Latest PROBA Stories

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online With the Olympics officially wrapped up, those wishing the international games would never come to an end can look at a new photo taken by a satellite of the Olympic neighborhood to help tickle their fancy until 2016. The European Space Agency's Proba-1 microsatellite snapped a photo of London's Olympic Park with its High Resolution Camera, showing off stadiums where records were broken and hearts were won. The Olympic Park is...

Lee Rannals for RedOrbit.com ESA was recently able to make a software fix and get its veteran Earth-observing micro satellite Proba-1 back into full operation. Proba-1 has been in hibernation since last winter, and has been working and orbiting around the Earth for more than a decade. The space agency said that new software from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) allows the satellite to distinguish between genuine star constellations to measure its pointing direction versus...

Researchers gathered for European Space Weather Week have been presented with the latest results from ESA’s own space weather station: the Proba-2 microsatellite. The unpredictably stormy Sun drives space weather: surges of charged particles can damage satellites, impede space-based services and affect terrestrial power networks. Less than a cubic metre, Proba-2 was launched on 2 November 2009 as a technology demonstrator but is now working as a science mission, having exceeded...

[ Watch the Video ] Researchers gathered for European Space Weather Week have been presented with the latest results from ESA’s own space weather station: the Proba-2 microsatellite. The unpredictably stormy Sun drives space weather: surges of charged particles can damage satellites, impede space-based services and affect terrestrial power networks. Less than a cubic meter, Proba-2 was launched on 2 November 2009 as a technology demonstrator but is now working as a science mission,...

[ Watch the Video ] Images of some of our planet’s most beautiful features can be seen from the comfort of your Air France aircraft thanks to satellites. Clouds can’t obstruct these views: the crystal waters of the Andaman Islands while en route to Singapore, the snaking Senegal River after taking off from Dakar and the rolling dunes of the Gobi Desert before landing in Beijing. Satellite photos of the landscape below the aircraft are now accessible by passengers on dozens of Air...

ESA’s Proba-1 recently celebrated its tenth birthday in orbit. Kept busy as an Earth-observing mission, the microsatellite has also been building a detailed picture of changes in our planet’s radiation belts. Smaller than a cubic meter, the technology-testing Proba-1 was launched on 22 October 2001. Among the payloads was ESA’s SREM standard radiation environment monitor, which was turned on a week later. The size of a shoebox, the monitor records high-energy charged particles,...

A good photographer needs agility. So it is with ESA microsatellite Proba-1, which turns in space to capture terrestrial targets. Celebrating its tenth birthday this week, Proba-1’s unique images are used by hundreds of scientific teams worldwide. A technology demonstrator turned into an Earth observation mission, the microsatellite – just a cubic meter in volume – has acquired nearly 20 000 environmental science images with its main Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer...

  Organic agriculture provides healthy food and protects the environment by practicing methods that avoid the widespread dissemination of chemicals. ESA is now helping to develop the use of satellite images for certifying crops as organic. Products can be labeled 'organic' only if they are produced according to a set of standards, undergo an evaluation and pass a yearly inspection. Since organic and conventional crops are treated differently, their characteristics are also...

  Sometimes all it takes is fresh air to get a new lease of life. ESA’s Proba-2 microsatellite is a good example: an influx of nitrogen has replenished its fuel tank, in the process demonstrating a whole new space technology. On 16 August a telecommand was sent from ESA’s Redu ground station in Belgium to boost the gases in Proba-2’s unusual ‘resistojet’ engine. Used to maintain the microsatellite’s orbit at 600 km altitude, this experimental engine runs on xenon gas...

Drought in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti is pushing tens of thousands of people from their homes as millions face food insecurity in a crisis visible from space. ESA's SMOS satellite shows that the region's soil is too dry to grow crops.Somalis, who already face war in their country, have been fleeing to neighboring countries in search of refuge. In Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp, for example, over 1000 people "“ mostly children "“ arrive daily, severely dehydrated and...