Video - Wanted: Astronauts

The European Space Agency is recruiting astronauts for the first time in 15 years. People aged between 27-35, with a pilot's medical certificate and advanced science degree or test pilot background are welcome to apply.

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Faster, Better Emergency Response Through Satellite

When emergency teams are well informed and governments can coordinate their efforts, lives and property can be saved. The Health Early Warning System, a project supported by the European Space Agency (ESA), is intended to bring this benefit to Europe. Extreme natural phenomena like tsunamis, earthquakes and hurricanes have featured prominently in the news. So, too, has the rapid spread of new diseases such as SARS and avian flu. By identifying and mapping occurrences of these problems sooner, agencies can relieve suffering more quickly and contain a situation more efficiently. That is why ESA is supporting the Health Early Warning System (HEWS), which will improve the performance of emergency service end-users.

HEWS offers these users a wider, real-time perspective of events and how to manage them. It integrates knowledge of a particular threat or disease and brings it to remote areas, even if they are in an extreme state of disorder. It helps with logistical support and reduces the need to carry large amounts of heavy equipment to trouble spots.

A pan-European solution HEWS works by setting up a communication network via satellite to survey and monitor risk indicators. It allows communication between teams in the field and with command centres. Data from many locations can be collected, stored and processed. It can then be quickly analysed and distributed to the users who need it the most. HEWS is an open platform, built using a modular approach, so the widest variety of users can implement it. What will make HEWS critical to disaster relief agencies is that it is satellite based. Disasters may disrupt or even destroy local infrastructure – but satellites are immune to their effects.

Two scenarios

The system will be tested in two different exercise scenarios, one African and one European. In the first, a suspected case of an infectious disease is reported. Field teams will be deployed by the local Ministry of Health, international organisations and NGOs. The scenario will require them to assess the current situation and deploy a mobile laboratory. Based on field reports, a practice emergency will be declared. HEWS will provide real-time reporting from the various locations and provide insight into how the epidemic is developing. A response will then be organised and feedback provided to mobile teams on road access, water, food, drugs, and medical disposables.

The second scenario simulates a terrorist attack in the center of a European capital. The resulting confusion leads to traffic jams and saturation of the mobile telephone network. The work of the many civil protection and health operators, who are all entering the scene at the same time, is hindered by a lack of coordination and field information, particularly on decontamination measures and treatment protocols. HEWS will give civil protection authorities the ability to supply this information and coordinate the field teams correctly.

HEWS is the work of a consortium of three companies, Instituto Nacional de Saúde and Tekever S.A., both from Portugal, and Ridgeback s.a.s. from Italy. The project is co-financed by ESA as part of the Health and Telemedicine via Satellite Program.

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Safer Air Traffic With EGNOS

Vertical guidance by means of signals from the sky: this is what EGNOS, the first European satellite navigation service, will offer pilots during approach and landing. Flight trials are regularly conducted to demonstrate the new possibilities offered by the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), which has been launched by ESA, the European Commission and Eurocontrol.

A few weeks ago, the Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile (DGAC – French Civil Aviation Authority) test plane was specially equipped to make tests using EGNOS. At Limoges airport the ATR42 made a number of approaches and landings using the new procedures, in each case aligning itself with the runway's axis and then following a descent path to touchdown.

Inside the plane, normally used for calibration of airport systems in France, the method of analysing the quality of the EGNOS signals was by comparing the landing phases guided by satellite with landings using traditional means such as the Instrument Landing System (ILS).

The results of Limoges trials show again that EGNOS signals allow approaches and landings that meet the safety standards that govern international air traffic. One of the main advantages of EGNOS in this application is that it is available everywhere without the need for ground infrastructure and it provides vertical guidance procedures for every runway.

Furthermore, the cockpit data display is the same as for ILS, so there are no familiarization problems for the pilots and no additional training costs. Currently in pre-operational service, EGNOS will be certified in 2008 for safety-of-life applications such as air traffic control.

Systems that are equivalent to EGNOS have been set up in the United States, Japan and India, and these systems are compatible and interoperable.

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Successful Rosetta Swing-by -- Next Stop Earth

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft successfully completed a swing-by of Mars in the early hours of Sunday morning (February 25). Not only did this mark an important milestone on the spacecraft's 7.1 billion km journey to comet Churyumov Gerasimenko but it provided a unique opportunity to gather further scientific data and images from the Red Planet, scientists say.

The critical gravity assist maneuver around Mars has helped Rosetta change direction – putting it on the correct track towards Earth its next destination planet whose gravitational energy Rosetta will exploit in November this year to gain acceleration and continue on its 10-year journey to the comet which it will reach in 2014.

Mission controllers at ESOC, ESA's Space Operations Centre in Germany confirmed that Rosetta had successfully completed the swing-by. At its closest approach Rosetta passed the surface of Mars at a distance of 250 km (155 miles) travelling at a mere 10.1 km/second relative to the center of the planet.

During the swing by there was a 25 minute period when Rosetta passed into the shadow of Mars denying the probe the ability to generate power using its solar arrays. At this time the spacecraft was put into "eclipse mode" with no science operations taking place on the orbiter instruments, mission scientists say.

However, during the lead up to the closest approach and after the eclipse period the flyby presented scientists with a golden opportunity to calibrate the payload with instruments on other orbiting spacecraft such as Mars Express and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Prior to the orbiter's instruments being switched off the Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System (OSIRIS) captured some detailed images showing the atmospheric features of Mars, including cloud systems above the North polar cap, the scientists say.

Professor Keith Mason, CEO from the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), says, "Rosetta has provided some amazing images of Mars from a completely different perspective. Data gathered during the swing-by will complement that collected by other current missions enabling us to build up a comprehensive picture of the make up of Mars."

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