ESA Technology
Follow the latest news, developments and new technologies from the European Space Agency's R&D Directorate
- 🛰️ Simulating microgravity, Earth’s magnetic field and the Sun – all this can be done by @esa.int’s brand new facility for the testing of #CubeSats, small satellites usually no larger than a shoebox 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
- 🛰️ 🛰️ ☀️ #Proba3 is now officially the world’s first precision formation flying mission! The mission team has achieved the desired precision – with the two spacecraft maintaining their relative position down to less than a millimetre while flying 150 metres apart! www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...
- 🌕 📷 Mapping the descent of a lunar lander, using nothing but data from an event camera – this is the next challenge presented to the space community by @esa.int’s Advanced Concepts Team 👉 www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...
- A floating platform hovers a hair’s breadth above Europe’s flattest floor at ESTEC, @esa.int’s technical heart, following a path generated by #AI 🤖 to test a software that could help spacecraft approach unknown objects in space, including satellites in need of repair 🛠️ www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
- Last weekend we celebrated #50yearsofESA in the Netherlands! The celebration took place at #ESTEC with the crowning moment being a flowery Ariane 6 joining the famous Bloemencorso Bollenstreek Flower Parade. Thank you to everyone who came to cheer us on! 🌸🏵️🌷 @cnes.fr @arianespace.bsky.social
- To celebrate 50 years of @esa.int in the Netherlands, our technology centre #ESTEC joins the famous Bloemencorso Bollenstreek Flower Parade this weekend with a float featuring a flowery Ariane 6 rocket! 🌸🏵️🌷 bloemencorso-bollenstreek.nl/deelnemers/p... @arianespace.bsky.social @cnes.fr @nl.esa.int
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- 📡 New antenna invention tested in HERTZ, @esa.int's chamber without echoes 🔇 ESA engineers demonstrated a clever way of controlling radio signals in an antenna using far fewer components than traditional systems do 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
- Smile is the next spacecraft to visit the Maxwell Test Chamber at ESTEC, ESA's technical heart. Good luck getting ready for space, Smile! 😊
- 📢 @esa.int is looking for groundbreaking ideas to revolutionise space research and technology! Do you have a new concept that could potentially change the European space landscape? Share it with us through the new Open Discovery Ideas Channel 👉 www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...
- Happy six-month anniversary, Hera! 🎂
- 🛰️ The gridded ion engine that will power #HENON, @esa.int’s first standalone deep space CubeSat, is being tested in a vacuum chamber of the Agency’s electric propulsion laboratory at ESTEC, ESA’s technical heart in the Netherlands 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
- ☀️🌑 Tomorrow, Saturday 29 March, the Moon will cover a portion of the Sun, treating us to a partial #SolarEclipse. Did you know ESA’s double satellite #Proba3 mission will soon create artificial total solar eclipses in orbit, allowing us to study the Sun’s faint corona? www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
- 🤏 Microchips with surface structures smaller than a virus – that is the goal of ESA’s new Ultra Deep Sub-Micron initiative for space-ready semiconductor technology 👉 www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...
- ☀️ Our eclipse-maker Proba-3 is one step closer to achieving its goal - observing the solar corona! 👇
- 📽️Why does #HeraMission need autonomous surface feature tracking for self-driving, recently tested at🔴Mars? When Hera ventures closest to its target asteroid, it will have no other way of navigating: www.esa.int/Space_Safety...
- As Europe's Hera asteroid mission flew past planet Mars on 12 March it autonomously locked onto dozens of impact craters and other prominent features, tracking them over time, to test the self-driving technology Hera will employ to navigate around its target asteroids: www.esa.int/Space_Safety...
- #HeraMission has a voice now! Thanks to developers at Terra Mater Studios, impactAI and @microsoft.com, you can now talk to Hera - curious how she feels after having recently flown by Mars and its moon Deimos? Take a listen 🔊 Have a chat with Hera Space Companion here 🤖 👉 hera.space
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- 🔍 The first metal 3D-printed in orbit, model rendezvous testing, a seed-sized space chip and explorations of our robotics lab – those are just some #ESATech activities highlighted in the new #ESAImpact, our photo summary of the European space in 2025 so far 📸 www.esa.int/About_Us/ESA...
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- 🔴 Our #HeraMission just flew by Mars, using the planet’s gravity to speed up towards its target asteroids. Wondering what it was like for the mission engineers to assemble Hera? Make one with LEGO 🧱 – choose your favourite model and get building! 🔨 www.esa.int/Space_Safety...
- Any more questions about our #HeraMission Mars flyby? Why not ask our mission AI itself - the Hera Space Companion is ready to talk to you directly, featuring a brand new voice function! hera.space
- What would Deimos look like to an astronaut in space around Mars? None of Hera's instruments are equivalent to the naked human eye, but here is the science team's first attempt. The 'saddle' between two peaks of Deimos shows up as a shadow
- Our Hera spacecraft science team, including Dr Brian May of Queen, were amazed as the first images came in from the spacecraft's gravity-assist flyby of Mars and martian moon Deimos - see why here: www.esa.int/Space_Safety...
