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.
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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
Go to topicIntroduction video to ESA’s Cryosat mission, prior to launch in October 2005. The video includes the following:
00.26 Cryosat New Release September 2005
00:43 Introduction: what will ESA obtain by Cryosat? Graphics illustrating Cryosat operation.
01:08 Malcolm Davidson, ESA’s Cryosat Validation Manager from ESA Earth and Science Divistion, explains why it is important to know exactly what Cryosat will measure: the change in ice masses on Earth.
01:35 Cryosat construction and testing in clean room
01:48 Professor Duncan Wingham, Cryosat Project Scientist and Lead Investigator, University College London, explains that the icecap on Greenland is melting worrying fast
02:10 Why is it a major problem that the Ice Cap on Greenland is melting very fast
02:23 Using radar technology, tested on previous ESA satellites such as ERS and Envisat, Cryosat will provide scientist with reliable 3-d models of the polar ice sheets, marine glaciers and floating ice.
02:41 Professor Duncan Wingham explains what this instrument provide in addition to previous measurements
03:04 Cryosat will be launched 8 October 2005 from Russia, onboard a Rokot launch vehicle. The plan is that it shall spend 3 years in orbit and relay data back to Earth to the Kiruna ground station in Sweden.
03:18 Scientists will be able to prove changing in melting ice and if the speed of the melting is increasing.
03:30 The End