|
|
| ESA SP-1323: ESA's Report to the 39th COSPAR Meeting |
The 39th meeting of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) was held 14-22 July 2012 in Mysore, India.
This report to COSPAR on the scientific activities of the European Space Agency was written by members of the Directorate of Earth Observation, the Directorate of Human Spaceflight and Operations and the Directorate of Science and Robotic Exploration.
Contents:
- Foreword by Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General, ESA
- Earth Observation
- Introduction
- The Living Planet Programme
- The Earth Explorer Missions
- ERS and Envisat
- Human Spaceflight and Operations
- Introduction
- Overview: Columbus and ISS Facilities
- Funding Europe's ISS Research: ELIPS
- Research on the ISS
- Ongoing Research Using Other Platforms
- Projects under Development
- Science and Robotic Exploration
- Introduction
- Missions in Operation
- Missions in the Post-Operations and Archiving Phases
- Projects under Development
- Missions under Study
|
| Publication date: 30 Jun 2012 |
|
|
| Gaia - ESA's Galactic Census |
Cataloguing the night sky is an essential part of astronomy. Before astronomers can investigate a celestial object, they must know where to find it. Without this knowledge, astronomers would wander helplessly in what Galileo once termed a 'dark labyrinth'.
ESA's Gaia mission will create a detailed map of this labyrinth, finding clues to the origin, structure and evolution of our home galaxy, the Milky Way.
Contents:
- The discovery machine
-
Stars as individuals and collectives
-
Our Solar System and others
-
How does Gaia work?
-
Building Gaia
-
Launch
-
The flood of data
|
| Publication date: 15 Jun 2012 |
|
|
| ESA Bulletin 137: ESA's 'billion-pixel' camera - The challenges of the Gaia mission |
| Gaia is ESA's global space astrometry mission,
designed to map one thousand million stars and
hundreds of thousands of other celestial objects in
our galaxy, so its camera will have to be something
truly special. |
| Publication date: 15 Feb 2010 |
|
|
| Pinpointing the Milky Way - The Formidable Challenge of Processing Gaia's Data |
| In the course of Gaia's 5-year astronomical survey, the equivalent of around 20 000 DVDs of raw information on our Galaxy will be harvested and transmitted to Earth. Sophisticated processing is needed to distill this flood of complex data into the final Gaia Catalogue of about 1000 million celestial objects. A group of more than 300 European scientists and software developers is rising to the challenge: the Data Processing and Analysis Consortium is already preparing for Gaia's launch in 2011. |
| Publication date: 15 Nov 2007 |
|
|
| ESA SP-1296: ESA's Report to the 36th COSPAR Meeting |
Scientific editor: R. Marsden
Editor: A. Wilson
The report for the 36th COSPAR Meeting covers, as in previous issues, the missions of the Scientific Programme of ESA in the areas of astronomy, Solar System science and fundamental physics. This year's COSPAR meeting will take place only weeks before the end of the SMART-1 mission to the Moon, a technology project that provided the first European look at our natural satellite from lunar orbit.In October of this year, a new mission will be launched: COROT. ESA, together with a number of countries, is contributing to this unique, French-led project that will provide an insight into the interior of the stars, by means of the asteroseismology technique successfully applied by SOHO. COROT will also perform a systematic search for new extrasolar planets using photometric transits.
The record number of ESA Science Programme missions in operation established at the time of the last report was maintained in 2006 (Huygens having been replaced in the list by Venus Express). Eleven different missions, involving 14 operating spacecraft, are providing excellent science to the worldwide scientific community. The Research and Scientific Support Department (RSSD) is responsible for the science operations of these missions and makes every effort to ensure the best possible science return. The Department also supports the realisation of approved projects in all phases of their development. |
| Publication date: 15 Jun 2006 |
|
|
| Gaia in 2004 |
| This note summarises the status of the Gaia project at the end of 2004, describing the progress achieved in 2004, and summarising the major ongoing and planned activities. An important development was the appointment of the Gaia Project Team within the Projects Department of the ESA Directorate of Science, signifying the transition from study to project phase. The target launch date is 1 December 2011. Compared to the target 1 year ago, this represents a delay of more than 1 year. On the positive side, this corresponds to a technical feasibility assessment of the newProject Team, and may still be compared with the 'not later than 2012' launch target mandated by the Science Programme Committee when the project was accepted by ESA in 2000. |
| Publication date: 08 Mar 2005 |
|
|
| Proceedings of the Symposium on The Three-Dimensional Universe with Gaia |
| Between 4-7 October 2004, a major symposium dedicated to the scientific aspects of the Gaia mission was held at the Observatoire de Paris, Meudon, France, as "Les Rencontres de l'Observatoire 2004".
