
Copernical Team
Human minds, robotic hands

Last July, a team of robots explored a simulated martian landscape in Germany, guided by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station. This was the final session of the Surface Avatar experiment, a joint initiative between ESA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to investigate how astronauts can remotely control robotic teams.
This latest session took place at the DLR site in Oberpfaffenhofen and introduced new levels of autonomy, decision-making and realism, bringing Europe one step closer to seamless human-robot collaboration in space exploration.
Hubble sizes up rare interstellar comet

A team of astronomers has taken the sharpest-ever picture of the unexpected interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, using the crisp vision of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
ESA's Planetary Defence Office responded promptly to the discovery of the comet, and has been tracking it since the beginning of July.
Now, Hubble's observations from space are allowing astronomers to more accurately estimate the size of the comet’s solid icy nucleus. The upper limit on the diameter of the nucleus is 5.6 km, but it could be as small as 320 m across, researchers report.
Though the Hubble images put tighter constraints on the nucleus size
Webb finds new hints for planet around closest solar twin

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have found strong evidence of a giant planet orbiting a star in the stellar system closest to our own Sun. At just 4 light-years away from Earth, the Alpha Centauri triple star system has long been a compelling target in the search for worlds beyond our solar system.
ESA Astronaut Raphaël Liégeois

ESA astronaut Raphaël Liégeois from Belgium, a member of the ESA Astronaut Class of 2022, was selected in November 2022 from over 22,500 candidates who applied to ESA’s 2021 call for new astronauts.
He began his year-long basic astronaut training at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany, in April 2023. This training covered spacecraft systems, spacewalking, flight engineering, robotics, life support systems, survival, and medical training. Raphaël received his astronaut certification alongside fellow astronaut candidates Sophie Adenot, Rosemary Coogan, Pablo Álvarez Fernández, and Marco Sieber at EAC on 22 April 2024, officially marking his transition into
NASA and Boeing Starliner astronaut 'Butch' Wilmore retires

Ultrasmall optical devices rewrite the rules of light manipulation

Perseid meteor shower set to peak Aug. 12-13

Planning for College? Here's What to Know About Financial Hurdles

Light driven visual microphone offers new tool for silent sound detection

Parsons and Globalstar advance satellite communications with successful European test
