Space Missions

The Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB) is and has been an important partner for several space missions. The institute can play an essential role before the mission, during and/or after the mission. Recent space missions:

ESA-NASA Exomars mission ALTIUS PICARD EPT

ISS, SOLSPEC ROSETTA Venus Express Mars Express

 

Before the mission

BIRA-IASB helps to determine scientific needs and technological concepts. Tools and models providing crucial information about the space environment, develloped at BIRA-IASB, are used by engineers in defining space missions and designing space instruments.

BIRA-IASB plays a major role to achieve the scientific goals of a space mission. The Institute is responsible for the design and manufacturing of several instruments in collaboration with Belgian industrial partners.

 

During space missions

The BIRA-IASB/B.USOC serves as mission control center to do observations and perform experiments from a great distance.

The BIRA-IASB/B.USOC can also provide archiving and data processing centres.

 

After the mission

The scientific teams of the BIRA-IASB analyze the data to obtain the scientific results with answers to their scientific questions.

More details:

• Mission scenarios
• Instrument design and technology
• Mission operations
• Data management