Attended by 240 delegates, the four-day meeting was an opportunity to present the current status of
the Gaia mission to the interested scientific community, and to hear about the results of investigations carried out in the various areas of the mission over the last four years. |
| Publication date: 01 Jan 2005 |
|
|
| ESA SP-1276: ESA's Report to the 35th COSPAR Meeting |
Scientific editor: A. Gimenez
Editor: A. Wilson
The report for the 35th COSPAR Meeting covers, as in previous issues, the missions
of the Scientific Programme of ESA in the areas of astronomy, Solar System
exploration and fundamental physics. This year's COSPAR Meeting occurs only
weeks after the Saturn-orbit insertion of the Cassini spacecraft - carrying Europe's
Huygens probe to explore the atmosphere of Titan - and at the same time as the
launch of the second satellite of the Double Star project. |
| Publication date: 15 Jun 2004 |
|
|
| Gaia in 2003 |
| Gaia in 2003, a status report prepared by the Gaia Project Scientist, summarises the status of the Gaia project at the end of 2003, describes the progress achieved in 2003, and summarises the major ongoing and planned activities. |
| Publication date: 24 May 2004 |
|
|
| Gaia spectroscopy, science and technology |
Proceedings of the conference
GAIA SPECTROSCOPY: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
9-12 September 2002
La Residenza del Sole
Congress Center
Gressoney St. Jean
Aosta
Italy
|
| Publication date: 01 Aug 2003 |
|
|
| Gaia in 2002 |
| This document summarises the status of the Gaia project at the end of 2002, describing the progress achieved in 2002, and summarising the major ongoing and planned activities in both the scientific and technical areas. It gives references to technical notes prepared by the Gaia scientific community during the year.
|
| Publication date: 27 Jan 2003 |
|
|
| ESA SP-1259: ESA's Report to the 34th COSPAR Meeting |
Scientific editor: B. Foing
Editor: A. Wilson
The report to the 34th COSPAR Meeting covers the missions of the Scientific Programme of ESA in the areas of astronomy, Solar System exploration and fundamental physics. |
| Publication date: 01 Oct 2002 |
|
|
| Census of the galaxy: Challenges for photometry and spectrometry with Gaia |
Vilnius, Lithuania, 2-6 July 2001
Editors: Vladas Vansevicius, Arunas Kucinskas, Jokubas Sudzius
The proceedings are published in Astrophysics and Space Science Vol. 280, Issue 1-2, 2002 (see contents list online - restricted access) and are available online |
| Publication date: 01 Jan 2002 |
|
|
| Gaia: a European space project |
Les Houches Summer School, 14-18 May 2001
Editors: Olivier Bienaymé and Catherine Turon
The proceedings are published in the EAS Publications Series, Volume 2 (2002) and are available online.
|
| Publication date: 01 Jan 2002 |
|
|
| Gaia: Composition, Formation and Evolution of the Galaxy |
| The scientific case and technical design description on which the mission was accepted within ESA's scientific programme. Note that the design details have been superseded, although the essential instrument principles and design objectives remain unaffected. |
| Publication date: 01 Apr 2001 |
|
|
| GAIA and Virtual Observatories |
| GAIA is proposed for ESAs fifth cornerstone mission which has a prospective launch date of 2009.
The objectives of GAIA are many-fold, but the core objective is the discovery of the origin and
formation of the Galaxy. To do this GAIA will combine information from astrometry, photometry, and radial velocity instruments using the proven principles of the Hipparcos mission. |
| Publication date: 18 Jun 2000 |
|
|
