eSpace

Curious about the Minor? Join us for a fun and informative session where you'll get a concrete overview of the courses.

0:00 Welcome remarks - Prof. Andreas Burg
4:15 Intro by Emmanuelle David and Mathieu Udriot from the EPFL Space Center, also course coordinators
20:20 Special guest talk by Claude Nicollier, astronaut and program lecturer
34:45 Lightening talks from alumni sharing their experiences
50:00 Award ceremony for the ClearSpace Prize

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by MSc. Justin Bourgois.

ESA’s Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) has now been operating for over 25 years, contributing to many of ESA’s flagship missions. This webinar aims to introduce you to the concurrent engineering approach and how it can help streamline the initial design phase of space missions. Follow the presentation, for an insider’s perspective from an ESA trainee and explore how the CDF is contributing to future missions.

Having graduated from Delft University of Technology with a MSc in Aerospace Engineering, Justin Bourgois has worked for two years as a Systems Engineering trainee at ESA’s Concurrent Design Facility, contributing to the early phase design of many of ESA’s future mission candidates, ranging from CubeSat missions to Medium Class Science missions and Mars Exploration missions.


Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction.
01:40 Start of the presentation.
03:59 What is the CDF primarily used for?
12:07 What is Concurrent engineering? An iterative process.
20:05 So, what is the CDF?
22:18 Benefits of the CDF and Concurrent Engineering Approach.
23:59 ESA Missions that were studied at the CDF.
24:59 What are other uses of the CDF?
26:05 Justin's personal experience as a Graduate Trainee at the CDF
33:50 Opportunities at ESA for students and young graduates
36:07 Start of Q&A
37:16 Q1: What is your favourite study so far?
38:57 Q2: To what extent do you follow-up on the mission development after a CDF study?
41:42 Q3: How long is the development after the CDF until launch of the mission?
43:30 Q4: What is ESA's interaction with industry, in terms of its use of the CDF and follow-up work?
46:12 Q5: Who decides on which CDF study to do and who chooses which specific company gets to continue the design post-CDF?
49:16 Q6: At the end of the CDF, who decides on the final budget that will drive the follow-up work post-CDF?
51:11 Q7: Are environmental impacts also taken into consideration (e.g. as a KPI) during a CDF study?
53:22 Q8 What would you (Justin) recommend as next steps for students during and after their studies? ESA Academy and Graduate Trainee program
57:07 Q9 Can one apply through cold mails for internship opportunities or should one apply in November, when they publish the internships?
58:02 Outro


#Engineering #SpaceMissions #SpaceSystems

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#solarpower #moon #switzerland #espaceseminar

To address the energy and climate crises, renewed interest in Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP) is being actively pursued in Europe, USA, Japan, South Korea, and China. The European Space Agency launched its SOLARIS programme in November 2022 to further investigate and mature the feasibility of SBSP through a technology R&D programme. SBSP can deliver clean and sustainable baseload and dispatchable electrical power 24/7, 365 days a year at an availability of approximately 99.5% and is not influenced by the weather nor by the day-night cycle. Over the coming decades, Switzerland needs to invest in its energy transition from fossil fuels to more sustainable energy supplies, but it remains unclear which terrestrial energy systems could best guarantee Switzerland’s energy security. Switzerland has the need, the technical means, and the financial resources to be an early user and enabler of SBSP and perhaps lead an international collaborative effort to supply Switzerland and the world with inexhaustible clean energy. The Swiss company Astrostrom is researching a unique approach to SBSP via manufacturing Solar Power Satellite (SPS) components on the Moon from lunar materials. This approach could reduce the amount of mass for a SPS launched from Earth by 80% or more as well as reducing costs and the related CO2 emissions.

Arthur Woods, founder and CEO of Astrostrom GmbH, is an astronautical artist and independent researcher with two art projects successfully flown on the Russian Mir space station. He had the fortunate experience to personally witness the beginnings of the U.S. space program while living in the immediate vicinity of Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center (1959 -1970), where he held summer jobs in 1967 & 1968 during the Apollo program. He is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics.

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#spacesustainability #lifecycle #spacesystems

by Dr. Andrew Wilson.

The application of Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) within the concurrent engineering process presents a viable method for assessing environmental, social and economic impacts of space missions. Despite the importance of this for embedding sustainability principles into spacecraft design, the novelty of the concept within the concurrent engineering process has meant that the approach has not yet been widely implemented. In this presentation, Dr Wilson will discuss his experience and the challenges of applying LCE within a concurrent design setting. Drawing upon examples and case studies, he will outline the progress being made within this field, and present key findings that are important takeaways when including LCE as an engineering discipline within concurrent design studies of space systems.

