ESA Kids • 21st December 2022

Introducing ESA’s new astronauts

Is being an astronaut your dream job? It is for many people! In 2021, ESA asked for potential space explorers to apply for intensive astronaut training to go the International Space Station, and perhaps even beyond. More than 22,500 people from different ESA Member States applied. A rigorous selection process gradually reduced this number, and now, at long last, 17 new astronaut candidates have been chosen!

Five of those selected will soon be on duty at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne,

ESA Kids • 14th December 2022

Meteosat Third Generation satellites will take weather forecasts to the next level

Meteosat Third Generation satellites will take weather forecasts to the next level

When was the last time you checked the weather forecast? It is something many of us do every day, but have you ever stopped to think about how we predict the weather? Most of our best information comes from satellites orbiting Earth, taking photos and measurements that help tell you whether to pack your suncream or umbrella!

For the last 45 years, satellites called Meteosats have been orbiting our planet, monito

ESA Kids • 29th August 2022

Artemis I mission sets its sights on the Moon

Artemis I mission sets its sights on the Moon

29 August 2022 will be a special day for space exploration! A huge Space Launch Systems rocket is scheduled to blast off from the Kennedy Space Center, carrying with it NASA’s Orion Crew Module and its European Service Module. Their mission, called Artemis I, will take them to the Moon and back!

It is all part of an exciting plan to send astronauts to the Moon (for the first time since 1972), to asteroids, and, eventually, even to the planet Mars.

ESA Kids • 22nd April 2022

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti arrives at the International Space Station to begin her Minerva mission

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti arrives at the International Space Station to begin her Minerva mission

On Wednesday 27 April 2022, a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft called Freedom blasted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. On board was Italian ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and her NASA colleagues Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins. These explorers travelled all the way into orbit around Earth and have now docked with the International Space Station!

ESA Kids • 12th November 2021

ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer makes journey of a lifetime to the International Space Station

ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer makes journey of a lifetime to the International Space Station

Matthias travelled to the ISS onboard a craft called a SpaceX Crew Dragon loaded onto a powerful Falcon 9 rocket. It launched from Florida in the USA on 11 November, and he was accompanied by NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, and Kayla Barron. This intrepid crew were blasted into orbit in just 8 minutes and 48 seconds! Then, the SpaceX Crew Dragon began the slower procedure of moving close t

ESA Kids • 24th June 2021

The James Webb Space Telescope will investigate the origins of life, the Universe, and everything

The James Webb Space Telescope will investigate the origins of life, the Universe, and everything

In October this year, a powerful Ariane 5 rocket will blast off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, carrying the largest, most powerful space telescope ever made! Called the James Webb Space Telescope – or Webb for short – this incredible invention will help us to answer fascinating questions about the cosmos, and our place in it. Webb is so advanced, three space agencies teamed up to build i

ESA Kids • 6th May 2021

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet begins his second mission to the International Space Station

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet begins his second mission to the International Space Station

Roaring into space onboard a high-tech Crew Dragon spacecraft, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet has now boarded the International Space Station to begin his mission, called Alpha! Travelling with Thomas were NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.

The Crew Dragon craft is very new. In fact, Thomas is the first ESA astronaut t

ESA Kids • 22nd March 2021

ESA’s Mars Express finds more underground water

ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft has been busy exploring the red planet. Mission scientists have just made an exciting announcement: they have discovered lots of liquid water!

A large lake of water, 20 x 30km, which is about the same size as the city of Rome, was found in 2018 under Mars’ south polar region. These new investigations have revealed three more ponds surrounding it. However, they are all buried under 1.5km of ice! Scientists think that the water in the ponds must be salty, which means

ESA Kids • 8th February 2021

Juice mission will explore Jupiter and its icy moons

Jupiter is the largest planet in our Solar System and is remarkably different to our home planet, Earth. Jupiter is a gas giant and is orbited by a family of over 60 moons. To investigate these strange worlds, ESA are preparing to launch an exciting space probe called the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer, or Juice for short.

Blasting off in 2022, Juice will travel across our Solar System before arriving at Jupiter in 2029. The robotic probe will t

ESA Kids • 18th November 2020

Spotting penguin poo from space

What kind of things do we use satellites for? Most people think of observing the weather and communicating around the world… but what about spotting penguin poo?! It sounds like a joke, but this is exactly what scientists have been doing!

Emperor penguins are only found in Antarctica. They are vulnerable to climate change, as warming ocean waters melt the sea ice where they live and breed. So, it is important that we can track how many groups of penguins – called colonies – there are. This is d

ESA Kids • 4th March 2020

Froth and fizz: creating the perfect foam in space

Froth and fizz: creating the perfect foam in space

Do you like to play with bubbles in your bath? When there are lots of bubbles together it is known as a foam, and many foams are useful in our daily lives. Some foods and drinks are improved with foams, like the froth on top of coffee or in a milkshake. Lots of cleaning products and medicines use foams as well.

However, creating the perfect bubbles for different foams is tricky! On Earth, the mixture of gas and liquid that makes up a foam quic

ESA Kids • 28th January 2020

ESA’s Solar Orbiter mission gets ready to investigate the Sun up close!

ESA’s Solar Orbiter mission gets ready to investigate the Sun up close!

