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#BepiColombo is currently cruising towards the third #MercuryFlyby of its 7-year journey to the Solar System's least explored rocky planet.

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BepiColombo

@BepiColombo

#BepiColombo teams are gearing up for the third #MercuryFlyby on 19 June! We'll pass the planet's surface within 240 km altitude at 20:34 BST/21:34 CEST #StayTuned

esa.int/Science_Explor

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Infographic showing top down view of the inner Solar System with BepiColombo passing Mercury (left); Large Mercury with day/night indicated, showing BepiColombo's trajectory and times images will be taken (middle); A list of science instruments that will be active (right)

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🫡🎺🎶 It's been a pleasure to fly you

@esa_aeolus

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ESA Earth Observation

@ESA_EO

Jun 15

Farewell @esa_aeolus!

Let's say a proper goodbye to the first satellite mission to acquire profiles of Earth’s wind on a global scale with a themed playlist.

open.spotify.com/playlist/6y66G #GlobalWindDay #ByeByeAeolus

Aeolus cap in front of a computer playing the "Farewell Aeolus!" playlist.

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Now just one week out from the #MercuryFlyby, BepiColombo is on track to pass the planet’s surface at an altitude of just ~240 km. That’s over 100 km closer to Mercury than the ISS is to Earth. #StayTuned

On 19 May, #MissionControl seized one of these opportunities – performing the largest chemical propulsion manoeuvre the mission has ever seen. Without this correction, #BepiColombo would have passed Mercury 24 000 km further away than planned and on the wrong side of the planet.

But a spacecraft is not a perfect mathematical object. Teams plan everything years in advance, but always err on the side of caution. They factor in several opportunities to correct its path & cancel out errors that creep in as it traverses millions of kilometres through space.

A gravity assist flyby is a great way to change course using very little fuel, but they have to be very precise. Flight controllers at ESA’s ESOC #MissionControl are ready to guide

@bepicolombo

so that it passes Mercury at exactly the right distance, angle and velocity.

Why is #Mercury still so mysterious? One reason is that getting to the planet is tough. “To be captured by Mercury, we need to slow the spacecraft down a lot, and we’re using the gravity of Earth, Venus and Mercury to do this,” explains ESA flight dynamics expert Frank Budnik.

Why space debris is a growing problem

The

, in collaboration with the

@esa

, has published the Space Industry Debris Mitigation Recommendations. Learn more about the recommendations and find out why it enjoys broad support from the #space industry:

weforum.org

Orbital debris is growing, and with it, so is the risk of a catastrophic collision. Experts from the space industry have a plan to tackle the problem.

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Juice Bar

@ESAJuiceBar

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Josef Aschbacher and ESA Commercialisation Gateway

Jun 7

“The South Polar cap is apparent in these images, close to the polar night, while the Arsia Mons volcano is present on the left side of the planet. Orographic clouds are also common during this season, and form as the atmosphere flows up mountains and volcanic slopes.”

"Mars is now approaching the southern winter season," explains Jorge Hernández Bernal, part of the VMC team.

“But some weeks ago, when we were looking for ideas on how to celebrate the anniversary, we realised that Mars would pass through the field of view of VMC during a communications pass and the idea was born.”

"Usually, it’s not possible to point the spacecraft’s instruments at Mars and the communications antenna at the Earth at the same time,” says James Godfrey, Spacecraft Operations Manager for Mars Express.

(*Rainfall was unfortunate for #MarsLIVE, but fortunate for Spain since parts of the country are experiencing prolonged drought. While ESA monitors the weather on Mars, it's also flying Earth-observing🛰️; taking the pulse of our planet

@esa_eo

) 📷📷Seville, Spain, 2019

Here was the moment when visuals returned. A #MarsLIVE highlight, that we're calling "Mars, scrambled." Why on Earth, did this happen?👉esa.int/ESA_Multimedia #SpaceArt #Dada

Note the gap in the middle – unfortunately*, rain at ESA's ground station in Cebreros, Spain, meant we lost 'telemetry' (data) from Mars Express for a period. 📡35-m deep space antenna in Spain

The gif above is made up of all the images that came down during that hour, roughly 50 seconds apart from each other, beamed directly from the

@esamarswebcam

on board ESA’s long-lived but-still-highly-productive martian orbiter.

