In July 2017, a giant iceberg, named A-68, snapped off Antarctica’s Larsen-C ice shelf and began an epic journey across the Southern Ocean. Three and a half years later, the main part of iceberg, A-68A, drifted worryingly close to South Georgia. Concerns were that the berg would run aground in the shallow waters offshore. This would not only cause damage to the seafloor ecosystem but also make it difficult for island wildlife, such as penguins, to make their way to the sea to feed. Using measurements from satellites, scientists have charted how A-68A shrunk towards the end of its voyage, which fortunately prevented it from getting stuck. However, the downside is that it released a colossal 152 billion tonnes of freshwater close to the island, potentially having a profound effect on the island’s marine life.
Space News & Blog Articles
In July 2017, a giant iceberg, named A-68, snapped off Antarctica’s Larsen-C ice shelf and began an epic journey across the Southern Ocean. Three and a half years later, the main part of iceberg, A-68A, drifted worryingly close to South Georgia. Concerns were that the berg would run aground in the shallow waters offshore. This would not only cause damage to the seafloor ecosystem but also make it difficult for island wildlife, such as penguins, to make their way to the sea to feed. Using measurements from satellites, scientists have charted how A-68A shrunk towards the end of its voyage, which fortunately prevented it from getting stuck. However, the downside is that it released a colossal 152 billion tonnes of freshwater close to the island, potentially having a profound effect on the island’s marine life.
Join ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer on Thursday, 20 January, in a live call from the International Space Station, from 14:00 GMT/15:00 CET, talking with prominent experts and industry leaders, to explore how space research can improve life on our planet.
It took a crop of potatoes to keep Matt Damon alive on the red planet in The Martian. And in future, real life astronauts on the Moon and Mars will have to be gardeners, farmers and expert recyclers as well as explorers. Do you have promising ideas that might help them to get by in space on next to no resources?
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Exciting launches to the Moon and to the Red Planet, a second mission to the International Space Station for ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, the very first images provided by the James Webb Space Telescope, and a new class of European astronauts: 2022 looks very promising for European space!
The central core of ESA’s new generation Ariane 6 launch vehicle has arrived in French Guiana from Europe. This enables combined tests at Europe’s Spaceport where Ariane 6 parts will come together on the launch pad for the first time.
The next stage of ESA’s astronaut selection is underway, with around 1391 applicants invited to a full day of testing at a facility in Europe.
The first simulation of the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover driving off its landing platform closed out an incredible year of preparations as the mission now marches with confidence towards a September launch.
Watch live: our start-of-year press conference looking ahead at 2022, with ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and ESA Directors, from 10:00 CET on 18 January.
Astronauts on board the International Space Station are connecting straight to Europe at light speed, thanks to the European Data Relay System.
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Immerse yourself in 360° of science with ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer as he prepares an experiment to examine how human cells behave in weightlessness.
Plato, ESA’s next-generation planet hunting mission, has been given the green light to continue with its development after the critical milestone review concluded successfully on 11 January 2022.
The Kangerlussuaq Glacier, one of Greenland’s largest tidewater outlet glaciers, is pictured in this false-colour image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission. Meaning ‘large fjord’ in Greenlandic, the Kangerlussuaq Glacier flows into the head of the Kangerlussuaq Fjord, the second largest fjord in east Greenland.
The Atmosphere–Space Interactions Monitor, or ASIM for short, is a first-of-its-kind complement of instruments on the International Space Station. Dubbed the ‘space storm hunter’, ASIM measures electric events in Earth’s upper atmosphere with cameras, photometers and X- and gamma-ray detectors.
Modern society is growing ever-more reliant on services and data delivered via space. Cyber threats and disruptions to satellites are increasingly dangerous to citizens and economies, and it is vital to protect them and the crucial work they do. This is why ESA is supporting Swiss-based security firm Cysec in organising Europe’s first live cybersecurity demonstration for space systems. The demonstration will highlight the challenges in making space systems cybersecurity resilient vs modern hacking techniques and capabilities.
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As always, a new year brings new and exciting missions and launches for ESA. In science the world looks forward to the first image releases of the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope and the third data release for Gaia, both teaching us more about our galaxy and Universe. ESA’s new Mars rover will be launched with the ExoMars mission, and we will also see the maiden flight of Vega-C and the Artemis I flight. Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will return to the ISS for her second mission and a new class of astronauts will be presented to the world. After the groundwork has been laid in 2021, a new Ministerial Council Meeting will gather to look at the future of ESA, and the need for ESA and Europe to accelerate space and integrated space technology into the fabric of our lives.
A contract signed with Arianespace secures the joint launch for two satellites that will further knowledge of our home planet. Scheduled to lift off on a new class of rocket, ESA’s Vega-C, from Europe’s Spaceport in mid-2025, FLEX will yield new information about the health of the world’s plants and Altius will deliver profiles of ozone and other trace gases in the upper atmosphere to support services such as weather forecasting.