- WATCH NOW: #HeraMission's gravity-assist Mars & Deimos flyby images unveiled live by Hera's science team, including Queen guitarist Dr Brian May, plus ESA astronaut Alex Gerst and The Martian author Andy Weir! www.youtube.com/live/cHiASEo...
- LIVE in 100 minutes: the Hera mission science team will unveil the first images from yesterday's gravity-assist Mars flyby! www.youtube.com/live/cHiASEo...
- YESTERDAY: Our Hera spacecraft performed its gravity-assist flyby of Mars (& its Deimos moon) TODAY: Images from the encounter to be unveiled in our webcast, from 11:50 CET (10:50 GMT), featuring astronaut Alex Gerst, The Martian author Andy Weir, our Hera AI and...? www.esa.int/Space_Safety...
- Our Hera science team are busy processing images returned from today’s Mars flyby – including astrophysicist, stereoscopist & guitarist Sir Brian May, seen with Principal Investigator Prof Patrick Michel. Images to come in tomorrow's livestream at 11:50 CET (10:50 GMT): www.esa.int/Space_Safety...
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- Our actual Hera spacecraft is now headed out beyond Mars, but if you have a Apple Vision Pro, Meta Quest 3 or 3S VR headset you can get yourself a virtual Hera spacecraft courtesy of Italian startup DIVE's free 'Guardians of Earth' app: www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
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- What is #HeraMission seeing during its gravity-assist flyby of Mars? Initially its view centres on the vast Terra Arabia / Terra Sabaea plain, shifting south to heavily cratered highlands, passing into night beside the vast Hellas Basin, among the Solar System's largest impact craters
- Especially to mark our Hera mission's moment of closest approach during its Mars flyby, at just 5000 km away at 13:51 CET (12:51 GMT) - here's one we made earlier! www.esa.int/Space_Safety...
- Our #HeraMission's moment of closest approach to the red planet during its gravity-assist flyby of Mars is approaching fast; at 13:51 CET it will be 5000 km away. Watch our real-time simulation here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KILq...
- Meet Hera, our very own asteroid detective, plus two CubeSats – Milani the rock decoder and Juventas the radar visionary – are in the midst of a cosmic roadtrip: next stop Mars (except they're not stopping!) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Tn...
- As Hera flies by Mars today, it cannot return the images it acquires directly, because it needs to rotate its antenna back to Earth to do that. If you want to see what it is doing second by second from 1245 CET, check the real-life simulation we will soon start here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KILq...
- This is a sped up simulation of today's Hera spacecraft flyby of Mars and its Deimos moon - closest approach to Deimos at 12:07 GMT & Mars at 12:51 GMT. The spacecraft has to rotate around to send its images back to Earth so we'll see them tomorrow: www.esa.int/Space_Safety...
- This is #HeraMission's view of Mars acquired yesterday, at 1.07 million km from the red planet, hurtling towards it at 9 km/s. The north pole and other features clearly visible - closest approach comes at 13:51 CET today, images unveiled tomorrow! www.esa.int/Space_Safety...
- Did you know our #HeraMission - about to fly around 🔴Mars - has its own AI 🤖 ready to chat with anybody? Developed by Terra Mater Studios (part of @redbull.com), implemented by Impact AI & backed by @microsoft.com, learn all about the Hera Space Companion: news.microsoft.com/source/emea/...
- As our Hera asteroid mission flies by Mars tomorrow, it will image Deimos - the smaller and more enigmatic of the two martian Moons - from as close as 1000 km away. The results will be unveiled at our livestream on Thursday! www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
- 📽️After five months in the darkness between planets, #HeraMission flies past Mars TOMORROW - while imaging the surface and the enigmatic moon Deimos, as a try-out of its instruments before reaching the Didymos binary. Then, this Thursday, see these images unveiled live! www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
- This Wednesday our Hera asteroid mission flies past Mars & its Deimos moon. On Thursday join our star-studded webcast - featuring ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst, SF author @andyweirauthor1.bsky.social & a surprise special guest - to see the images Hera returns to Earth! www.esa.int/Space_Safety...
- This Wednesday #HeraMission flies by Mars🔴& its moon Deimos🪨. On Thursday join a star-studded livestream with'The Martian' writer @andyweirauthor1.bsky.social, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst plus another v. special guest as its flyby images are unveiled! www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
- 🛰️ 🛰️ ☀️ The two spacecraft making up ESA’s Proba-3 mission get closer to each other, ready to begin their cosmic dance in the world’s first-ever precision formation flying mission 💃🏽 See if you can spot the Coronagraph’s solar panel and corona-observing instrument 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
- Engineers at #ESTEC have been busy bees over the last few months, working hard to get the Smile mission ready for launch! 😊👇
- #HENON is a step closer to launch! 🛰️ @esa.int's first ever standalone deep space CubeSat will forecast solar storms hours in advance, improving our current warning times ☀️ www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...
- Students explore ESA’s robotics labs 🤖 University teams from across Europe selected through the ESA Academy Experiments programme visit ESTEC’s Orbital Robotics Laboratory, where they will carry out their experiments in the coming months 👉 www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...
- Space-travelling algae🌿 Researchers from University of Valencia are exploring whether certain hardy species of microalgae extracted from lichens could survive on Mars 🔴 and provide astronauts with food and oxygen 👉 www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup... @exploration.esa.int