Dr Andrew Ross Wilson is a Lecturer in Environmental Management at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU). He holds a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Management from GCU and a PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Strathclyde.Andrew specialises in space sustainability, with a particular focus on life cycle assessment, carbon accounting and energy systems of engineering projects. However, Andrew’s technical background is in environmental management, and his work is extremely interdisciplinary. In this regard, Andrew’s services are often consulted by external parties with regard to the assessment, mitigation and communication of sustainability issues. This can often vary from being very specific and technical-facing, to being broad and societal-facing, and the range of risks, impacts and decision-making processes in between. Ultimately, his work aims to inform how society can transition towards a future that is truly sustainable, as envisaged through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Due to his contribution to science and technological development, Andrew was awarded the 2018 Young Scot Environment Award, designated one of Junior Chamber International’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons of Scotland in 2019, won the ESA-EISC Space for Sustainability Award 2021, and was named GCU Alumni of the Year 2022.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction
01:23 Start of presentation
04:29 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for Space
10:15 Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA)
11:48 LCSA/LCA at early stage design
13:07 Concurrent Engineering and CDF
19:01 LCA versus eco-design & Life Cycle Engineering (LCE)
22:59 Strathclyde Space Systems Database (SSSD)
28:14 Issues regarding the application of LCE
29:41 Mission design case studies and methodology
32:43 Technical implementation of LCE in Concurrent Design tool
38:04 Findings: LCE results & Discussion on sensitivity of single-score
41:33 Findings: Observations on behaviour of concurrent design engineers
42:46 Conclusions: Avoiding greenwashing, Importance of space LCA, LCSA vs LCA for space, integration of LCE into concurrent engineering, etc.
46:14 Conclusion
47:18 Thank you & Reference to EPFL courses + start Q&A
48:37 Q1: Can students access the ESA LCA database? If so, how?
52:29 Q2: What is an Ecoinvent license?
53:28 Q3: How did you divide the responsibility for space sustainability within the concurrent design team?
56:37 Q4: Is there a need for an add-on to the concurrent design tool?
58:35 Q5: How do you deal with the lack of knowledge of the design at early stage?
1:00:50 Q6: How do you incentivize engineers to take into account sustainability at early stage design?

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#solarflares #cubesat #epfl
The X-ray imaging spectrometer STIX onboard ESA’s flagship mission Solar Orbiter was designed and build with a Swiss lead at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW). STIX is now in its fourth year of operation and has recorded so far over 45’000 solar flares. The STIX detectors designed by CEA, France, work extremely reliably with all 32 detectors still working nominally showing only minimal degradation due to radiation damage. We still have over 50 STIX flight spare detectors available, and four of those will fly on a NASA cubesat mission called PADRE lead by UC Berkeley (PI J.C. Martinez-Oliveros). In this talk, Säm Krucker will introduce the science of solar flares and the STIX instrument and then show how STIX X-ray detectors are used in the PADRE cubsat mission.

Säm Krucker's main scientific interests are in problems of plasma astrophysics, especially solar and heliospheric physics, from an observational and experimental point of view. He has a strong background in space hardware and I have been the PI of NASA’s Small Explorer mission RHESSI and NASA’s sounding rocket program FOXSI. He is currently the lead of the hard X-ray imaging spectrometer STIX onboard ESA’s Solar Orbiter mission.

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#quantum #quantumphysics #quantumscience #epfl #epflspacecenter

In this talk, prof. Charbon will review the evolution of solid-state photon counting sensors from avalanche photodiodes (APDs) to silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) to single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs). The impact of these sensors on LiDAR has been remarkable, however, more innovations are to come with the continuous advance of integrated SPADs and the introduction of powerful computational imaging techniques directly coupled to SPADs/SiPMs. New technologies, such as 3D-stacking in combination with Ge and InP/InGaAs SPAD sensors, are accelerating the adoption of SWIR/NIR image sensors, while enabling new sensing functionalities. Prof. Charbon will conclude the talk with a technological perspective on how all these technologies could come together in low-cost, computational-intensive image sensors, for affordable, yet powerful quantum imaging

Edoardo Charbon (SM’00 F’17) received the Diploma from ETH Zurich, the M.S. from the University of California at San Diego, and the Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1988, 1991, and 1995, respectively, all in electrical engineering and EECS. He has consulted with numerous organizations, including Bosch, X-Fab, Texas Instruments, Maxim, Sony, Agilent, and the Carlyle Group. He was with Cadence Design Systems from 1995 to 2000, where he was the Architect of the company's initiative on information hiding for intellectual property protection. In 2000, he joined Canesta Inc., as the Chief Architect, where he led the development of wireless 3-D CMOS image sensors.

