Copernical Team
ILA 2024 - Day 5
Teaming up for space fun
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PLAYMOBIL's little robot space explorer ROBert was reunited with ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and ESA Kids mascot Paxi as they teamed up to meet young space fans at ESA's Space Days. Children had an absolute blast at ESA's Space Days, held at the PLAYMOBIL FunPark in Zirndorf, Germany from 30 May to 2 June 2024.
Help us improve the ESA website
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The ESA website is a key tool to help us communicate about our activities. We want to make sure that our website meets the needs and expectations of our audience. That's why we are launching a survey to collect your feedback and suggestions on how to improve the esa.int website.
New method could allow multi-robot teams to autonomously and reliably explore other planets
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While roboticists have developed increasingly sophisticated systems over the past decades, ensuring that these systems can autonomously operate in real-world settings without mishaps often proves challenging. This is particularly difficult when these robots are designed to be deployed in complex environments, including space and other planets.
Researchers at the University of Glasgow recently developed a new methodology that could allow teams of multiple rovers to autonomously and reliably explore other planets. This method, introduced in a paper pre-published on arXiv, incorporates data derived from various sources, including imaging data, maps and information collected by sensors, to plan efficient routes for different robots in a team.
"Using a team of planetary exploration rovers to explore the Martian surface, rather than a single rover, could greatly extend the scientific capabilities of a mission," Sarah Swinton, first author of the paper, told Tech Xplore.
ILA 2024 - Day 4 (Public day)
ILA 2024 - Day 5 (Public day)
UAH Research Suggests Gravity Without Mass Could Eliminate Need for Dark Matter
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Dark matter, hypothesized to explain gravitational effects that general relativity cannot, remains enigmatic since its proposal in 1932 by Dutch astronomer Jan Oort. Dr. Richard Lieu from The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has published a paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society proposing an alternative theory. Lieu's work suggests gravity can exist without mass, Artificial gravity space stations in development for Europe
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Many are familiar with movies like "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Star Trek," where astronauts live and work on space stations with artificial gravity. This science fiction is becoming reality.
ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and Vast CEO Max Haot signed a Memorandum of Understanding for future Vast space stations during Space Day at the Berlin International Airshow (ILA) on June 6, 20 Milky Way Collision Occurred Billions of Years Later Than Previously Thought
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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute"s Heidi Jo Newberg, Ph.D., professor of astronomy; Tom Donlon, Ph.D., a visiting researcher at Rensselaer and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Alabama; and their team have published research revealing that the Milky Way Galaxy"s last major collision occurred billions of years later than previously believed.
The discovery was made possible by t Astronomers Await Visible Nova Event in Corona Borealis
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This summer, astronomers around the world, both professional and amateur, will focus on a small constellation in the night sky. The focus is on a dark spot in the Corona Borealis, where a bright nova event, visible to the naked eye, is expected.
"It"s a once-in-a-lifetime event that will create a lot of new astronomers out there, giving young people a cosmic event they can observe for them 
