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
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
A new simulation system allows researchers to investigate the complexities of contact dynamics in weightlessness – such as this robotic arm reaching out to touch a free-floating platform. Simulating true microgravity is impossible but it can be mimicked on a frictionless basis in two dimensions.
Known as the Orbital Robotics Bench for Integrated Technology (ORBIT) facility, it relies on a trio of air-bearing platforms scooting across the flattest surface by far in ESA’s ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands – a 4.8 x 9 m epoxy floor smoothed to within 0.8 mm.
This space-age ‘air hockey table’ was first tested last month, The centrepiece of ESA’s new Orbital Robotics and Guidance Navigation and Control Laboratory, it will serve proposals for missions aimed at microgravity or low-gravity environments.