When was the last time you saw the Sun in the sky? It is such a common sight that it can be easy to forget that the Sun is a strange place full of mysteries! Vital for life on Earth, but difficult to study because of its heat and brightness, the Sun is the target of a new ambitious mission that ESA are preparing to launch to unveil our star’s secrets. Called Solar Orbiter, it is set to blast off from Kennedy Space Center in

ESA Kids • 22nd January 2020

ESA gives go-ahead for the world’s first space junk removal mission

ESA gives go-ahead for the world’s first space junk removal mission

There are nearly 2000 satellites in space, orbiting around Earth. They are very helpful for us, providing communication, allowing us to explore space and monitoring our changing world. However, when satellites break down or malfunction and are no longer useful, they often stay in their orbits becoming what is known as space debris – sometimes nicknamed space junk. This is becoming a big problem. There are more than 3000 broken

ESA Kids • 3rd December 2019

ESA’s CHEOPS satellite will measure the sizes of exoplanets

ESA’s CHEOPS satellite will measure the sizes of exoplanets

Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered if there are other planets out there, beyond our Solar System? Astronomers have discovered that there are! We call them extrasolar planets, or exoplanets for short. Thousands have been found so far, and that number will only go up as we continue the search.

It is very difficult to get an actual photograph of an exoplanet, because they are so far away. Instead, astronomers use diffe

ESA Kids • 22nd November 2019

Life around other stars

Could there be life around other stars? Perhaps, living on extrasolar planets! But where do these planets come from?

Like the planets in our Solar System, exoplanets form from clouds of gas and dust that are leftover from when their stars are made. New stars send shock waves into space that cause this leftover material to combine, and over time they go on to make planets.

Amazingly, we have photos of exoplanet systems being made! The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was used to study the Orion

ESA Kids • 5th November 2019

Exoplanets

The Solar System contains eight planets orbiting our local star, the Sun. But did you know that there are many, many more planets out there in space, orbiting the stars we see at night? These are called extrasolar planets, or exoplanets for short.

Discovering exoplanets is extremely difficult. They are so far away that we cannot simply look through a regular telescope and see them. They are also very small and faint compared to the stars that they orbit. This means that exoplanet-hunting astron

ESA Kids • 5th August 2019

ESA satellites help us to make the most of Earth’s precious water

ESA satellites help us to make the most of Earth’s precious water

When you are thirsty, do you turn on the tap to get a drink of water? If you do, consider yourself lucky, because around the world more than two billion people have to live without easy access to safe water – and four billion people suffer severe water shortages for at least a month out of every year. With the world’s population growing, and climate change creating challenges, water will become an even more precious resource.

Ph

ESA Kids • 19th July 2019

ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano prepares for launch!

Not many of us get to go into space even once, but right now ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano is preparing for his second mission to the International Space Station! Luca will blast off from Earth inside a Soyuz spacecraft on 20 July 2019 – the 50th anniversary of the first people setting foot on the Moon.

His mission is called Beyond, and will see Luca conduct experiments to help keep humans safe on longer missions exploring space. He will also develop technology and knowledge that will allow huma

ESA Kids • 13th June 2019

Expedition Antarctica!

ESA have lots of missions in space, but did you know that ESA scientists also travel to Antarctica? Concordia research station is only 1670 km from the geographic South Pole. It is one of the coldest areas on Earth with Summer temperatures ranging from −25°C to as low as below −80 °C! The annual average air temperature is −54.5 °C, with low humidity and little or no rain or snowfall throughout the year.

Why would ESA scientists want to work at Concordia? Simply put, it is the closest thing on E

ESA Kids • 3rd June 2019

Blast off with ESA’s new rockets!

Blast off with ESA’s new rockets!

ESA are busy developing new and exciting ways of launching satellites and cargo into space. Here you can find out all about Ariane 6, Vega-C, and Space Rider!

Launching in 2020 will be ESA’s Ariane 6! This powerful new rocket will be over 60 metres tall, and be available in two types. The A62 version will have two strap-on boosters, allowing it to launch cargo weighing up to 7000 kg. If even more power is needed, then the A64 version will be called upon. Featu

ESA Kids • 20th May 2019

Making a music playlist for the stars

Do you enjoy listening to music? The right tune can lift your mood, be relaxing, or even help you to run faster! Could music help astronauts in space to work and rest better too?

That is exactly the question that occurred to Luis Luque Álvarez, a violin teacher. When he was a child, Luis dreamt of two things: playing violin in an orchestra, and space travel. Now, as an adult, his dreams are coming true! Luis knows that music can encourage our body to release special hormones, such as oxytocin,

ESA Kids • 29th April 2019

ESA satellite tracks down methane on Mars

Back on 15 June 2013, NASA’s Curiosity rover was busy exploring the surface of Mars. Its sensors detected something that made its operators back on Earth very excited: a gas called methane. We have a lot of methane on Earth. It can be created by geological processes, and by living creatures.

In science, the more data you collect about something, the better your studies can be. So, a group of scientists have been studying data collected by ESA’s Mars Express satellite, which was orbiting Mars at

ESA Kids • 18th April 2019

ESA trains space doctors!

Travelling into space is a huge challenge for astronauts. Being weightless affects the human body in many negative ways, such as causing muscles and bones to weaken. There is also an impact on the mind and wellbeing, as being isolated in space, so far from friends and family, is very difficult. Helping astronauts to overcome these issues are experts from ESA’s Space Medicine Office.

Space Medicine teams include lots of specialists, such as psychologists, exercise professionals, and flight surge

ESA Kids • 4th April 2019

ESA test a new pulsar clock

When was the last time you checked the time? Maybe you have a wristwatch, or a clock on the wall. Did you stop to think about how accurate the time it gives is? For our daily lives, clocks only really need to be accurate to within a few minutes or seconds. What if you are scientist, engineer, or astronaut? You may need to measure time very precisely. ESA scientists have begun testing a new type of highly accurate clock that uses pulsars! Called “PulChron”, it measures the passing of time using m