Latest PROBA Stories

All space missions have one inescapable dependency: the electricity flowing through their systems to keep them alive. Take away its power and a spacecraft is nothing more than space debris "“ an eventuality the space power professionals strive to avoid. Next week sees more than 250 experts come together at an ESA-organized conference on power systems. The Ninth European Space Power Conference (ESPC) will take place on 6"“10 June in Saint Raphaël on France's Côte d'Azur, jointly...

The first calibrated measurements of solar irradiance made by the LYRA instrument on ESA's second PROBA (PRoject for On-Board Autonomy) satellite are now available to the scientific community. Future access to near-real-time data from both of the primary instruments on PROBA-2, SWAP and LYRA, is expected to provide new opportunities to study solar activity and space weather. The payload on PROBA-2 includes two complementary solar observation instruments, SWAP (Sun Watcher using Active pixel...

ESA's Proba-2 microsatellite experienced a conjunction of the spheres on Tuesday, as the Sun, Moon and Earth all lined up in front of it. As people on the ground observed the 4 January partial solar eclipse, Proba-2 provided a privileged top-of-atmosphere view "“ at least briefly.Shortly after the Moon partially blocked Proba-2's view of the Sun, the Sun-watching satellite flew into Earth's shadow. At that point "“ when the video seen here goes dark "“ the Sun, Moon, Earth and...

Set for launch next month and codenamed "˜MagISStra', the next ESA astronaut flight will see Italian Paolo Nespoli fly to the International Space Station for a six-month stay in space. Read the Bulletin and other publications online, with our visualizer tool.Read online    We follow Paolo through some of his training over the last two years, and look at the background of the mission, seeing why each of these flights is a remarkable team achievement involving coordination between...

ESA has decided to extend the productive lives of 11 of its operating space science missions. This will enable ESA's world-class science missions to continue returning pioneering results until at least 2014.ESA's Science Program Committee (SPC) had to make significant decisions at its 18-19 November meeting in Paris: 11 science missions, all of them still working beyond their planned lifetimes, all of them still delivering exceptional science, and yet all coming to the end of their...

Any space mission is difficult, docking a pair of spacecraft is tough but flying multiple satellites in formation is the real cutting edge. A new software testbed allows ESA and industrial teams to get to grips with multiple-satellite missions to come, starting with Proba-3.It is hard to overstate the difficulty of formation flying: separate multi-million-euro pieces of hardware, each one moving through space at several kilometers per second come as close as a matter of meters as their...

This month the International Astronautical Congress will be held in Prague for the first time in 33 years. The global event highlights the growing activities in space industry, science and education in the Czech Republic "” ESA's newest Member State.The 61st International Astronautical Congress (IAC) will take place in Prague from September 27 to October 1. The annual congress encourages the advancement of space knowledge and enables the global space community to share its experience and...

Proba-2 is a small but innovative member of ESA's spacecraft fleet, crammed with experimental technologies. In its first eight months of life it has already returned more than 90,000 images of the Sun.Less than a cubic meter in volume, Proba-2 carries a new generation of miniaturized science instruments, focused on the Sun and space weather, as well as 17 state-of-the-art technology payloads.  Launched on November 2, 2009, Proba-2 began routine operations in February. A workshop at ESA's...

While ESA's Proba-2 keeps its main instruments trained on the Sun, it is also looking back to its homeworld. This wide-angle view of Earth comes from an experimental camera that is smaller than an espresso cup.The Exploration Camera (X-Cam) is carried on the underside of Proba-2, one of 17 new technologies being tested by the mini-satellite. Observing in the visible and near-infrared with a 100° field-of"“view, its monochrome images resemble what an astronaut might see if elevated to...

Despite continued interference issues, Europe's SMOS satellite is transmitting valuable new data on the way water is cycled across the globe. The satellite was launched in November to track changes in the wetness of soils and the salinity of the oceans using a microwave antenna. The detailed maps will soon be released for the eyes of the scientific community. But there are still some issues as SMOS is blinded by radar networks and media links in some areas of the world. The radio frequency...