ESA Science & Technology

Rosetta team plans campaign for comet encounter

More than 100 scientists and engineers from all over Europe and the UnitedStates came together at the Royal Society in London 1-2 July to shareprogress reports on the Rosetta mission to Comet Wirtanen.The overall picture presented by the project management team and thePrincipal Scientific Investigators (PIs) was that the mission is now wellon the way towards meeting its strict launch deadline of January 2003.

Published: 2 July 1999

ESA's Rosetta comet chaser unveiled in London

The final design of the European Space Agency's Rosetta comet chaser wasrevealed today at the Royal Society in London when a 1:4 scale (7.1mdiameter) model of the giant spacecraft was unveiled by ESA's ScienceDirector, Professor Roger Bonnet.

Published: 1 July 1999

Remarkable new images of Comet Wirtanen

In 2011, after an eight-year trek through the inner Solar System, the Rosetta spacecraft will rendezvous with periodic comet Wirtanen before releasing a lander onto its tiny nucleus.In order to ensure the success of this ambitious mission, a joint team from ESA's Space Science Department and the European Southern Observatory (ESO)has agreed to make a series of ground-based observations of the comet. The first fruits of this collaboration are a series of remarkable images of thecomet's nucleus which have been released today by ESO to coincide with theESA Rosetta press conference in London.

Published: 1 July 1999

Giotto second homecoming set for 1 July

ESA's deactivated Giotto spacecraft will perform its second Earth flyby in the early hours of 1 July 1999, 14 years since its launch on 2 July 1985 and five years after its previous return to Earth's vicinity on 2 July 1990. Scientists estimate that it will sweep past approximately 220,000 km (just over half the Earth-Moon distance). The flyby coincides with a press briefing in London, on ESA's next cometary mission, Rosetta, which will be held later the same day.

Published: 30 June 1999

Cluster II scientists review new data system

Well over 200 scientists around the world are looking forward to receivingthe vast flow of data that will start streaming back next year from ESA'sfour Cluster II spacecraft. Apart from the ESA member states, they includeCo-Investigators from the United States, Russia, Czech Republic, Hungary,India, Israel and Japan.Since 44 instruments on the four Cluster II spacecraft will return about330 Gigabytes (330,000,000,000 bytes) of data over two years - equivalentto 165 million pages of printed text - the efficient worldwide distributionof this vast amount of information is of major concern to the sciencecommunity.

Published: 29 June 1999

Venus flyby successfully completed

Cassini-Huygens successfully completed its second flyby of the planet Venus late last night.As planned, Cassini-Huygens flew by Venus at about 600 km altitude above the surface at 22:30 CET on 24 June, with Venus' gravity giving the spacecraft a boost in speed to help it reach Saturn more than 1 billion kilometres away.

Published: 25 June 1999

Cassini-Huygens swings around Venus today

The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will perform its second Venus flybytoday. Its closest approach to the planet will occur at 22:30:05 Central European Time (CET).

Published: 24 June 1999

SOHO glimpses far side of the Sun, looks at a comet's shadow

Scientists have found that they can peek around the Sun and predict whether solar storms on its far side will shortly appear on the side facing the Earth. This surprising discovery by SOHO's SWAN instrument could help to predict the solar storms that sometimes threaten the Earth. SWAN has seen something else extraordinary - the biggest shadow ever observed in our solar system, that of a comet projected on the sky behind it.

Published: 22 June 1999

Sharing a summer of Sun-watching - ECLIPSE99

On the day of the summer solstice, ESA Science web site launches its eclipse pageToday at Stonehenge (England) and other ancient observatories across Europe, sunrise was in line with stony structures that identify the longest day. The summer solstice has been, for thousands of years, a time to pay respect to the Sun which powers the life and weather of the Earth. The European Space Agency marks this year's summer solstice in a modern way, with the introduction of a special ECLIPSE99 service on ESA's science web site, looking forward to the next major event in the solar calendar: the total eclipse of the Sun on 11 August.

Published: 21 June 1999

PR 20-1999: Rosetta - ESA's new comet chaser

At a press event to be held on Thursday 1 July at the Royal Society in London(6 Carlton House Terrace), the European Space Agency's Director of Science, Professor Roger Bonnet, will present the next mission in ESA's ambitious comet exploration programme and unveil a quarter-sized high-fidelity model of the Rosetta orbiter and lander.

