ESA Archives - Keith Shields

International Space Station

(Click on this thumbnail picture for a larger image) The International Space Station (ISS) flew over my home a few minutes ago. When you know where to look it is easy to pick out of a clear sky one or two hours before sunrise or one or two hours after sunset. The ISS circumnavigates our…

Cassini

Recently I wrote a sad lament for the Schiaparelli Lander, even as I praised those who had successfully inserted the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) into a near-perfect orbit around Mars. This orbiting communications relay and atmospheric laboratory will serve NASA scientists for the next several years and will eventually support a European Space Agency (ESA)…

A Robotic Spacecraft Dies

This week was supposed to be a week of good news for the Schiaparelli lander. It was expected that by this time, the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) would be relaying information from Schiaparelli to Earth and science experiments would be about to begin on the surface of Mars. The European Space Agency (ESA) did have…

Schiaparelli

(Click on this thumbnail picture for a larger image.) This week in solar system navigation, the Schiaparelli Lander was given the necessary software to allow it to land on Mars. Descent and soft touchdown on Mars will be guided by the commands that were uploaded on October 7th. The fact that such commands can be…

The Future of Space Exploration

Jupiter and Europa The 15th to 18th centuries were a time of unprecedented exploration of our world. Europeans, with a healthy sense of curiosity, and driven by a desire to conquer new worlds, were the primary instigators. Today, we live in a similar time of exploration as countries and private corporations turn their eyes to…

ExoMars

ExoMars is a “Programme to investigate the Martian environment and to demonstrate new technologies paving the way for future Mars sample return missions.”[1] The European Space Agency successfully launched their two craft on March 14 on a Russian Proton M rocket and has received signals indicating that the launch was successful. The two craft will…

Farewell Philae

The European Space Agency has had no new news on the Philae Lander since July 20th. It seems safe to say that we should bid Philae a fond farewell. The Rosetta mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has accomplished many of its aims; but, the lander achieved only a small portion of its goals due to a…

Making Scientific Discovery Interesting

The Making of Ambition Lukasz Sobisz, is the Technical Director of Simulation for Platige Image’s film, Ambition. The film is directed by Tomek Baginski and stars Aidan Gillen and Aisling Franciosi. In an interview about the European Space Agency’s Rosetta Mission and the accompanying film, Ambition, Sobisz expressed his surprise that the European Space Agency…

Rosetta and Philae: Hello My Friend, Hello

Rosetta and Philae Communicating Again In November of 2014, the Rosetta spacecraft delivered the Philae lander to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (see my previous blog here). This represented the first soft landing of a spacecraft onto a comet. This in itself was a great accomplishment despite the fact that the mission did not go…

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

“Oh little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie. Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by.” Earlier this week, the Rosetta spacecraft reached the end of a ten year journey and delivered the Philae lander to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. After a bouncy landing in the open planes,…