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 microscopic-3D image of a small area of an 'off the shelf' gold coated mirror, produced through diamond-turning. The largest feature size is about 30 nm high and the average roughness of the surface is about 10 nm. For a commercial product this is a satisfactory result for ESA to utilise. The quality of this mirror surface was tested at ESA’s optics laboratory to verify that its performance and quality was sufficient for use in a laser communications experiment. The vertical lines running from top to bottom along the surface are an expected characteristic of the process used to manufacture the mirror.
This mirror was installed in ESA’s optical ground station (OGS) on the Canary Islands (Spain) and successfully used in the recent test campaign with NASA to verify the performance of their new laser terminal on the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft orbiting the moon.