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 animation is the view enjoyed by the Remote Control Centre of the rover being tested in Chile’s Atacama Desert during October 2013’s five-day Sample Acquisition Field Experiment with a Rover – SAFER – trial. The sequence, produced by the ‘Overseer’ planning, monitoring and control software produced by UK partner SCISYS begins with panoramic imagery from the rover’s PanCam, shifting to output from its autonomous navigation software including path-planning hazard maps, digital terrain models, localisation positions plus navcam images. Finally the radargram produced by the rover’s ground penetrating radar is overlaid onto the 3D terrain. The playback has been set to 16 times real time. The background digital elevation model of the site was obtained by RAL Space using a flying drone.