Latest Envisat Podcast Episodes
Mysterious haze and heavy water on Venus
ESApod, audio and video from space - July 14, 2006 15:00 - 5 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingFrench scientist Jean-Loup Bertaux oversees the Ultraviolet and Infrared Atmospheric Spectrometer on Venus Express. After the first month in nominal orbit, he's already found haze much higher in the thick Venusian atmosphere than expected, as well as fantastic evidence for heavy water, which cou...
Mapping Venus' atmosphere in 3D
ESApod, audio and video from space - July 14, 2006 15:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingGiuseppe Piccioni is co-Principal Investigator for the VIRTIS science team. The instrument's initial results are helping scientists create a detailed, 3-dimensional map of the Venusian atmosphere. Knowledge of atmospheric composition will help determine if volcanoes are active on the surface. E...
MetOp: A new-generation meteorological satellite for Europe
ESApod, audio and video from space - July 05, 2006 16:00 - 4 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingOn 17 July 2006 the first of a new tribe of European weather satellites will be launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on a Soyuz launcher. MetOp is Europe's contribution to a collaborative project with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Through this venture, MetOp has been des...
ATV passes acoustic test
ESApod, audio and video from space - July 03, 2006 10:00 - 4 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingAcoustic testing of Jules Verne, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), has successfully been completed at ESA's test facilities in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. The ATV, an unmanned vehicle that will deliver supplies to the International Space Station (ISS), will be put into orbit by the Eur...
Thomas Reiter's thoughts on spaceflight
ESApod, audio and video from space - June 29, 2006 11:00 - 5 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingESA's Thomas Reiter is set to join the International Space Station for up to seven months. The 48-year-old German astronaut shares his thoughts on the view from space, living weightless, what astronauts do between missions and future human space travel. ESApod audio programme
Astrolab Mission preview
ESApod, audio and video from space - June 28, 2006 09:00 - 4 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingESA astronaut Thomas Reiter will shortly being the first European long-term stay on the International Space Station. He will travel to the Station as part of a seven-strong Space Shuttle Discovery crew. The mission is scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral, in Florida, on 1 July. During his mi...
Successful Firing of Vega Second-Stage Motor
ESApod, audio and video from space - June 28, 2006 06:00 - 4 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingESApod reports directly from the Italian test range in Sardinia, where the Zefiro 23 second-stage rocket motor for Vega, Europe's new launch vehicle for smaller payloads, was successfully tested. ESApod video programme
Venus vortex: initial images from capture orbit
ESApod, audio and video from space - June 27, 2006 14:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingESA Project Scientist Hakan Svedhem on the first-ever clear views of a mysterious vortex taken during Venus Express' initial capture orbit. The orbit was a not-to-be-repeated opportunity to image the hothouse planet in a wide field of view as Venus Express looped below the southern pole. ESApod...
Satellite navigation system guides visually-impaired pedestrians
ESApod, audio and video from space - June 19, 2006 09:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingSeen from a distance, a blind man guided by his dog in the streets of Madrid seems quite sure of his way. In fact, he is not listening to music with his headphones but receiving directions to his destination: "Turn to the right, turn to the left, continue straight ahead!" Thanks to a mobile phon...
Columbus delivered to KSC
ESApod, audio and video from space - June 12, 2006 14:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingBernardo Patti, ESA's project manager for the Columbus laboratory - one of Europe's main contributions to the International Space Station - talks about the module's transatlantic journey from Bremen, in Germany, to NASA's Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, the United States. ESApod audio programme
ISS update 2006
ESApod, audio and video from space - June 02, 2006 14:00 - 5 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingFor over five years, astronauts from around the world have been living and working together 400 kilometres above the Earth on board the biggest outpost ever built in space. The International Space Station (ISS) is one of the largest research projects ever and involves Europe, the United States, ...
Craters revealed
ESApod, audio and video from space - May 31, 2006 12:00 - 5 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingGeology, evolution and even the age of rocky planets and moons can be traced down by the study of impact craters - planetary scars left by the bombardment of asteroids and comets. ESApod audio programme
ISD2006, Industry Space Days at ESTEC
ESApod, audio and video from space - May 30, 2006 12:00 - 5 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingThis year's ISD2006 brings together more than 700 representatives from small and medium enterprises (SMEs), system integrators, institutions, product suppliers and service providers to allow them to identify tomorrow's industrial strategies and business opportunities within the sector. Focus is ...
An asteroid named ESA
ESApod, audio and video from space - May 19, 2006 09:30 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingSince the beginning of this year, a new name appears in the list of known asteroids that inhabit our Solar System; the name is 'ESA', which stands for 'European Space Agency'. ESApod audio programme
ESA showcased at ILA, Berlin
ESApod, audio and video from space - May 17, 2006 17:30 - 6 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingESA is participating at ILA together with the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), BDLI and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in a special pavilion within the "International Space Village", entitled 'Space for Life, Europe in Space'. ESApod video programme
Something in the air?
