N° 22–2018: Call for Media: ESA’s Lagrange mission at New Scientist Live

As part of ESA’s involvement, a media briefing on Thursday 20 September at 09:00 will provide details and background on how our Sun poses a risk to infrastructure on Earth and what can be done to protect it, particularly focusing on ESA’s upcoming Lagrange mission to monitor our star. The main talking points during this panel discussion will be space weather and how the Agency is working together with European industry and research institutes to protect our infrastructure.

Space weather refers to the dynamic environment in space as influenced by solar activity, including extreme solar events which, although rare, have the potential to damage satellites in orbit, navigation systems, terrestrial power grids, and data and communication networks. A recent ESA study estimated the potential impact in Europe from a single, extreme space weather event could be about €15 billion today and substantially higher in the future due to increasing dependence on satellite systems.

ESA’s Lagrange mission will monitor the Sun’s activity, providing data for early warnings of any potentially dangerous, extreme space weather events, allowing measures to be taken to protect and mitigate potential damage to satellites in orbit or infrastructure on Earth.

ESA astronaut Tim Peake will introduce the panel talk and discuss the future of space exploration, such as the dangers the Sun poses to astronauts on board the ISS, and the spacecraft itself. Panelists include ESA’s head of Space Weather Juha-Pekka Luntama to consider the risk to Europe from space weather; and some of Europe’s top experts in space weather, solar physics and satellite systems.

Media are invited to join the media briefing at the ESA exhibition stand in the Cosmos areaon 20 September at 09:00 with interview opportunities directly after.

Besides this media briefing, during New Scientist Live visitors will also be able to attend talks from other ESA colleagues including General Studies Programme Manager Ian Carnelli, Senior Advisor for Science & Exploration Mark McCaughrean and Payload System Engineer Salma Fahmy. A full overview of talks can be found on https://live.newscientist.com/talks.

Accreditation

For registration, interview requests, and press enquiries on ESA’s Lagrange mission, please contact Erika.Verbelen@esa.int

For all other press enquiries and accreditation for New Scientist Live 2018 please contact  newscientistlive@kaper.uk.com

 

About the European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space.

ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.

ESA has 22 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Slovenia is an Associate Member.

ESA has established formal cooperation with six Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.

By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes as well as with Eumetsat for the development of meteorological missions.

ESA develops the launchers, spacecraft and ground facilities needed to keep Europe at the forefront of global space activities.

Today, it develops and launches satellites for Earth observation, navigation, telecommunications and astronomy, sends probes to the far reaches of the Solar System and cooperates in the human exploration of space. ESA also has a strong applications programme developing services in Earth observation, navigation and telecommunications.

Learn more about ESA at www.esa.int

 

For further information, please contact:

ESA Media Relations Office

Email: media@esa.int

Tel: +33 1 53 69 72 99