Since 2002 he has been a member of the faculty of EPFL, where is a full professor. From 2008 to 2016 he was with Delft University of Technology’s as Chair of VLSI design. Dr. Charbon has been the driving force behind the creation of deep-submicron CMOS SPAD technology, which is mass-produced since 2015 and is present in telemeters, proximity sensors, and medical diagnostics tools. His interests span from 3-D vision, LiDAR, FLIM, FCS, NIROT to super-resolution microscopy, time-resolved Raman spectroscopy, and cryo-CMOS circuits and systems for quantum computing. He has authored or co-authored over 400 papers and two books, and he holds 24 patents. Dr. Charbon is the recipient of the 2023 IISS Pioneering Achievement Award, he is a distinguished visiting scholar of the W. M. Keck Institute for Space at Caltech, a fellow of the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience Delft, a distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Photonics Society, and a fellow of the IEEE.

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by Stephan Hellmich & Mathieu Udriot

eSpace - EPFL Space Center is a pioneer in space sustainability. With the Clean Space Initiative, initially proposed to deorbit Swisscube which eventually spin-off from EPFL as the ClearSpace-1 mission to recover the Vega Secondary Payload Adapter (VESPA), the Center can draw on a decade of experience in space sustainability. More recently, in 2019 eSpace initiated a two-year pilot phase of a research initiative on sustainable space logistics (RISSL). This initiative was the starting point of several consortium projects that attracted many stakeholders, resulting in several publications and the development of a space logistics modelling software for mission profile evaluation and optimization [1]. The success of this pilot phase encouraged the Center to continue exploring this new domain. Current research includes life cycle assessment of space transportation vehicles, accounting for space debris risks and the reentry phase, optimisation of space logistics, and mission design. These projects will help understanding and improving the situation in space. It is especially important to assess future impacts of new missions early in the design phase, in order to support space agencies and industry in designing new concepts with lower environmental impacts.

Thanks to these 10+ years of experience, in 2021 EPFL was selected to host the Space Sustainability Rating (SSR), which incentivizes space operators to adopt more responsible mission design and operational behaviour. Its competence and neutrality, two important prerequisites for a successful, fair and widely accepted evaluation system, make eSpace the ideal host institution for the rating. The definition of sustainability in space is constantly evolving. eSpace is therefore continuously improving the formulation of the SSR to address emerging environmental, societal, and economic factors in the assessment.

These efforts are complemented by the EPFL laboratory of astrophysics (LASTRO), which is currently working on detection and characterization of resident objects in Earth’s orbit in large astronomical data archives [2]. The information extracted from these archives will allow a better evaluation of the evolution and current state of the small debris population, and support active debris removal that will be necessary to secure the future use of Earth's orbit.

In order to unite EPFL’s forces in the domain of sustainability in space, eSpace has recently launched the Sustainable Space Hub (SSH). The goal of the Hub is to coherently manage and foster the growth of these topics. 5 institutes within EPFL are currently involved in research and development projects in the field of space sustainability. The hub is connecting these individual projects in a workflow that rests on three intertwined pillars: measure, understand, and act for space sustainability.

The projects associated with each pillar are essential to find solutions to the problems arising from the rapidly increasing space activities, the risk from space debris, and the generated atmospheric impacts. The Hub will help identify and promote new technologies in space sustainability with new services in orbit and on the ground.

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#epfl #lunarhub #epfllunarhub #espace #space #moon
eSpace (EPFL Space Center) introduced in 2020 a new initiative aimed at bridging a series of identified knowledge and technology gaps within the latest lunar exploration and infrastructure development roadmaps. We, at eSpace, advocate for a holistic space program that effectively and sustainably explores and develops the Moon. To do so, upcoming exploration missions call for ever more capable robotic systems and instruments, including the capability to explore longer distances +100 km) within highly constrained time windows (e.g., shorter daylight cycles in polar regions) and under extreme environmental conditions of which little to no data is readily available (permanently shadowed regions and lunar skylights are some examples).

