Latest Envisat Podcast Episodes
ISS update October 2007
ESApod, audio and video from space - October 12, 2007 14:00 - 4 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingThe first task of the next International Space Station (ISS) phase is to attach the Italian-built Node 2 connector, to which the European Columbus laboratory will be mated. This will be carried out by the STS-120 crew, including ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli, who will fly with Node 2 onboard the S...
Preparing for Mars500 - a simulated mission to Mars
ESApod, audio and video from space - October 02, 2007 16:00 - 6 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingThe project, called Mars500, due to start in 2008 will recreate all the phases of a mission to Mars. Six volunteers will remain confined in six modules of a mock-up ground-based spaceship: living quarters with individual cabins, an exercise room and storage area for food and supplies, a bio-medi...
Peru meteorite strike highlights need for expanded scientific knowledge
ESApod, audio and video from space - September 20, 2007 09:30 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingA 15 September meteorite strike in Peru highlights the need to expand scientists' understanding of asteroids, meteoroids and other NEO, or Near-Earth Objects. Scientists still don't know the precise composition of asteroids, for example, making any attempt to deflect one aimed at the Earth highl...
Esperia Mission - Paolo Nespoli: Getting ready for the ISS
ESApod, audio and video from space - September 14, 2007 09:30 - 4 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingIn only a few weeks time, Italian ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli will join six NASA astronauts on board Space Shuttle Discovery to fly to the International Space Station (ISS). Their task is a challenging one. The Esperia Mission is responsible for the safe delivery and attachment of the ESA financ...
ESA hosts international conference on tracking and commanding spacecraft
ESApod, audio and video from space - September 12, 2007 15:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingTelemetry, tracking and command systems are complex networks of ground tracking stations supported by sophisticated signal processing that enable ground controllers to send up commands and receive large amounts of scientific data, often transmitted from millions of kilometres in deep space. Thes...
ESA at MAKS 2007
ESApod, audio and video from space - August 22, 2007 13:30 - 3 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingESA joins other major space and aviation players at the 8th International Aviation and Space Salon, MAKS 2007, at the Zhukovsky Air Base near Moscow this week, inaugurated by President Vladimir Putin. ESApod video programme
Celebrating completion of ESA's Earth Explorer, GOCE
ESApod, audio and video from space - July 30, 2007 13:00 - 5 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingIn the northern Italian town of Turin on the 19 July 2007, scientists and engineers from the European Space Agency held a press conference to celebrate the completion of the new Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE). After six years in development, the instrumentation ...
ESA's lorry to the International Space Station - ATV
ESApod, audio and video from space - July 17, 2007 11:00 - 4 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will launch on board an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's Spaceport, in Kourou, French Guiana. ATV will be used to restock the shelves in the International Space Station (ISS), at a frequency of one every 18 to 24 months. Weighing 20 tonnes and the size of a Lo...
ESOC - Where Missions Come Alive
ESApod, audio and video from space - July 11, 2007 09:33 - 2 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingCool profile of the people and activities at ESOC, ESA's Space Operations Centre, in Darmstadt, Germany. ESOC operates 10 major missions comprising 13 spacecraft, with a dozen more in preparation. It also controls ESA's worldwide ESTRACK ground station network. Over 750 specialists from Europe a...
ESA, NASA, Russian astronauts: Where next in space?
ESApod, audio and video from space - June 22, 2007 14:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingAs part of the Astrolab Mission post-flight tour, ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter is joined by his ISS Expedition 13 and 14 colleagues, Pavel Vinogradov (Russia), Jeffrey Williams (NASA), Michael Lopez-Alegria (NASA) and Mikail Tyurin (Russia), for a lively discussion on the future direction of huma...
Paris Air Show: Focus on ESA
ESApod, audio and video from space - June 20, 2007 14:00 - 6 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingESAPod reports from Le Bourget, near Paris, home of the biannual Paris International Air Show, now in its 47th edition. European space achievements are on display at the "Space Pavilion," which aims to promote space as an essential activity for European science, industry and competitiveness. ESA...
Hubble's European success
ESApod, audio and video from space - June 20, 2007 10:00 - 8 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingIn May 2007, more than 17 years after the launch of Hubble, European Hubble scientists met in The Netherlands to discuss and share their achievements. This gathering took place just a few weeks before the signature of the official agreement between ESA and NASA on the James Webb Space Telescope,...
ESA ground operations: working smarter, better
ESApod, audio and video from space - June 14, 2007 10:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingAs spacecraft and space missions expand in number and sophistication, building and operating the complex ground infrastructure required to operate in space is also becoming more demanding. ESA is successfully rationalising ground systems and infrastructure - the people, computers, networks and s...
Modelling Huygen's descent crucial for interpreting results
ESApod, audio and video from space - June 01, 2007 10:00 - 5 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingOn the afternoon of 14 January 2005, the European Space Agency probe Huygens made a stunning descent through Titan's 1300-km-thick atmosphere. Titan, a moon of Saturn, was then some 1.4 thousand million km from the Earth. Obviously no human viewed the descent first-hand, yet reconstructing and m...
Alien electricity in Titan's atmosphere
ESApod, audio and video from space - June 01, 2007 10:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingSince Huygens' January 2005 descent to Titan's surface, scientists have gained a new understanding of the Saturn moon's complex, 1300-km-thick atmosphere. Some of the most intriguing data returned by the HASI, or Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument, point to the possible existence of an ele...
