Following on from the successful Venus Express mission (2006 – 2014), the EnVision mission is a mission to observe the surface of Venus at an unprecedented resolution, investigating signs of active geology and looking for evidence of the past existence of oceans. EnVision is meant to help in the understanding of why this most Earth-like planet has turned out so differently and open a new era in the exploration of our closest neighbour. EnVision is proposed as a joint mission with NASA, with payload elements funded by the ESA Member States.

The focus of this study was the system-level assessment of potential small mission architectures that could operate at Mars in the 2030s, after or potentially in parallel with MSR mission.

In particular two cases were evaluated:

• Mission 1: Mars Communications Constellation (MCC), for supporting assets on the surface and providing science
• Mission 2: Mars Science Orbiter (MSO), a science-driven mission, remote sensing

The study demonstrates that in an emergency situation, with only a very short warning time, the launch of a fast asteroid kinetic deflection mission is feasible (targeting launch-readiness in six months!), given that certain identified pre-requisites have been prepared well in advance. The capabilities and requirements of 'hijacking' and modifying a commercial spacecraft platform in order to perform asteroid kinetic deflection in the shortest possible time were consequently assessed.

The Arctic Mission System Study involved two parallel studies conducted by consortia led by OHB Sweden and Thales Alenia Space. The scope of the studies were to identify needs in the Arctic region that could be met with mission architecture containing space elements, to propose such mission architectures, to define the elements of one of the architectures in some detail and to propose a plan to implement it.

The study and exploitation of In Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) technologies (with an initial focus on the Moon) are stimulating an increasing interest in the international community, both at Agency and industry levels, in view of and in preparation for future crewed exploration missions and in terms of scientific and societal long-term benefits.

The demise of space debris (e.g. upper stages, satellites, their components) re-entering the atmosphere results in emissions into the atmosphere. Typically, most of the re-entering object mass does not survive the atmospheric transit and ends up being released into the atmosphere under gaseous or particulate forms. Depending on the nature and material composition of reentry debris, a wide range of re-entry gases and particles are released. Some are chemically active, in particular ozone destroying, or/and radiatively active (i.e. climate forcers).