A long-term, effective, faster, and minimally altered characterization of these regions requires improved mobility systems as well as the use of high-resolution mapping and imagery, which most lunar missions to date still lack. Today we present EPFL’s Lunar Hub, eSpace's latest venture to create a home base for lunar research and technology within Switzerland. We are already working toward developing the technology required to traverse the lunar surface 100 times faster than any autonomous rover ever before, providing robotic assets and soon humans with the highest resolution maps of key, so far inaccessible regions with our lunar reconnaissance drone, defining the most effective ways in which small heterogeneous groups of robots can cooperate to access, explore, and jointly prospect the most scientifically valuable regions, and equipping them with the latest optical instrumentation with our Dragonfly camera.

David is currently responsible for the Lunar Hub, leading the center’s efforts in lunar research and technology development with projects on topics spanning from fast off-Earth robotic mobility, reconnaissance drones, low-cardinality multi-agent systems, to novel sensing instrumentation for localization and mapping. He also provides system-level and managerial support to projects on active deorbiting of defunct satellites as well as supporting the activities of multiple students’ associations related to space at EPFL."

Formerly he held several positions as an NPI researcher for the Automation & Robotics Lab at the European Space Agency and as a visiting scientist for the Institute of System Dynamics & Control of the German Aerospace Center. He holds a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Carlos III University of Madrid, a Master’s Degree in Space Studies from the International Space University, and a PhD in robotics from Tohoku University.

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During this webinar, you will see how a pipeline for a spatial mission at ESA is developed, from the definition of the goal to the implementation, and all the challenges we had to face.
The talk will focus on asteroid detection (SSOs), where they are, and why we need to detect them, but also on the Euclid mission.
The presentation will be concluded with an overview of the experience gained during two years through the YGT program, technically but also humanly.

Aurelien Verdier obtained his MSc degree in Physics with a thesis on Radioastronomy.
Employed at EPFL as a Swiss National Trainee, he is currently working in the Euclid team at ESA, ESAC, developing a pipeline to detect Solar System Objects (SSOs) in Euclid images.
His background is: Astrophysics, Astronomy, Cosmology, and particle physics.
He is at his first professional experience after graduation.
He previously took part in several student activities, such as building a radiotelescope (EPFL Radio Waves) and space awareness (Swiss Space Awareness).

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#virup #epfl #cosmosarchaeology

Science communication is key for sharing research discoveries to a wide audience. In this talk, we will present VIRUP, The Virtual Reality Universe Project, a brand new software developed at the Laboratory of Astrophysic of EPFL, that provides the most modern dynamical view of our Universe through one of the cutting-edge communication techniques : Virtual Reality (VR).

VIRUP allows users to travel through space and time, ranging from the artificial satellites orbiting the Earth to the outer confines of the Universe. Journeys in this VR environment help to understand the hierarchical organization of our universe at different scales as well as developing intuitions for astrophysical processes. In addition to standard VR systems like gamer headsets, VIRUP is compatible with specific immersion systems like 360-panorama, half-caves or 180-domes. VIRUP has also recently been used to create a twenty minute-long documentary named: Archaeology of Light.

Yves Revaz is a senior scientist at LASTRO/EPFL. After successful studies in physics at EPFL, he completed his PhD entitled: "Dynamics of external regions of spiral galaxies and constraints on the dark matter", at the Geneva Observatory in the galactic dynamics group of Prof. D. Pfenniger. He then moved to the Paris Observatory to work at the LERMA (Laboratory for Studies of Radiation and Matter in Astrophysics) with Prof. F. Combes on the understanding of cooling flows in galaxy clusters. He joined LASTRO at EPFL in 2007, where he developed a new TreePM/SPH chemo-dynamical code called GEAR as well as the pNbody python library, a parallelized toolbox designed to manipulate large N-body systems.
Relying on those tools, he studied the chemical evolution of galaxies. His current main research focuses on the evolution of dwarf spheroidal galaxies and their link with cosmology.
Beside his research Yves Revaz also led the development of VIRUP, an interactive virtual reality (VR) environment that lets anyone discover the cosmos through observed and simulated data. Between 2020 and 2021, he directed the realization of two films (in 2D, 3D, 180-3D and 360-3D) fully based on VIRUP. A short movie presenting the most complete 3D map of the Universe as observed by the eBOSS survey and a 21 minutes-long documentary entitled Archaeology of Light, where we chart out a journey throughout the various scales of the Universe.

