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
Go to topicThe Imaging System for BepiColombo MSE is basically composed of a stereo camera pair with associated mechatronics and optics subsystems. The mechatronics provides a stable structure for camera mounting and mechanisms for mast deployment and 360° azimuth rotation. The camera pair is equipped with a fixed focus wide-angle optics and a large scale Active Pixel Sensors to take images with high resolution over a large field of view. To demonstrate the technological feasibility and performance of the design a breadboard (in the picture) has been manufactured and tested by vH&S, Jena Optronik and DLR-Berlin under contract to ESA.