From European Space Agency – United space in Europe
01/07/2020
A view of ESA’s smallest future asteroid mission mapping its target body by laser.
The suitcase-sized ESA’s ‘Miniaturised Asteroid Remote Geophysical Observer’, or M-Argo will use a multispectral camera and a laser altimeter to look for asteroid resources such as hydrated minerals that could be extracted in future. Other miniaturised payloads are also being considered.
Planned for launch in the 2023-25 timeframe, M-Argo would use its flat reflectarray antenna to return science data to Earth from up to 150 million km away.
To find out more about ESA’s asteroid-related missions and projects, part of its ambitious Space Safety programme, re-watch its programming for international Asteroid Day on June 30, available here.
See the full article here .
five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings
Please help promote STEM in your local schools.
The European Space Agency (ESA), established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 19 member states. Headquartered in Paris, ESA has a staff of more than 2,000. ESA’s space flight program includes human spaceflight, mainly through the participation in the International Space Station program, the launch and operations of unmanned exploration missions to other planets and the Moon, Earth observation, science, telecommunication as well as maintaining a major spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana, and designing launch vehicles. ESA science missions are based at ESTEC in Noordwijk, Netherlands, Earth Observation missions at ESRIN in Frascati, Italy, ESA Mission Control (ESOC) is in Darmstadt, Germany, the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) that trains astronauts for future missions is situated in Cologne, Germany, and the European Space Astronomy Centre is located in Villanueva de la Cañada, Spain.
sciencesprings 