Florian Cabot is a software engineer at SCITAS/EPFL. He studied computer science at the University of Geneva. His passion for astrophysics made him complete his Msc with a project on Virtual Reality exoplanetary data visualization at the Geneva Observatory in 2018. He met Yves Revaz at the Observatory with whom he started the VIRUP project. He developed this project from scratch, writing all the tools needed to do VR rendering and interaction with large amounts of data. He ported the project to different projection systems at the Experimental Museology lab, and directed and scripted the two movies made with VIRUP.
He moved this year to EPFL SCITAS computing center to do scientific visualization both for the Square Kilometer Array project in collaboration with LASTRO and the EUROFusion consortium in collaboration with the Swiss Plasma Center.

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The webinar will explore the peculiarities of the ESA ExoMars mission, focusing on the technical challenges that a mission of this kind presents. In addition, starting from the question “As students, are we really aware of complexities of interplanetary space mission?” the tasks performed as a young graduate will be illustrated, together with the difficulties and challenges that characterise the transition from being a student to become an engineer.

Francesco Garrone obtained his MSc degree in Space Engineering in 2020 with a thesis in Chemical Propulsion.

He is currently employed at EPFL as Swiss National Trainee and works in the ExoMars Engineer Team at ESA, ESTEC, supporting the System Engineer for what concern system and verification engineering. His background is: spacecraft systems, spacecraft propulsion, system integration and verification.

He is at his first professional experience after graduation. He previously took part in several student activities, such as a micro-sat constellation for Earth Observation phase A study, and the development, integration, testing and launch of a microgravity scientific payload at the ZARM drop-tower.

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by Stéphanie Lizy-Destrez

The Advanced Space Concept Lab (SacLab) is affiliated with the Department of Aerospace Vehicles Design and Control (DCAS) at ISAE-SUPAERO. It has a diverse spectrum of expertise including system architecture and engineering, mission analysis and optimization, human factors or robotics, to answer key questions on multiple areas: in-orbit servicing for telecommunication satellites, in-space structural assembly & 3D printing, Active Debris Removal, architecture of manned space stations (Moon and Mars), space weather, architecture of new space transport systems (reuse, concepts integrating innovative space propulsion systems); architecture, design, economics, and even the law, along with other disciplines not directly related to the aerospace field are also at the heart of these issues.

The laboratory aims to become the leading specialized, world renowned laboratory in Europe for research on future space systems.

Stéphanie Lizy-Destrez is Associate Professor at ISAE-SUPAERO (Toulouse, France), head of the SaCLaB (Space Advanced Concepts Laboratory). She is conducting research in human and robotics space exploration (mission analysis, non-keplerian dynamics, trajectory optimization, space systems resilience and autonomy and human factors). She is also leading researches on space debris recycling.

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by Shreya Santra.

Humans have always been a curious species and dreamt about exploring the vast expanse of space. Exploration of the unknown has been driven by the advancement of technology. It is now of utmost importance for human presence to venture beyond the low Earth orbit (LEO) and open new frontiers for sustainable development. Through addressing the challenges related to space exploration we can expand science, technology, create new industries, and help to foster peaceful relations among the nations. As a precursor to human exploration, several robotic missions have been deployed to explore the celestial bodies of our Solar System. Distance, gravity, harsh atmospheric conditions and unknown environment make space exploration both costly and risky. These limitations establish robotic missions as crucial and more advantageous in the initial phases of exploration
The Space Robotics Laboratory, in Tohoku University, led by Professor Kazuya Yoshida, is dedicated to the research and development of robotic systems for space science and exploration missions. In this talk, Shreya will cover the various research and projects conducted there, followed by her research on swarm exploration. A swarm system significantly improves the performance of planetary exploration missions by boosting the scientific and economic returns, while presenting a low-risk and low-cost alternative solution compared to a single robot. However, precise coordination between these agents is a challenge that involves inter-agent communication to enable the exchange of information. As part of the talk, she will demonstrate her PhD and subsequent work on Communication-based Path Planning of Multiple Rovers on the Lunar surface.

Dr. Shreya Santra is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Tohoku University, Japan.
She pursued her Ph.D. at the Space Robotics Lab (SRL) in Tohoku University as a Japanese government MEXT scholar. Her Ph.D. thesis was focused on communication-based path planning of a team of planetary surface rovers, in collaboration with DLR Institute of Communications and Navigation, Germany. Her interests and specialization include micro-rovers and small satellites for space exploration.
She pursued her undergraduation in Electrical Electronics Engineering from India, and Masters in Space Studies from the International Space University, France. She then completed her M.Sc in Space and Engineering Systems at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russia, where she worked on high-altitude balloons, industrial robots, and small satellite constellations.
She continues to work on various projects related to the optimization of space missions and has vast experience working with international teams to develop and design space systems. She is an active member of the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) and has been recognized for her contribution towards STEM outreach and SGAC activities.
She also holds additional responsibility as the Director of Space Technology for SpaceoNova (a space education company) and Director of Tech and Outreach for Spaceport Sarabhai (India’s first space policy thinktank).

