{"id":322827,"date":"2017-05-29T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-29T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?guid=6e3844973c6e98fb8b2db7327dc177b5"},"modified":"2017-05-29T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-29T09:00:00","slug":"stormtrooper-at-esa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=322827","title":{"rendered":"Stormtrooper at ESA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\nAt first sight it might seem obvious which of these \u2018models\u2019 is the odd one out: standing between the satellites is apparently a Star Wars stormtrooper.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut the stormtrooper is actually our Rosetta project scientist, Matt Taylor, who is one of three ESA scientists taking the stage at science fiction convention \u2018FedCon<\/a>\u2019 in Bonn, Germany, 2\u20135 June.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhile Matt will present Rosetta<\/a>\u2019s incredible adventure at a comet, including its dramatic conclusion, ESA Senior Science Advisor Mark McCaughrean will highlight some of our other exciting missions<\/a>, to Mercury, Mars and Jupiter, along with missions to study planets around other stars.\n<\/p>\n

\nPaul McNamara, project scientist for LISA Pathfinder<\/a>, will explore the science of gravitational waves, and how they are portrayed in the Star Trek universe. Think gravitational wavefronts, continuous graviton beams, fluctuating graviton fields and more.\n<\/p>\n

\nRepresentatives from ESA\u2019s science and operations teams will also be on hand to answer your questions at our exhibition stand. You can also try our \u2018science meets science fiction quiz\u2019 to win ESA goodies. And, of course, keep an eye out for our friendly stormtrooper!\n<\/p>\n

\nThe photograph featured here was taken at ESA\u2019s technical heart<\/a>, in the Netherlands, and shows test models of various satellites and hardware.\n<\/p>\n

\nAt the far right is ESRO-4<\/a>, launched in 1972 to study Earth\u2019s atmosphere, ionosphere and radiation belts.\n<\/p>\n

\nHEOS-1<\/a> sits on the other side of the stormtrooper. Launched in 1968, it was the first European probe to venture beyond near-Earth space, in order to study the magnetic fields, radiation and the solar wind outside of Earth\u2019s magnetosphere.\n<\/p>\n

\nNext in line is the Automated Transport Vehicle<\/a> docking assembly, used to dock the resupply ship to the International Space Station.\n<\/p>\n

\nFinally, at the far left is COS-B<\/a>, which, in 1975, was the first mission launched by ESA following its creation in 1973. COS-B studied gamma-ray objects, and was a precursor to Integral<\/a>, which is still operating.\n<\/p>\n

\nYou can view this historic space hardware during our annual open day, which this year will be held on 8 October (full details coming soon).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\nAt first sight it might seem obvious which of these ‘models’ is the odd one out: standing between the satellites is apparently a Star Wars stormtrooper.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut the stormtrooper is actually our Rosetta project scientist, Matt Taylor, who is one of three ESA scientists taking the stage at science fiction convention ‘FedCon<\/a>’ in Bonn, Germany, 2–5 June.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhile Matt will present Rosetta<\/a>’s incredible adventure at a comet, including its dramatic conclusion, ESA Senior Science Advisor Mark McCaughrean will highlight some of our other exciting missions<\/a>, to Mercury, Mars and Jupiter, along with missions to study planets around other stars.\n<\/p>\n

\nPaul McNamara, project scientist for LISA Pathfinder<\/a>, will explore the science of gravitational waves, and how they are portrayed in the Star Trek universe. Think gravitational wavefronts, continuous graviton beams, fluctuating graviton fields and more.\n<\/p>\n

\nRepresentatives from ESA’s science and operations teams will also be on hand to answer your questions at our exhibition stand. You can also try our ‘science meets science fiction quiz’ to win ESA goodies. And, of course, keep an eye out for our friendly stormtrooper!\n<\/p>\n

\nThe photograph featured here was taken at ESA’s technical heart<\/a>, in the Netherlands, and shows test models of various satellites and hardware.\n<\/p>\n

\nAt the far right is ESRO-4<\/a>, launched in 1972 to study Earth’s atmosphere, ionosphere and radiation belts.\n<\/p>\n

\nHEOS-1<\/a> sits on the other side of the stormtrooper. Launched in 1968, it was the first European probe to venture beyond near-Earth space, in order to study the magnetic fields, radiation and the solar wind outside of Earth’s magnetosphere.\n<\/p>\n

\nNext in line is the Automated Transport Vehicle<\/a> docking assembly, used to dock the resupply ship to the International Space Station.\n<\/p>\n

\nFinally, at the far left is COS-B<\/a>, which, in 1975, was the first mission launched by ESA following its creation in 1973. COS-B studied gamma-ray objects, and was a precursor to Integral<\/a>, which is still operating.\n<\/p>\n

\nYou can view this historic space hardware during our annual open day, which this year will be held on 8 October (full details coming soon).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":615444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-322827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multimedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=322827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322828,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322827\/revisions\/322828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/615444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=322827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=322827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=322827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}