MetaFilter posts tagged with space and esa

New Hi-Res Mars Pix

tits mcgee — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:21:08 -0800

The European Space Agency's Mars Express Probe has sent back some beautiful new high-resolution images of the Echus Chasma. More images and information can be found here.

Mars in Pictures

Chinese Jet Pilot — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:03:35 -0800

The evolution of Mars imaging from orbit: Mariner 4 (1964), Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 (both 1969), Mariner 9 (1971) (all NASA), Mars 5 (1973) (USSR), Viking 1 (1975), Viking 2 (1976), Mars Global Surveyor (1996), Mars Odyssey (2001) (NASA), Mars Express (2003) (ESA), up to this spy-quality shot of an active avalanche taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2005).

Video of a Tour around STS-120/ISS

brownpau — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:15:49 -0800

A tour around Discovery STS-120 and the International Space Station with Paolo Nespoli and Dr. Scott Parazynski. Tomorrow, Parazynski will be perched at the end of a robot arm and sensor boom assembly, stitching up a damaged solar array in what might be one of the riskiest EVAs since Skylab 2.

Staring at the sun

Brandon Blatcher — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:38:39 -0800

Staring at the sun. YouTube video of solar flares, made from images captured by the SOHO satellite. Yes, there is more.

Rosetta Mars Flyby Pics

brownpau — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:03:10 -0800

ESA's Rosetta probe just flew by Mars en route to a deep space rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. During the 200 km close flyby, the Rosetta's Philae Lander camera got this lovely view of the craft's solar panel backdropped by the Martian arc, plus an animation of the moon Phobos' shadow on the Martian surface, and more lovely Mars imagery.

Why the long face?

oh pollo! — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 04:51:57 -0800

Mars Express finally photographs the "face on Mars". Will these new pictures finally end the artifact theory?

Happy Landings, SMART-1

brownpau — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 15:39:07 -0800

Crash. Tiny SMART-1, ESA's first lunar probe (also a compact spacecraft technology test bed), has been in lunar orbit since November 2004. Following the success of its primary and secondary missions, ESA now plans to crash SMART-1 into the moon, with a hard landing on the near side which may be visible from Earth. More stuff on ESA's little lunar trooper: SMART-1 lunar imagery, SMART-1 NASA Master Catalog entry, Planetary Society's SMART-1 category, and SMART-1 on Wikipedia.

Road trip to venus!

Brandon Blatcher — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 06:53:09 -0800

Road trip to venus!

The Venus Express was launched on Nov. 9th, 2005 from Baikonur, the historic spaceport in Kazakhstan. It is the first Venus probe sent by the ESA , and you can follow it's progress on the six month journey to the planet.

Exploration of Venus begin in 1962 with Mariner 2, the first space probe to fly by another planet and other flights, including the Russian Venera 7, which was the first probe to land on another planet. The Soviets took quite an interest in Venus and dominated the exploration of the planet through the '70s and '80s. A lot of the images recorded by those early craft have been reprocessed with modern technology.

In the early '90s the Magellan spacecraft spent several years mapping the surface of Venus, providing us many, many, many images and 3D maps of the planet.

As for Venus Express, it's goal is to spend two years making detailed studys of the planet's clouds and atmosphere.

Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn and Titan

Lanark — Tue, 24 May 2005 16:39:45 -0800

Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn A collaboration between 17 nations (3 space agencies). The atmosphere shows wavelike cloud structures, Saturn's rings display Waves and Small Particles. First image of a small moon orbiting within the Keeler gap.
Previous Missions, 2005 tour dates.

Life suspected, WMDs probable

borkingchikapa — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 18:02:33 -0800

ESA scientists announced that a giant sea is hidden under the Martian surface. With discoveries like this and weird photos like this, how long can it be before we find conclusive proof of extraterrestrial life?

European Space Agency

Pretty_Generic — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 12:18:24 -0800

Instead of liquid water, Titan has liquid methane. Instead of silicate rocks, Titan has frozen water ice. Instead of dirt, Titan has hydrocarbon particles settling out of the atmosphere, and instead of lava, Titanian volcanoes spew very cold ice.

Art goes to Mars.

condour75 — Sat, 30 Nov 2002 00:30:48 -0800

Art goes to Mars. This may be the very first art that our species sends into space, unless you count the little naked folks on the Voyager plaque, or broadcast television. In a somewhat bold move, they've chosen shock artist putter-of-sharks-in-formaldehyde Damien Hirst. Is it me, or would the chosen painting be much dorkier if this were NASA rather than the European Space Agency? Like a duck or something.