ESA Impact – March 2023 Council edition

Welcome to the March Council edition of ESA Impact, an interactive showcase of the best images and videos since the last Council meeting

ESA's Gaia mission has been collecting data on millions of space objects like stars and asteroids to build an extensive cosmic record. Now, to take it up a notch, it needs your eyes.

Image: Andreas Mogensen at the PANGAEA course in Lofoten, Norway

Video: 00:03:03

Explore the fascinating landing site of NASA’s Perseverance rover in this fly-through video, featuring new views of Jezero crater and its surroundings from ESA’s Mars Express and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The video begins by panning around Jezero crater, which can be seen in the centre background surrounded by textured and cratered terrain. The crater moves into the foreground roughly halfway through, when an outflow channel can be seen snaking away from the crater wall and towards the camera perspective. Two inflow channels (Neretva Vallis and Sava Vallis, found on the western-northwestern rim of Jezero) then become visible;

Leeds UK (SPX) Mar 17, 2023
Compass readings that do not show the direction of true north and interference with the operations of satellites are a few of the problems caused by peculiarities of the Earth's magnetic field. The magnetic field radiates around the world and far into space, but it is set by processes that happen deep within the Earth's core, where temperatures exceed 5,000-degress C. New research fr

Washington DC (SPX) Mar 14, 2023
NASA, on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has selected L3Harris Technologies Inc. of Fort Wayne, Indiana, to develop the imager for NOAA's Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite program. This cost-plus-award-fee contract is valued at approximately $765.5 million. It includes the development of two flight instruments as well as options for

Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 17, 2023
Observations from space show that the rate of sea level rise is increasing. Knowing where and how much rise is happening can help coastal planners prepare for future hazards. The average global sea level rose by 0.11 inches (0.27 centimeters) from 2021 to 2022, according to a NASA analysis of satellite data. That's the equivalent of adding water from a million Olympic-size swimming pools to the

Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Mar 16, 2023
The Beyond Gravity Lynx computer for satellites is 250 times more powerful than regular onboard computers. The Lynx computer provides capability to process data already in orbit instead of processing it on earth - saving time, energy, and cost. Satellites produce more and more data. The ability to send large satellite photos down to earth is becoming a critical bottleneck. Beyond Gravity's

Austin TX (SPX) Mar 14, 2023
Coherent Logix, a world leader in high-performance, low power Systems-on-Chips (SoCs) and advanced development tools, has announced the launch of HyperX: Midnight, the company's fourth generation HyperX SoC for the Space 2.0 market. Coherent Logix has been serving the Space 2.0 and Defense markets for 15 years. In these markets, high-performance computing (HPC) with low power draw and radi

Huntsville AL (SPX) Mar 17, 2023
Orbital Assembly has been awarded a $1.7 million contract from the United States Space Force to develop rapidly deployable On Orbit structural technologies to support many types of electronic equipment. The United States Space Force is a separate and distinct branch of the armed services, organized under the Department of the Air Force. In the Direct to Phase II Small Business Innovation R