The European Student Earth Orbiter, short ESEO, is a planned microsatellite developed by a European network of students, SSETI, in cooperation with the ESA. Experiments and two cameras are the planned payload of ESEO. The experiments are meant to measure radiation in the earth’s Van-Allen-Belt, while the cameras should survey primarily the South Atlantic Ocean and Europe. Benefiting the participating students’ education is a major part of the mission, as with the other SSETI projects.

The SSETI team from Stuttgart was part of the group, responsible for the cold gas propulsion and control system. In late 2008, however, attempts to reduce the satellite’s cost and weight led to the elimination of the cold gas systems. In their place, attitude control will be performed via magnetorquer and momentum wheels. This suffices to control the satellite on the new, circular orbit. As of 2015, ESEO was at the end of phase C (preliminary design) on the way to phase D (final design) with an expected launch date into LEO in 2016. There remains, however, no cooperation with students from Stuttgart.