VEGA at ESTEC

ESTEC is the Research and Technology Centre for the European Space Agency (ESA) based in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. ESTEC is responsible for preparing ESA's space missions, testing satellites, and developing new space technology in close collaboration with Europe’s private sector and research institutions. ESTEC has the largest spacecraft test facilities in Europe, is located on the West Coast of the Netherlands between Amsterdam and The Hague, and is home to as many as 2,000 people from around Europe.

ESTEC Teams working at ESTEC comprise all fifteen ESA member states, although the official languages are English and French.

VEGA staff have been working at ESTEC since 1994, and we now have 40 employees based there. We provide a wide range of support services including engineering, computing, science, simulations, operations and software. The Space programmes we currently support include:

ADM Aeolus
Automated Transfer Vehicle
Columbus
Galileo
Herschel
Integral
MetOP
Planck
Rosetta
SMART-1

Herschel and Planck

Herschel and Planck are two ESA space observatories (satellite telescopes) due for launch in 2007, to explore the conception and evolution of the Universe.

Herschel, at approximately 9 metres high and 4.5 metres wide, will be the largest space telescope of its kind…bigger than Hubble. Named after William Herschel who discovered infrared light in 1800, the telescope will explore the coolest and most distant objects of the Universe which are invisible to the human eye. The telescope will therefore collect information using long-wavelength infrared (thermal) radiation to view these objects through the "heat" they emit.

VEGA is supporting ESTEC to develop leading-edge software (with the latest object-oriented design principles and Java code) which will enable the mission's science ground segment to analyse the complex data sent back from Herschel.

The Planck telescope has been described as ESA's 'time machine', as it will allow astronomers to look back to the beginning of space and time as we know it, the Big Bang.

The Universe is now filled with Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB) and CMB is actually the first light that ever existed freely in the Universe. As the Universe expanded, the waves of this primeval light were stretched to a much lower frequency and exist today as CMB.

Observing this "first light" today, is like seeing the Universe as it was only 300,000 years after the Big Bang and will help astronomers to develop theories describing its birth and evolution.

VEGA is supporting the development of an Integrated Data and Information System (IDIS) which will enable information management among all Planck developers throughout Europe and North America. We are also providing support to the Project Scientist’s Office in the form of ground segment engineering.

ADM Aeolus

The Atmospheric Dynamics Mission (ADM-Aeolus) will further our knowledge of the Earth's atmosphere and weather systems by providing global observations of three-dimensional wind fields. By recording and monitoring the weather in different parts of the world, ADM-Aeolus will allow scientists to build complex models of our environment, which can then be used to help predict how that environment will behave in the future, including phenomena such as El Niño.

VEGA is supporting the development of an Aeolus system simulator which will enable ESA scientists to generate the anticipated data from the Aeolus mission for all operational and calibration phases thereby assessing the overall system performance under a variety of atmospheric conditions. ADM-Aeolus is expected to launch in late 2009.

For further information please visit the ESTEC website.