Verksamhet

ESA is developing a family of missions called the Sentinels specifically for the operational needs of the Copernicus programme. Each Sentinel mission is based on a constellation of two satellites to fulfil revisit and coverage requirements, providing robust datasets for Copernicus Services. These missions carry a range of technologies, such as radar and multi-spectral imaging instruments for land, ocean and atmospheric monitoring. Sentinel-1 is a polar-orbiting, all-weather, day-and-night radar imaging mission for land and ocean servicesSentinel-2 is a polar-orbiting, multispectral high-resolution imaging mission for land monitoring to provide, for example, imagery of vegetation, soil and water cover, inland waterways and coastal areasSentinel-3 is a multi-instrument mission to measure sea-surface topography, sea- and land-surface temperature, ocean colour and land colour with high-end accuracy and reliabilitySentinel-4 is a payload devoted to atmospheric monitoring that will be embarked upon a Meteosat Third Generation-Sounder (MTG-S) satellite in geostationary orbitSentinel-5 is a payload that will monitor the atmosphere from polar orbit aboard a MetOp Second Generation satelliteSentinel-5P (for precursor) is a missions being developed to reduce data gaps between Envisat, in particular the Sciamachy instrument, and the launch of Sentinel-5Sentinel-6 carries a radar altimeter to measure global sea-surface height, primarily for operational oceanography and for climate studies

ProbaThe Proba satellites are part of ESA's In-orbit Technology Demonstration Programme: missions dedicated to the demonstration of innovative technologies. The Proba satellites are among the smallest spacecraft ever to be flown by ESA, but they are making a big impact in the field of space technology. There is no traditional flight control team for Proba missions. They are designed to operate virtually unaided, performing everyday tasks like navigation and payload and resource management with little involvement by engineers. Proba-1, -2 and -V are controlled by ESA's Operations team from Redu station in Belgium.OPS-SATOPS-SAT is devoted to demonstrating drastically improved mission control capabilities that will arise when satellites can fly more powerful on-board computers. It consists of a tiny satellite that is only 30cm high but it contains an experimental computer that is ten times more powerful than any current ESA spacecraft.

From the motions of the winds and tides, to the thickness of the polar ice sheets and the nature of Earth's magnetic field, ESA's Earth Explorers help us better understand the complex processes taking place on our home planet. Click for hi-res versionFollowing the successes of the ERS satellites and Envisat, which addressed Earth science issues of a global nature, Earth Explorers are smaller research missions dedicated to specific aspects of our Earth environment whilst demonstrating new technology in space. Earth Explorer missions focus on the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere and Earth's interior with an overall emphasis on learning more about the interactions between these systems and the impact that human activity is having on Earth's natural processes.Designed for research purposes, Earth Explorer missions fall into two categories: 'Core' missions address specific areas of great scientific interest, and faster, lower-cost 'Opportunity' missions address areas of immediate environmental concern. GOCE, Aeolus and EarthCare are 'Core' missions, while SMOS, CryoSat and Swarm are 'Opportunity' missions.

Today, missions operated by ESA are observing the Universe from space.What about the origin of the Universe itself? If we could ‘see’ microwaves, the night sky would glow with the very first light ever released into space. This was emitted by the Big Bang – the event in which the Universe itself was created. Studying this background of this light may reveal not only the origin of the Universe but, amazingly, the evidence about how the Universe will end. It could tell us whether the Universe will expand forever or collapse in on itself, thousands of millions of years from now.To support current and future observatory missions, the Agency's operations teams are honing the expertise required to fly spacecraft to destinations such as the L1/L2 Sun-Earth Lagrange points, to downlink extremely high volumes of data and to ensure absolutely accurate attitude control in cases where traditional techniques would be too disruptive to ultra-precise science observations.

ESA’s exploration of the Solar System is focused on understanding Earth’s relationship with the other planets, an essential stepping stone for exploring the wider Universe. In the next decade, our research will shed new light on planets around other stars. Detailed knowledge of our own Solar System will be invaluable in the interpretation of these new results.Our missions are gathering data to help us understand some profound questions, such as: How did our Earth and our Solar System evolve? Where are we in the Universe? Where are we going? Where did life come from, and are we alone?In addition to the daily operation of spacecraft which explore space hundreds of millions of kilometres away, the Agency's operations teams continually work to develop new capabilities to support future missions, including flight-dynamics techniques, delay-tolerant networks, deep-space communication technologies and innovative satellite control software and systems.