lead to difficulties starting in August 2016: power-sharing issues and a much-reduced science data download capacity.

ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli mission ExoMars an ESA mission in partnership with Roscosmos ESA provides the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and the Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module (EDM) in 2016, and the carrier and rover in 2018. Roscosmos responsible for the 2018 descent module and surface platform, and provides launchers for both missions. The decent of the Schiaparelli module

2016 Exomars mission: a two components spacecraft Schiaparelli A descent and landing demonstrator module to land in October 2016 Aim to provide Europe with the technology for controlled landing on the surface of Mars Trace Gas Orbiter A scientific payload with instruments from Russia and Europe The Orbiter will perform detailed, remote observations of the Martian atmosphere, searching for evidence of gases of possible biological importance, such as methane and its degradation products.

ESA ExoMars 2016 mission timeline

Ready for launch! 14 March 2016 http://www.esa.int/exomars

Education Exomars Paxi animations Planet Mars Search for life on Mars Resources: Idea is to link already available resources from ESEROs to the mission

Earth Observation Each Sentinel mission is based on a constellation of two satellites to fulfill revisit and coverage requirements, providing robust datasets for Copernicus Services. Copernicus services will provide essential information for six main domains: ocean, land and atmosphere monitoring, emergency response, security and climate change. http://esamultimedia.esa.int/multimedia/publications/sentinels-family/

Launches in 2016 1st Quarter 2016 Launch Sentinel 3A: Carrying a suite of state-of-the-art instruments, Sentinel-3A is set to provide an unprecedented step forward in the Copernicus marine, land, atmosphere and climate change services. Monitoring seawater quality and pollution, this satellite will also help to map the topography and extent of ice, and to monitor the height of lake and river water. Over land, its uses include detecting fires and mapping. Carries an instrument package including a radar altimeter, an infrared radiometer and an imaging spectrometer to monitor oceans and land.

Launches in 2016 1st/2nd Quarter 2016 Launch Sentinel 5 Precursor: Carrying a suite of state-of-the-art instruments, Sentinel-5P is set to be the first satellite dedicated to providing information about the atmosphere. Main payload: Tropomi Tropomi stands for TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (spectrometer). Satellite instrument measuring the lowest part of our atmosphere (troposphere). Tropomi measures direct sunlight and compares it to light reflected by the atmosphere.

What to expect? Operational missions: Sentinel 1 Sentinel-1A has been in orbit since 3 April 2014 as a polar-orbiting, Sun-synchronous at an altitude of 693 km, for monitoring sea ice, oil spills, marine winds & waves, land-use change, land deformation among others, and to respond to emergencies such as floods and earthquakes Tianjin, China Stockholm, Sweden

Focus on services Sentinel-1A image associated with a Canadian Ice Service map represent a daily charting of Davis Strait, providing ice concentration and stage of development information.

Europe’s mosaic by Sentinel 1A

Sentinel 2 Sentinel-2A has been in orbit since 23 June 2015 as a polar-orbiting, high-resolution satellite for land monitoring, providing imagery of vegetation, soil and water cover, inland waterways and coastal areas.  Cairo, Egypt Berlin, Germany

Berlin, Germany Summer, Netherlands Northern Italy

Learn EO!

Galileo, European navigation system Galileo will provide a highly accurate, guaranteed global positioning service under civilian control. When completed it will be a network of more than 30 satellites (24 operational and 6 active spares) in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at an altitude of 23,222 kilometers. In 2016 New sets of satellites to be launched More than one third of the satellites will be in space Initial Galileo operations will start at the end 2016 Fully operational in 2020 More information: http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/Navigation/BR-galileo_2014.pdf http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Navigation

Navigation in ESA kids

Communication satellites EDRS The European Data Relay System (EDRS) is the most sophisticated laser communication network ever designed. EDRS will help Earth-observing satellites to transmit large quantities of potentially life-saving data down to Europe in near-real time. EDRS system gathers low-orbiting satellites’ information at far higher data rates than traditional radio frequency beams.  More information: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Telecommunications_Integrated_Applications/EDRS

Video is now – laser communication Video available at: http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2015/12/The_Future_is_Now_Lasers

Telecommunication and Integrated Applications Satellites SGEO (Small geostacionary satellite) For TV broadcasting to multimedia applications, internet access and mobile or fixed services in a wide range of frequency bands. The platform is developed by OHB System (DE) under ESA’s Advanced Research in Telecommunication Systems (ARTES) programme. The SmallGEO platform’s first mission will be the Hispasat AG1 satellite under a public–private partnership with operator Hispasat (ES). More information: https://artes.esa.int/sgeo

ESA astronaut missions in 2016 Thomas Pesquet French Launch to the ISS in November 2016 Tim Peake Onboard the ISS until June 2016 With both missions the educational focus from ESA is on (space) careers

Two possible In-flight calls with Tim Peake (led by ESA Education) One for primary school teachers : UK, Portugal and Poland One for secondary school teachers: Nordic Region (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland , Ireland and Czech Republic Space / STEM Careers project to be done in advance by the ESEROs

The future? “We should look to the future beyond the International Space Station,” “We should look for a smaller spacecraft in low-Earth orbit for microgravity research and I propose a Moon village on the far side of the Moon.” Johann-Dietrich Woerner, ESA Director General “A Moon village shouldn’t just mean some houses, a church and a town hall, this Moon village should mean partners from all over the world contributing to this community with robotic and astronaut missions and support communication satellites.”

Abandoned by man for 43 years, it remains the only planet attainable by human missions with current technology, but remains poorly understood. “In our genes there is something beyond just practical applications, we like to discover, to pioneer – this is humankind and this is what brings us into the future.”

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