Tag Archives: ESA

Meet ESA, the space agency for Europe

You, together with your 500 million fellow citizens from ESA's 20 European member nations, are the collective owners of one of the world's leading space agencies. The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organisation, a cooperative coming together of its Member States in their national interest and common good. This new video offers a quick introduction: Europe, meet ESA.

ESA’s future science and technology

Editor’s note: These brief extracts are paraphrased from live webcast and may not be fully correct.

Future ISS Perspectives: ‘The ISS and ESA’s future Science and Technology’
             Michael Longair, ESA HISPAC Chair

Download the full presentation slides: The ISS and ESA’s Future Science and Technology

  • There is a fine line between science, applied science and technology in ESA activities.
  • HISPAC (High-level Science Policy Advisory Committee) was set up to think about interdisciplinary  science and technology without considering financial or political restraints.
  • The HISPAC team is made up of star scientists.
  • ESA reorganised the structure of its science advisory.
  • In preparation for the ESA ministerial council meeting HISPAC was asked to prepare long-term grand science themes across all ESA programmes.
  • The director general himself has not seen these themes:
  • 1. Cosmic climate: Earth observation and studying exo-planets.
  • 2. Understanding gravity: gravity influences everything
  • 3. Life in the universe
  • 4. Cosmic magnetism and high energy particles in space.
  • We need to look at space research horizontally across broad scientific themes.

ESA’s Elips programme

Editor’s note: These brief extracts are paraphrased from live webcast and may not be fully correct.

European ISS Research Strategy

Christer Fuglesang, Head of the Science and Application Division, ESA

Download the full presentation slides: European ISS Research Strategy

ESA will continue its research programme for ISS called Elips.

    • ESA's assets are the Columbus laboratory on ISS, the ATV transport vehicle, dedicated science facilities and the Columbus Control Centre with 9 support centres.
    • Elips started in 2002 and involves ground-based facilities to improve the efficiency of space research.
    • Elips supports industrial applications based on recommendations from users and scientists.
    • Key research topics of Elips include:
  1. Weightlessness: it is a challenge but offers an opportunity to study related conditions on Earth.
  2. Biology: research in the stressful environment on molecular level gives benefits back home. An example is the ROALD experiment recently featured in the news.
  3. Astrobiology: we found that some fungi survive in space. The cosmetic industry is interested in this experiment to create make-up with better protective properties. You never know where an industrial application will originate from.
  4. Material sciences: looking at micro-structures in alloys.
  5. Physics of fluids and combustion: creating more stable foams and complex fluids.
  6. Fundamental physics: looking at constants in nature. A possible future project is optical clocks.
  7. ESA supplies the hardware for projects but funding must come from member states.