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Solar & planetary missions

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HI-RES MOV (Size: 31 129 kb)

Credits: ESA - C. Carreau

Venus Express

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This is an artist's impression of Venus Express orbiting Venus.

Credits: ESA

Rosetta

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Credits: ESA

Mars Express

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Mars Express is Europe's first mission to Mars. It consists of an orbiter housing seven instruments for remote sensing observations and and the Beagle-2 lander for on-the-spot measurements.

Credits: ESA - Illustration by Medialab

Cluster II

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Artist's impression of the Cluster constellation

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Artist's impression of the Cluster constellation.

ESA's mission Cluster consists of four identical spacecraft flying in formation between 19 000 and 119 000 km above the Earth. They study the interaction between the solar wind and Earth’s magnetosphere, or the Sun-Earth connection in 3D.

Credits: ESA

SOHO

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Artist's impression of the SOHO spacecraft.

Credits: ESA (Image by Total Design)

BepiColombo

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Artist's impression of the Mercury Composite Spacecraft during t

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Artist's impression of the Mercury Composite Spacecraft during the interplanetary cruise to Mercury. During this phase of the mission, the solar electric propulsion system will be used to brake against the Sun's increasingly stronger pull as the spacecraft travels toward the Solar System's innermost planet.

Two sets of two ion engines (one set for redundancy) are situated at the end of the Mercury Transfer Module, in a square configuration around the nozzle of the main chemical engine.

Credits: ESA

Last update: 17 August 2009

Current missions

Venus Express operations Rosetta operations Mars Express operations Cluster II operations SOHO

Future missions

BepiColombo