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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This sequence of images was obtained by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express on 26 July 2008 (orbit 5861), at a distance of 2295 km from the moon’s centre, and provides a striking impression of the encounter. The image was taken using all 9 imaging channels of the camera. The resolution shown here is 92 m/pixel for each image.
HRSC is a so-called push-broom camera, building up images in a ‘scanning’ mode while the spacecraft passes over the surface. Its nine channels, or scanning lines, are oriented in different directions that spread from 18.9° behind the nadir viewpoint (corresponding to a vertical line of sight), to 18.9° ahead of the nadir. This gives the camera its stereo-viewing capacity.