REGION GLOBALE | webinaire | Exploring our Solar System : Missions of the European Space Agency in the Vastity of Interplanetary Space

Exploring our Solar System: 

Missions of the European Space Agency in the Vastity of Interplanetary Space

Webinar presented by Paolo FERRI

Wednesday February 24th, 2021, (12h30-14h00 CET Paris)

Europe started building and flying satellites in space already in 1968, but it was not until almost two decades later, in 1985, that it sent its first space probe, Giotto, to leave Earth orbit and venture into interplanetary space, millions of km from home. Giotto was the historical mission to encounter comet Halley.

But even this first deep space mission remained on an Earth-like orbit around the Sun, not too far from our star and from our planet. The real interplanetary adventure for Europe begun in the late 90ies, with the preparation of the Rosetta mission to rendezvous with a comet’s nucleus and land a scientific laboratory unto its surface. With this historical mission ESA managed to build the necessary infrastructure and expertise to travel in deep space, opening the doors to the European exploration of our Solar System.

Since then, ESA has launched a probe to orbit Venus, two probes still orbiting Mars, one currently traveling towards Mercury and one to study the Sun from close distance. New ambitious missions are being prepared for launch in the coming years to explore the icy moons of Jupiter, to land on the surface of Mars, to orbit an asteroid and to intercept a long period comet. The current decade will end with a spectacular joint multi-mission project with NASA, aimed to return to Earth samples from the surface of Mars.

Thanks to the progresses of the last two decades, Europe is today one of the two true space powers in the world in the field of interplanetary travel and solar system exploration, at equal level with NASA in terms of technology, capabilities, and know-how (although not in terms of budget…).

This webinar tells the story of the European space missions leaving Earth orbit and travel in interplanetary space, to reach and study from close proximity the planets, comets and asteroids, the Sun. The technical and managerial challenges for the realization of these long term, true exploration projects are described and emphasized.

 Paolo FERRI studied theoretical physics at the University of Pavia (Italy).

He spent his entire professional career at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, working initially as scientist, then moving to the area of mission operations.

In his career he has led the preparation and execution of the flight operations many interplanetary missions like Rosetta, Venus Express, Bepi Colombo and Solar Orbiter.

From 2013 to 2020 he was Head of ESA’s Mission Operations Department, responsible for the operations of all unmanned space missions of the European Space Agency.

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