The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
Go to topicThe WMPI™ package form Critical Software S.A., Portugal, is a middleware for cluster computing implementing the MPI standard (Message Passing Interface). It enables the development of portable, parallel applications to run on low-cost clusters of computers to solve performance problems in domains such as biotechnology, aeronautics, chemistry, automotives and space. Computing clusters and computing grids are required e.g. to process the huge amount of data generated by the instruments on board satellites such as ENVISAT. The strategy is to use a group of several networked computers to process data that would typically take one computer many hours, days or weeks. Additionally, using a cluster instead of a dedicated and proprietary supercomputer is more effective in terms of price/performance. Current large initiatives with clusters/grids are underway in space (promoted by ESA), biotechnology (for genome mapping) and physics (such as the CERN Large Hydron Collider).