Posted on Friday 19 July 2024 by Laura
(English) Exciting developments are unfolding in Cologne, Germany, where ESA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) are establishing a worldwide unique lunar analogue facility – LUNA. This week, the first lunar sandbag tapping —opening the bags to distribute the sand— marked an important step in preparing the hall for future Moon mission testing.
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Posted on Thursday 15 June 2023 by Laura
(English) Have you ever wondered how researchers test space equipment or conduct experiments in low gravity conditions before going to space? One way to achieve this is through parabolic flights, which offer short periods of reduced gravity. These flights started as a way to train astronauts, but now are mainly used for scientific experiments and testing new technologies.
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Posted on Wednesday 15 June 2022 by Ally
(English) Filamentous fungi may not be the first thing most people think of when it comes to mining, but they could be the answer to construction on the Moon. João Figueira, a Master’s student with the University of Porto, Portugal, has been working with ESA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Aerospace Medicine, to uncover how a unique biomining method could mould Europe’s next steps in space.
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Posted on Tuesday 21 December 2021 by Laura
(English) Humankind's ambition to explore our steady orbital companion, the Moon, sustainably is accelerating around the globe. Many agencies are preparing for or already operating new robotic and human missions to the Moon, most prominently NASA’s Artemis programme that will fly astronauts to the Moon again about 50 years after Apollo. All international partners, including the European Space Agency (ESA), must prepare for upcoming lunar missions and a facility planned next to ESA's European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany, will recreate Moon conditions on Earth like never before.
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Posted on Wednesday 15 September 2021 by Ally
(English) A piece of the Moon, escorted by astronaut to ESA’s European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany, will soon serve as a public symbol of Europe’s next off-Earth adventure.
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Posted on Thursday 12 August 2021 by Laura
(English) “Heat for one minute. Then, remove from the microwave and leave to rest before constructing your lunar habitat.” This, or something similar, could be part of an astronaut’s instructions in the future, as microwaves are used to process lunar regolith on the Moon.
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Posted on Thursday 20 May 2021 by Laura
(English) At ESA's European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany, the Spaceship EAC initiative brings a team of young professionals and researchers together to advance the future of human and robotic space exploration. It is a lofty challenge that is gathering momentum, with new Spaceship sites in Toulouse, France and the UK.
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Posted on Tuesday 4 May 2021 by Laura
(English) As humans strive to return to the lunar surface and travel even farther into space, new solutions are needed to provide astronauts with ongoing access to oxygen, food and water. The team at Spaceship EAC at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, is researching critical subsystems that could support water recycling, energy storage and In-situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) in space.
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