The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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A satellite scans Earth and sends data down to a ground station. One specific challenge in the era of Space 4.0 is the increase in data that satellite constellations will produce. This is as a result of both the increase in the number of satellites and improvements in technology, for example in sensor quality and quantity. And it means that satellites will at some point create more data than the limited number of ground stations are able to receive. To tackle this challenge, a variety of options can be considered, including carrying out onboard data processing, sharing ground station networks between constellations and inter-satellite communication.