Published: 18 June 1999

Mars comes to Le Bourget

Visitors to the Paris air show this week can escape the roar of jets for the peace of a martian landscape. Only two small space probes disturb the tranquil atmosphere in the exhibit inside the pavilion stand by ESA, the French space agency, CNES, and Arianespace. The probes represent Beagle 2 for launch on ESA's Mars Express mission in 2003 and one of four probes to be launched as part of the CNES Netlander mission in 2005. A press conference yesterday morning heard how the two missions will cooperate to put Europe at the heart of Mars exploration early next century.

Published: 16 June 1999

Mars Express launch contract signed at Le Bourget

At the Paris Air Show yesterday the contract for the launch of ESA's Mars Express by the Euro-Russian Starsem was signed by Roger Bonnet, ESA's Director of the Scientific Programme and Jean-Yves Le Gall, President of Starsem. With the signing of this launch contract the major constituents of Europe's first mission to Mars are in place.

Published: 15 June 1999

Cluster II spacecraft loses its magnetism

A steady stream of scientists and engineers coming and going. A strangewooden building hidden behind a high wire fence deep in the Bavarianforests. Unusual humming sounds coming from inside the structure. Asuitable case for an X-Files investigation by Mulder and Scully? Far from it.

Published: 14 June 1999

At Le Bourget: cosmic X-rays, martian water and the Earth's windscreen

From vast explosions far away in the Universe to shocks in the Earth'svicinity, the breathtaking scope of ESA's science programme will beevident to visitors at this year's Paris Air Show at Le Bourget, 13-20 June.

Published: 12 June 1999

PR 22-1999: Europe is going to Mars

The European Space Agency's Mars Express mission has won unanimous approval. It will be the first mission Europe has sent to the red planet.The Agency's Science Programme Committee (SPC) approved Mars Express after ESA's Council, meeting at ministerial level in Brussels on 11 and 12 May, had agreed the level of the science budget for the next 4 years, just enough to make the mission affordable. "Mars Express is a mission of opportunity and we felt we just had to jump in and do it. We are convinced it will produce first-rate science," says Hans Balsiger, SPC chairman.

Published: 11 June 1999

PR 21-1999: A Butterfly-Shaped 'Papillon Nebula Yields Secrets of Massive Star Birth

Newborn stars are difficult to observe because they are always hidden within dense clouds of dust. And if the star is really a massive one, say 10 times heavier than our Sun, spotting the starbirth is almost impossible: massive stars evolve so quickly that by the time the dust disperses they are 'teenagers', not babies anymore, 20% of their lifetime has already passed. Using the ESA/NASA Hubble Space Telescope a team of European astronomers * has been able to pinpoint several of these massive baby stars, one of which has created - while evolving - an impressive butterfly-shaped nebula of dust around it during its early life.

Published: 10 June 1999

XMM ready for launch in December, a month earlier than envisaged!

The European Space Agency's XMM mission had until very recently been officially set to liftoff on 21 January 2000. Now, by mutual agreement between the ESA project management and Arianespace, the launch of the X-ray astronomy mission by an Ariane-5 has been rescheduled to mid-December this year.

Published: 10 June 1999

SOHO team commended for the recovery effort

"2% inspiration, 98% transpiration! A tribute to the dedicated personal efforts of 160 people all over the world" was how Francis Vandenbussche (ESA Recovery Manager) described the SOHO rescue mission, on accepting a Silver ESTEC Medal on behalf of the entire SOHO Recovery Team at a private function at ESTEC last Thursday 27 May.

Published: 7 June 1999

SOHO real-time web watch

The Solar and Heliospheric Observer (SOHO), a joint ESA/NASAspace mission, observed a large coronal mass ejection (CME) on the Sun on 1June 1999, at 19:37 Universal Time. It was first spotted by solar physicistsat the American Astronomical Society meeting in Chicago, where the SOHO datawere being displayed in real time at theESA/SOHO exhibition booth, via an internet connection to NASA's Goddard SpaceFlight Center in Maryland.

Published: 4 June 1999

Ulysses results inspire a big discovery about the Sun's behaviour

The strength of the Sun's magnetic field has doubled during the 20thCentury, according to calculations by British scientists. This findingwill help to clarify the Sun's contribution to climate change on theEarth. A team at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford has beenable to work out the recent history of the Sun's magnetic behaviour,thanks to the unprecedented overview of solar magnetism provided by theESA-NASA spacecraft Ulysses.

Published: 3 June 1999

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