Esapod, Audio And Video From Space

Bernardo Patti, ESA's project manager for the Columbus laboratory - one of Europe's main contributions to the International Space Station - talks about the module's transatlantic journey from Bremen, in Germany, to NASA's Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, the United States.ESApod audio programme

Geology, evolution and even the age of rocky planets and moons can be traced down by the study of impact craters - planetary scars left by the bombardment of asteroids and comets. ESApod audio programme

Since the beginning of this year, a new name appears in the list of known asteroids that inhabit our Solar System; the name is 'ESA', which stands for 'European Space Agency'. ESApod audio programme

Explorer Marc Cornelissen describes the challenges of an Arctic expedition from Greenland's ice cap. With him are six students from the Climate Change College helping with ESA's CryoSat-2 validation campaign. ESApod audio programme

As Venus Express arrives at its namesake destination, long-time ESA astronaut Claude Nicollier discusses the enigmatic planet and muses on its beauty and fascinating planetary evolution. ESApod audio programme

ESAPod goes to the heart of Venus Express and meets with a veteran ESA operations engineer in the mission control centre. The large, well-equipped Main Control Room enables flight controllers to work as a focussed team during critical events and gives them the central facilities they need to communicate with support teams worldwide. ESApod audio programme

Venus Express is being telecommanded via the 35-meter deep-space station in Cebreros, Spain, the newest station to join ESA's global ESTRACK network. Cebreros communicates at X-band Gigaherz radio frequencies, far higher than commercial FM radio frequencies and similar to the ultrahigh frequencies used by mobile phones. ESApod audio programme

Gathering data from above Venus' thick atmosphere is very difficult. A remarkable series of spectral windows allow Venus Express instruments to 'see' through to the surface. The existence of these spectral windows was unknown until the early 1980s when they were discovered, as many key scientific phenomena are, by chance. ESApod audio programme

"If something goes wrong, it could either fly by Venus or hit the planet." The Venus Express Project Manager, Don McCoy, recently spoke to ESAPod on the intense preparations for the critical April 11th orbit insertion. He says ESA mission control teams are well prepared for arrival. ESApod audio programme

Navigating Venus Express is a devilishly difficult problem as computations must take into account all sources of gravity working on the spacecraft. ESA scientists use good old-fashioned classical physics first clarified by Newton, Kepler and others some 400 years ago. ESApod audio programme

Earth's surface has been renewed over the eons by plate tectonics, volcanism and other processes. But Venus does not appear to have tectonic plate activity. What is certain is that the surface of Venus has been shaped by deformation of the crust and volcanic activity. Venus volcanism indicates that, at least in the past, the crust was laying on a liquid mantle, as on Earth. The key question is, are volcanoes still active on Venus today?ESApod audio programme

In Part 5 of ESApod's special Venus Express series, we speak with Dr Gerhard Schwehm about the instruments onboard Venus Express and how scientific data can be gathered by planetary missions remotely from above. ESApod audio programme

Venus suffers from a runaway Greenhouse Effect responsible for transforming Earth's near-twin into one of the Solar System's most hellish places. Venus Express aims to unlock the mysteries behind this atmospheric collapse and gather data that scientists will use to better understand the Earth and Mars -- and whether life could exist in other solar systems. ESApod audio programme

In Part 2 of ESApod's special Venus Express series, we cover the Venus Amateur Observing Project, a unique proposal to engage amateur astronomers in observing Venus. The aim is to help scientists validate Venus Express data and gather scientifically useful images to complement the spacecraft's observations of the planet. ESApod audio programme

Venus, the 'Morning Star', is our closest planetary neighbour. Similar to Earth in size and mass, scientists once thought it should be a lot like our planet. Instead, Venus is entirely different, hidden by dense clouds of noxious gases, with a crushing surface pressure and burning-hot temperatures. Why did a planet apparently so similar to Earth evolve in a way so radically different over the last four thousand million years? How has an alien Greenhouse Effect contributed to atmospheric collapse? And are volcanoes still active today on the grim surface? These are just some of the mysteries Venus Express will attempt to unlock. ESApod audio programme

Integral is ESA's 4-year-old orbiting astrophysics observatory, and is designed to look upwards into deep space to observe some of the universe's most violent sources, including exploding supernova stars and black holes. Recently, spacecraft controllers reoriented integral to look down in a unique Earth observation campaign designed in part to study what happens when the Earth's disk blocks the high-energy background radiation. ESApod audio programme

Europe's newest weather satellite, MSG-2, will be launched on 21 December 2005. ESOC, ESA's Space Operations Centre, will provide a custom satellite delivery service to EUMETSAT, handing over the spacecraft upon completion of the critical launch and early orbit phase. Interview with John Dodsworth and Nigel Head, Flight Operations Directors for the A and B mission control teams. ESApod audio programme

At 04:33 CET this morning, Venus Express was launched on a Soyuz-Fregat launcher from Baikonur, Kazakhstan; mission control operated from ESOC, ESA's Space Operations Centre, in Darmstadt, Germany. Today's ESApod includes audio clips from the communications loop used by flight controllers and includes the Flight Operations Director's pre-launch GO-NOGO "Roll-Call" (held at 03:38 CET) as well as an interview with Ground Segment Manager Manfred Warhaut from the Main Control Room. ESApod audio programme