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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An ESA Discovery & Preparation study looked into how spacecraft can be increasingly automated to make their operations more effective, and came up with the remarkable idea of auctioning off access to ground stations, to maximise the amount of data that can be sent down in a given time period.
The study developed a decentralised solution that models data exchange based on an approach similar to trading in a market economy. They propose that every satellite and ground station could negotiate individually to make a decision about when different data is transferred.
Read more here.