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 group of students from the Saxion University of Applied Sciences and the University of Twente are taking this concept to the limit by racing a solar-powered car in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. The route will take Solar Team Twente, and more than 50 teams from 30 countries on a challenging journey across Australia. To be successful, their car RED-E, must travel the 3000 km from Darwin to Adelaide using only the energy of the Sun and a bare minimum of maintenance.
This is very similar to the journeys taken by ESA’s space missions, and on this particular occasion Solar Team Twente have benefited from a gift of spare solar panels from ESA’s JUICE mission. Like RED-E, JUICE will take the capabilities of solar power to the limit by traveling to Jupiter, five times farther away from the Sun than Earth.