ICYMI, to celebrate the 20th birthday of #MarsExpress on 2 June, ESA aired the first-ever Mars livestream. For an hour, it became possible to see the Red Planet in as close to real-time as the speed of light would allow.

First Mars livestream: the movie. From polar ice caps to martian clouds, all made possible by a very unique orbital opportunity despite rain in Spain doing its best to spoil the view. It was the most real-time, motion view of Mars, ever. #MarsLIVE🔴👉 esa.int/ESA_Multimedia

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#CallForIdeas: How can we make space safer, cleaner & more sustainable? It's not just governments w. space programmes now, but companies, organisations, individuals. We need a sustainable, profitable #SpaceSafety sector. Commercialising #SpaceSafety👉esoc.esa.int/commercialisin

ESA

@esa

Jun 6

In a new series of #ESAMasterclass, former Head of Ground Systems Engineering & Innovation at

Nicolas Bobrinsky on Innovation and Risk Management | ESA Masterclass

Nicolas Bobrinsky talks about technical challenges, leading diverse teams and solving unexpected problems that are part of any space endeavour 👇

youtube.com

Innovation is triggered by many drivers. One of these is the constant need for ESA to develop innovative solutions, such as unique spacecraft technologies.In...

Jun 6

This is a 1st-ever attempt at an assisted reentry and success isn't guaranteed. We're working hard to give #Aeolus an even safer end than originally planned, but for that reason, there could come a moment to abort, and Aeolus will continue its uncontrolled descent. #SpaceSafety

will soon plummet to Earth. Teams at #MissionControl will be attempting an 'assisted reentry': not originally planned for but in line w. current guidelines, it sets a new precedent for safe #operations See #RocketScience blog for updates📰👉blogs.esa.int/rocketscience/

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ESA Technology and 4 others

Human Spaceflight

@esaspaceflight

Jun 6

If you run into a #software issue on a trip to #Mars, who you gonna call? 📞🎶 Have you tried turning it off and on again? 🤓 👨🏻‍💻 Meet Cristian Englert, the 'software guy' for a European orbiter and a robotic arm set to bring martian samples to #Earth: blogs.esa.int/to-mars-and-ba

ESA software engineer Cristian Englert during a test with the Eurobot prototype in a martian-like landscape at Rio Tinto, Spain. Credits: ESA

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Uh oh, what's the (dark) matter with

@ESA_Euclid

? #Simulations continue at #MissionControl: the Euclid (simulator) has had multiple thruster failures and most recently a (fake!) bomb threat saw teams evacuate the Main Control Room...😨👉esa.int/Enabling_Suppo 📸📸📸ESA/J. Mai

NASA Europa Clipper

@EuropaClipper

In Praise of Mystery: US Poet Laureate Ada Limón has penned a tribute to the connections between two ocean worlds, Earth and Jupiter’s moon Europa. You’re invited to sign the poem, and #SendYourName aboard our spacecraft to Jupiter: go.nasa.gov/MessageInABott

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ESA's Euclid mission

@ESA_Euclid

Jun 1

Are we getting closer to understanding #DarkEnergy? At some point in cosmic history something happened that changed the entire course of the Universe. #ESAEuclid is about to start an investigation into dark energy & the role it played. #DarkUniverse 🕵️ #SuspectNo2

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The #MarsLIVE may be over, but #MarsExpress continues admiring the Red Planet😍🔴 Missing the view? Here's Mars a few hours after the broadcast ended, taken 3216.72 km from the martian surface. Get the latest pics from the

@esamarswebcam

🛰️📸👉: flickr.com/photos/esa_mar

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May 31

On Friday, join us for one hour of the first-ever #MarsLIVE stream

youtube.com/watch?v=4qyVNq To celebrate the 20th birthday of #MarsExpress, this will be the closest you can get to a live view from the Red Planet. Find out more

esa.int/Enabling_Suppo

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Jun 3

Correction: should be a distance of three *hundred* million kilometres!!

