Space missions and research programs

ExoMars is a program of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
The aim of ExoMars is to search for signs of past life on Mars and to demonstrate the technologies for a future Mars sample return mission.

The first part of the program was launched in 2016 (Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli EDM Lander). The orbiter has been successfully deployed, but the lander crashed on the planet's surface. The second part of the program (ExoMars2022) is scheduled for launch in 2022 (Kazachok Lander and Rosalind Franklin Rover).

Biomass is an Earth observation satellite currently being developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), which will use radar to measure the biomass of all the Earth's forests and monitor their changes from 2023. The aim is to determine the carbon storage capacity of forests over time.

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a European research institute for astronomical research that operates various telescopes in Chile. KRP has been involved in various projects as part of the new and further development of the ESO telescopes.

JET is a European test facility in Culham (UK) for the development of nuclear fusion reactors of the tokamak type. JET is currently the world's largest experiment based on this principle. The successor project ITER is based on the methods of plasma heating, diagnostics and modeling developed with JET.

The Solar Orbiter (SolO) is a space probe of the European Space Agency (ESA) in cooperation with NASA. The SolO mission is part of ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 science program and its main objective is to study the solar wind.

ITER is an experimental nuclear fusion reactor and an international research project with the long-term goal of generating electricity from fusion energy. The reactor is based on the tokamak principle and has been under construction at the Cadarache Nuclear Research Center in the south of France since 2007, focusing on various methods and designs for plasma heating, diagnostics and control and testing various blanket designs for incubating tritium. The aim is to burn the plasma for up to one hour and the fusion power obtained should exceed the heating power used several times over. According to current plans (as of January 2020), a hydrogen plasma is to be produced in the facility for the first time in December 2025.

Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) is an experimental facility for researching nuclear fusion technology, which is operated in Greifswald by the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP). The main component is a stellarator. W7-X will be used to investigate the physical and technical principles and demonstrate the basic suitability of nuclear fusion reactors of the stellarator type for power plants; this facility is not intended for the significant release of fusion energy. The first helium plasma was produced in the facility at the end of 2015 and the first hydrogen plasma at the beginning of 2016.

JUICE is an ESA Jupiter probe currently under construction. Its aim is to explore the Galilean moons of the planet Jupiter. Development began in 2012 and the probe is due to be launched in summer 2022.

Europa Clipper is a NASA space probe mission planned for the late 2020s and early 2030s. The mission is intended to provide detailed information about Jupiter's moon Europa, with a focus on researching its habitability.