Forging the future

Where does ESA get its ideas from? One major source of new concepts is through our Discovery and Preparation activities, forming part of ESA's Basic Activities. Working with and across all ESA programmes, from human spaceflight to Earth observation, Discovery and Preparation lays the groundwork for ESA's nearer-term future activities.

By supporting exploratory research into new concepts, Discovery and Preparation finds new ways of exploring space, supporting the evolution of ESA and contributing to overall Agency strategy. Through Discovery and Preparation activities, new technology, applications and working methods are investigated across all areas of ESA.

From exploring how to reduce plastic in the oceans and enable autonomous shipping, to investigating how to create a space internet and help astronauts prepare for life in space, Discovery and Preparation is advancing all areas of space research.

These investigations are carried out by experts within industry and academia, to provide new views on existing problems, as well as pushing the boundaries of our knowledge by developing the newest technology. We also seek the perspectives and motivations of industry by organising workshops, visits and interviews.

Furthermore, Discovery and Preparation activities assess the viability of proposed space missions, providing ESA Member States and the scientific community with all necessary information to help choose Europe's future paths into space. Providing a deeper scientific and technical understanding of new space endeavours, these studies takes place in ESA's Concurrent Design Facility.

In coming months, Discovery and Preparation will focus its efforts on supporting research into specific applications of space technology, including encouraging marine safety and efficiency through autonomous shipping and monitoring marine plastic litter. In the more distant future, the activities will concentrate on forecasting natural disasters, analysing urban noise, printing food for space, seeking new methods of space transportation and much more.

A large number of ESA missions have been enabled through Discovery and Preparation activities. To find out more, explore our interactive mission timeline, which includes links to the research that has supported missions in their early stages.

Most of these missions were launched, or are planned for launch, but even studies carried out for missions that never flew still advance our understanding of space science and technology.

Related Links
Discovery and Preparation at ESA
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ESA and DLR in joint study to support deep space missions
Paris (ESA) Apr 04, 2019
An existing deep-space dish antenna at the DLR Weilheim site, near Munich, may offer an almost-readymade solution to the problem of providing sufficient ground station capacity to support ESA's current and future deep-space exploration missions. Now and in the next few years, ESA is sending some of the most advanced spacecraft ever flown to exotic locations like Mars, Mercury and Jupiter, and these missions all have one thing in common: they need plenty of ground station capacity to download their ... read more