ESA Science & Technology - Future Missions Department

12 July 2021

The SPICA mission's Phase A study was completed. The technical outcome is documented in the following report which may be used as guidance and reference for future studies.

30 June 2020

This document presents the activities in the Science Core Technology Programme (CTP) and in the Technology Development Element (TDE, replacing the TRP) of the Discovery, Preparation & Technology Development Basic Activities supporting the implementation of ESA's Science Programme. The national initiatives activities of relevance to the...

11 December 2019

This is the report of the second Comet Interceptor study, performed by ESA's Concurrent Design Facility between October and December 2019. It carries on from the first Comet Interceptor CDF study performed in early 2019.

15 July 2019The EPIG (ESA Probe for Investigation of the Giants) CDF study explored the feasibility of a European "stand-alone" mission to the Ice Giants (or Saturn as back-up). This is a summary report of the EPIG CDF study.

1 January 2019This is the report of the CDF study to analyse the feasibility of "stand-alone" elements provided by ESA to be part of a NASA-led mission to Uranus, Neptune and their moons. The study was carried out by an interdisciplinary team of experts from across ESA sites with the active participation of experts from NASA/JPL and the European science...

21 December 2018The internal Phase 0 study of the M5 mission candidate EnVision has been performed at ESA's Concurrent Design Facility (CDF). The internal final presentation, summarizing the outcome of the Phase 0 study, is now available for download.

21 December 2018The internal Phase 0 study of the M5 mission candidate SPICA has been performed at ESA's Concurrent Design Facility (CDF). The internal final presentation, summarizing the outcome of the Phase 0 study, is now available for download.

21 December 2018The internal Phase 0 study of the M5 mission candidate THESEUS has been performed at ESA's Concurrent Design Facility (CDF). The internal final presentation, summarizing the outcome of the Phase 0 study, is now available for download.

31 July 2018ESA's Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) has completed an assessment study of the Quantum Physics PlatForm (QPPF): a mission concept to test the quantum superposition principle with "massive" test particles of more than 10⁹ atomic mass units. The topic is one of three selected for investigation following the 2016 Call for New Science...

11 June 2018

ESA's Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) has completed an assessment study of Small Planetary Platforms (SPP): small planetary mission concepts that include a mothercraft and a swarm of small satellites that can be deployed. The study results are available in this set of three reports.

23 October 2017This document is the assessment study report for GaiaNIR (Gaia Near Infra-Red), which was one of the proposals received in response to the 2016 Call for New Science Ideas in ESA's Science Programme.

1 March 2017

1 March 2017

1 March 2017