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 replica of ESA’s Ops-Sat was displayed at this month’s Agency Technology workshop.
The mini-satellite is made up of three standardised 10 x 10 x 10 cm CubeSat units with deployable solar panels on each side.
Ops-Sat is a technology demonstrator, although its purpose is not to evaluate experimental hardware but instead to test out radically new control systems and techniques.
In order to do this, experimental software will be uploaded to the satellite – which contains a computer 10 times more powerful than any current ESA spacecraft – each day, along with its ground system.
In effect, Ops-Sat, due for launch in 2017, will be a flying software lab. More than 100 companies and institutions from 17 European countries have registered experimental proposals to fly.