http://ec.europa.eu//research/index.cfm?pg=whatsnew en Fri, 24 May 2013 14:47:01 GMT http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?pg=rss For more RSS news feeds click the link above. Fri, 24 May 2013 14:47:01 GMT http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?pg=rss http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-elsa&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28934 August 2013 will see the launch of Gaia, a five-year space mission packed with scientific ambition that is quite literally astronomical. The European Space Agency (ESA) aims to chart about one billion stars, or roughly 1% of the Milky Way. It is expected to discover thousands of new celestial objects, from extra-solar planets to failed stars called brown dwarfs. It is an extraordinary endeavour, taking astrometry to a new level of complexity and precision, but it will mean little if Europe's science community cannot handle the volume of data that Gaia space mission is expected to send back to Earth. And this is where ELSA comes in. ]]> Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-01-10:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-elsa&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28934 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_04_19_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=24634 A European team of researchers led by the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland has developed a prototype of a new, ultra-compact motor that will enable small satellites to journey beyond Earth's orbit. The objective of this new motor is to make space exploration less expensive. The result is an outcome of the MICROTHRUST ('Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based electric micropropulsion for small spacecraft to enable robotic space exploration and space science') project, which is supported under the Space Theme of the FP7, to the tune of EUR 1.9 million.]]> Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-04-19:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_04_19_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=24634