Cassini-Huygens: New results from an enigmatic world
ESApod, audio and video from space - June 01, 2007 09:00 - 5 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingOn 14 January 2005, the European Space Agency probe Huygens made a spectacular touch-down on Saturn’s enigmatic moon titan, and an international team of scientists continues to analyse data radioed back during Huygens’s 2-1/-hour descent. This week, the 42nd Cassini-Huygens project science group...
Satellites vital for environmental agreements
ESApod, audio and video from space - April 24, 2007 15:30 - 5 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingOn Tuesday, 24 April, a special session of the 2007 Envisat Symposium was dedicated to the use of EO satellites in support of international environmental conventions in close collaboration with UN agencies, the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Pro...
Flying safely with EGNOS over Europe
ESApod, audio and video from space - April 20, 2007 09:00 - 6 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingThe aircraft that is normally used for calibrating French airport equipment was specially equipped to conduct precision approaches guided by the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS). The ATR42 plane of the Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile (DGAC – French Civil Aviation...
Space safety is a global concern
ESApod, audio and video from space - April 17, 2007 16:00 - 5 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingESA's space safety interests are growing as the Agency's own near-Earth missions increase and as space tourism and commercial flights worldwide take off. At this year's IAASS conference, delegates will consider a White Book entitled: "An ICAO for Space?" proposing an international organisation f...
Munich roadmap for GMES services
ESApod, audio and video from space - April 16, 2007 10:00 - 5 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingOn April 17th, the European Union will host a high-level conference in Munich to define a roadmap for the future of GMES, Europe's global monitoring for environment and security initiative. The GMES programme is vital for Europe and is ensuring independent access to information relating to the e...
STS-116 mission highlights
ESApod, audio and video from space - April 05, 2007 10:00 - 18 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingThis highlights video shows the STS-116 crew preparing for launch and successfully reaching the ISS two days later. Once on board the Station, ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang performed three spacewalks, also known as Extra Vehicular Activities or EVAs, and a number of experiments. During the mi...
Climate and space weather
ESApod, audio and video from space - March 30, 2007 10:00 - 4 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingSpace weather is a chain of processes originating at the sun, propagated through interplanetary space, interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field and eventually generating a number of phenomena in the Earth’s atmosphere. Scientists in Copenhagen are exploring the link between Earth’s climate an...
Scientists focus on ice as part of International Polar Year
ESApod, audio and video from space - March 27, 2007 10:00 - 5 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingScientists from around the world are studying the polar regions to detect changes in ice cover and the potential effect this may have on our future. Over the next 18 months, polar latitudes are also at the top of scientists' agenda as the International Polar Year 2007-2008 unfolds, which began o...
Space Food
ESApod, audio and video from space - March 07, 2007 13:00 - 5 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingFood in space has evolved since the early missions. Above all it must provide each astronaut with the necessary daily intake of calories, vitamins and minerals necessary to cope with the special conditions of space. There are also other considerations such as convenience in preparation, ease of ...
Space Options for the 21st Century
ESApod, audio and video from space - March 05, 2007 15:00 - 4 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingThe conference explores some of the many important and critical issues affecting society today and in the future, including climate change, water management and natural disasters. It has brought together experts interested in this broad, complex and global topic. The emphasis is on how space sys...
Herschel – the largest space telescope
ESApod, audio and video from space - March 02, 2007 15:00 - 3 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingWith its 3.5-meter mirror and cryogenic science payload, ESA's Herschel Space Observatory will deliver unprecedented images and spectra of very cool, distant, and poorly known objects in the universe. As the first of a new generation of space telescopes, Herschel will study stars being born in o...
Rosetta successfully swings-by Mars
ESApod, audio and video from space - February 26, 2007 15:00 - 5 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingYesterday, engineers at ESA's Space Operations Centre confirmed that Rosetta had successfully swung by Mars in the second of four critical gravity assists in its ten-year voyage to comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Closest approach occurred at 3:15 AM CET at an altitude of 250 km; departure veloc...
ESA's 'Cosmic Vision 2015-2025' sees Europe as space science leader
ESApod, audio and video from space - February 26, 2007 11:30 - 5 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingSince 2004, ESA has gathered over 150 imaginative ideas for new investigations proposed by scientists worldwide. The team preparing the Cosmic Vision plan has identified areas where major progress can be expected in the next two decades. Now, says Prof David Southwood, the Agency's Director of S...
Rosetta flyby
ESApod, audio and video from space - February 23, 2007 13:00 - 5 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingOn 25 February 2007, the Rosetta spacecraft will go round the far side of the Red Planet, swooping to within only a few hundred kilometres of its surface. This gravity assist manoeuvre will alter its course for the next leg of the ten-year odyssey towards final its destination: Comet Churyumov-G...
Rosetta in critical Mars swing by
ESApod, audio and video from space - February 20, 2007 13:00 - 5 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingOn 25 February, Rosetta will swing by Mars in the second of four critical gravity assists in its ten-year voyage to comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The upcoming manoeuvre, with Rosetta skimming Mars at 250 kilometres, is a delicate operation and a key milestone, and mission controllers and flig...
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