ESApod, audio and video from space - May 11, 2006 16:00 - 5 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingThe atmosphere took centre stage at a five-day conference held by ESA in Frascati, Italy, with 250 scientists presenting and comparing results from ongoing atmospheric research from ESA's Envisat satellite. ESApod video programme
Via broadband from the Arctic
ESApod, audio and video from space - May 08, 2006 14:00 - 7 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingExplorer Marc Cornelissen describes the challenges of an Arctic expedition from Greenland's ice cap. With him are six students from the Climate Change College helping with ESA's CryoSat-2 validation campaign. ESApod audio programme
Thoughts on Venus
ESApod, audio and video from space - April 20, 2006 16:00 - 1 minute ★★★★★ - 1 ratingAs Venus Express arrives at its namesake destination, long-time ESA astronaut Claude Nicollier discusses the enigmatic planet and muses on its beauty and fascinating planetary evolution. ESApod audio programme
Venus Express powers into orbit
ESApod, audio and video from space - April 11, 2006 12:00 - 3 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingConfirmation that Venus Express had successfully entered orbit came from ESOC, ESA's Space Operations Centre, in Germany, today at 11:12 CEST. After a tense engine burn and blackout while the spacecraft swung behind Venus, mission controllers re-established the radio telemetry link with Venus Ex...
Drama in mission control
ESApod, audio and video from space - April 10, 2006 11:00 - 3 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingESAPod goes to the heart of Venus Express and meets with a veteran ESA operations engineer in the mission control centre. The large, well-equipped Main Control Room enables flight controllers to work as a focussed team during critical events and gives them the central facilities they need to com...
Ears to the sky
ESApod, audio and video from space - April 05, 2006 15:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingVenus Express is being telecommanded via the 35-meter deep-space station in Cebreros, Spain, the newest station to join ESA's global ESTRACK network. Cebreros communicates at X-band Gigaherz radio frequencies, far higher than commercial FM radio frequencies and similar to the ultrahigh frequenci...
Wavelength windows
ESApod, audio and video from space - April 05, 2006 08:00 - 3 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingGathering data from above Venus' thick atmosphere is very difficult. A remarkable series of spectral windows allow Venus Express instruments to 'see' through to the surface. The existence of these spectral windows was unknown until the early 1980s when they were discovered, as many key scientifi...
Pathways in space
ESApod, audio and video from space - April 05, 2006 08:00 - 3 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingNavigating Venus Express is a devilishly difficult problem as computations must take into account all sources of gravity working on the spacecraft. ESA scientists use good old-fashioned classical physics first clarified by Newton, Kepler and others some 400 years ago. ESApod audio programme
Critical manoeuvres
ESApod, audio and video from space - April 05, 2006 08:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 rating"If something goes wrong, it could either fly by Venus or hit the planet." The Venus Express Project Manager, Don McCoy, recently spoke to ESAPod on the intense preparations for the critical April 11th orbit insertion. He says ESA mission control teams are well prepared for arrival. ESApod aud...
Volcanoes and lava flows
ESApod, audio and video from space - April 04, 2006 16:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingEarth's surface has been renewed over the eons by plate tectonics, volcanism and other processes. But Venus does not appear to have tectonic plate activity. What is certain is that the surface of Venus has been shaped by deformation of the crust and volcanic activity. Venus volcanism indicates t...
Science from Above
ESApod, audio and video from space - March 30, 2006 16:00 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingIn Part 5 of ESApod's special Venus Express series, we speak with Dr Gerhard Schwehm about the instruments onboard Venus Express and how scientific data can be gathered by planetary missions remotely from above. ESApod audio programme
Alien greenhouse
ESApod, audio and video from space - March 23, 2006 07:40 - 5 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingVenus suffers from a runaway Greenhouse Effect responsible for transforming Earth's near-twin into one of the Solar System's most hellish places. Venus Express aims to unlock the mysteries behind this atmospheric collapse and gather data that scientists will use to better understand the Earth an...
Amateur eyes on a hot planet
ESApod, audio and video from space - March 20, 2006 16:30 - 5 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingIn Part 2 of ESApod's special Venus Express series, we cover the Venus Amateur Observing Project, a unique proposal to engage amateur astronomers in observing Venus. The aim is to help scientists validate Venus Express data and gather scientifically useful images to complement the spacecraft's o...
The passion of Venus
ESApod, audio and video from space - March 14, 2006 16:30 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingVenus, the 'Morning Star', is our closest planetary neighbour. Similar to Earth in size and mass, scientists once thought it should be a lot like our planet. Instead, Venus is entirely different, hidden by dense clouds of noxious gases, with a crushing surface pressure and burning-hot temperatur...
ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter mission to ISS
ESApod, audio and video from space - March 10, 2006 16:30 - 5 minutes - Video ★★★★★ - 1 ratingESA astronaut Thomas Reiter is scheduled to lift-off onboard NASA's Space Shuttle in May to join ISS Expedition 13. At a press event today at the European Astronaut Centre, the German-born Reiter spoke to the media and highlighted the scientific experiments he will oversee as part of ESA's first...
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