Precise Earth measurement from space

ESA’s Navigation Directorate is planning a new satellite whose results will enable the generation of an updated global model of Earth – the International Terrestrial Reference Frame, employed for everything from land surveying to measuring sea level rise – with an accuracy down to 1 mm, while tracking ground motion of just 0.1 mm per year. This improvement, at a stroke, will have a major impact in multiple Navigation and Earth Science applications, including an enhancement on the precision of the Galileo navigation system. This mission, called GENESIS, is being proposed to ESA’s Council of Ministers in November 2022.