DLR - English

@DLR_en

Say cheese! 📸 Over the past 20 years, #MarsExpress has orbited Mars 24,510 times, during which our #HRSC has acquired 6916 images. 😲 We couldn’t quite fit all of them into this video, but you can find the best ones on our Flickr gallery: flickr.com/photos/dlr_de/

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We're live from Mars for another 20 minutes! Some weather drama (on Earth), but new images now in! Join us for the rest of #MarsLIVE👉youtube.com/watch?v=4qyVNq

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May 31

On Friday, join us for one hour of the first-ever #MarsLIVE stream

youtube.com/watch?v=4qyVNq To celebrate the 20th birthday of #MarsExpress, this will be the closest you can get to a live view from the Red Planet. Find out more

esa.int/Enabling_Suppo

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ESA space history

@ESA_History

ESA Operations and 3 others

In a few moments, ESA's Mars Express Visual Monitoring Camera will attempt a livestream from #Mars orbit. The camera was built however with one purpose – to track deployment of the #Beagle2 lander from the spacecraft. Here's the moment when it did just this, on 19 December 2003!

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#MarsExpress has just taken the first image of Mars for today's #MarsLIVE! It's now racing towards Earth. See it, as fast as the speed of light will allow

youtube.com

First livestream from the Red Planet

On Friday, to celebrate the 20th birthday of ESA’s Mars Express, you’ll have the chance to get as close as it’s currently possible get to a live view from Ma...

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1 hour til #MarsLIVE! As images stream from our #MarsExpress birthday spacecraft, they'll be captured by our 35-m deep space antenna in Cebreros, Spain. Here it is right now, already listening to the martian orbiter👋📡➡️esa.int/Enabling_Suppo

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May 31

On Friday, join us for one hour of the first-ever #MarsLIVE stream

youtube.com/watch?v=4qyVNq To celebrate the 20th birthday of #MarsExpress, this will be the closest you can get to a live view from the Red Planet. Find out more

esa.int/Enabling_Suppo

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167

VMC - Mars Webcam

@esamarswebcam

First livestream from the Red Planet

Hello, world👋 Wow, a lot of people waiting for my live debut in an hour 🫣 I'm old and my eyes don't see so well, but soon you'll see what I see😍🥰 an hour of the beautiful Red Planet I've been admiring for two decades. 🔴Join me for #MarsLIVE🔜

youtube.com

On Friday, to celebrate the 20th birthday of ESA’s Mars Express, you’ll have the chance to get as close as it’s currently possible get to a live view from Ma...

ESA Science

@esascience

We’ve hit the big 2-0! 🎉🍾 Congratulations to #MarsExpress on reaching 20 years in space – and counting! The orbiter has been hugely productive across its lifetime, and has truly revolutionised our knowledge of #Mars. More on the mission's achievements: esa.int/ESA_Multimedia

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It's with this camera, originally meant for engineering purposes, that we'll get 'live' images this evening from 18:00 CEST in the first #MarsLIVE What makes this unique, is that it's a one-hour livestream from Mars - but don't expect a detailed view of the #RedPlanet!

Despite all of this (and more), #MarsExpress has lived 18 years longer than planned. It even, in an unheard move for a spacecraft already in orbit, grew a new instrument – the ‘Mars Webcam’

In its long life, #MarsExpress has thrown a cornucopia of problems at our teams. From issues with solar arrays, radar deployments (hi,

@ESA_Juice

👋), memory problems, aging batteries, a close encounter with a comet and dilapidated gyros 📸Hubble spots cosmic bully Siding Spring

#MarsExpress's longevity is no accident. The years of ‘extra’ science are thanks to its robust design and the ingenuity of the #operations team here at #MissionControl, the science operations team in Madrid, and science and industry partners across Europe