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The Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) is since 2021 a new international organisation dedicated to radio-astronomy.
Since 2015, the Swiss Community lead by EPFL has been following the project and on Jan 2022, Switzerland has become the 8th full member of this organisation. SKAO headquarters are located in Jodrell Bank near Manchester, and the two telescope will be located in South Africa and Western Australia. Prof. Kneib will present SKAO in details and explain the challenges of the project in particular linked to the huge amount of data (600 Pb/year), as well as radio-interferences from the future 5G satellite constellations.

Prof. Jean-Paul Kneib holds a Master in Astrophysics and Space Technology and a PhD in Astrophysics. He has worked as a support astronomer, at ESO in Chile. He has conducted research in Gravitational Lensing and Cosmology in Cambridge (UK), Toulouse, Caltech and Marseille before coming to EPFL. He has worked with data coming from various space observatories (HST, XMM-Newton, Herschel, ISO, Chandra, Spitzer, WISE), and participated in many space projects ideas (SNAP, JDEM, SPACE, OMEGA, CoWeX). He is currently strongly involved in the Euclid space mission.He has been a member of the ESA Astronomy Working Group, and of the Hubble Space Telescope User Committee. Currently, he serves on XMM-Newton, Hubble and James Webb Space Telescope time allocation committees.

#skao #ska #squarekilometerarrayobservatory

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Part 1: https://youtu.be/yJeCVdn96iM
Part 2: https://youtu.be/6z3DNmmi20k
Part 3: https://youtu.be/XbLPyVkIgAk

For this last seminar of the SPS series, prof. Koizumi will explain the meaning of the miniaturized propulsion system dedicated to small satellites (1 – 200 kg size). Its operating principle is the same as the propulsion as mentioned above, but the miniaturization generates a lot of limitations and features.

Prof. Koizumi has been our guest at eSpace since July 2021. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Advanced Energy and Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Tokyo, Japan, where he directs the Space Propulsion Laboratory and leads the developments of micro-propulsion systems for microsatellites: Hodoyoshi-4, PROCYON, AQT-D, and EQUULEUS.
In 2020, he started working as CTO at the space-propulsion startup Pale Blue Inc., that was founded by him and engineers who got Ph.D. at his lab.
Previously, Hiroyuki Koizumi served as an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science at JAXA from 2007 to 2011, where he was involved in Hayabusa-1 project and he was responsible for the operation of the ion engines mu-10 and the retrieval of the Hayabusa capsule at Woomera in Australia.
He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Keio University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Tokyo.
He was awarded the International Electric Propulsion Conference Best Paper Award (2015) and Prizes for Science and Technology, the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2017).

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Part 1: https://youtu.be/yJeCVdn96iM
Part 2: https://youtu.be/6z3DNmmi20k
Part 4: https://youtu.be/TXThOHjnMAo

In the third part of the series, prof. Koizumi will categorize electric propulsion by its acceleration method and briefly introduce the various types of electric propulsion thrusters. Here focusing on the gridded ion thruster and Hall-effect thruster, the most common in the current electric propulsion system.

Prof. Koizumi has been our guest at eSpace since July 2021. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Advanced Energy and Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Tokyo, Japan, where he directs the Space Propulsion Laboratory and leads the developments of micro-propulsion systems for microsatellites: Hodoyoshi-4, PROCYON, AQT-D, and EQUULEUS.
In 2020, he started working as CTO at the space-propulsion startup Pale Blue Inc., that was founded by him and engineers who got Ph.D. at his lab.
Previously, Hiroyuki Koizumi served as an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science at JAXA from 2007 to 2011, where he was involved in Hayabusa-1 project and he was responsible for the operation of the ion engines mu-10 and the retrieval of the Hayabusa capsule at Woomera in Australia.
He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Keio University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Tokyo.
He was awarded the International Electric Propulsion Conference Best Paper Award (2015) and Prizes for Science and Technology, the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2017).

1 other seminar will follow and will feature:

Micropropulsion; meaning the miniaturized propulsion system dedicated to small satellites (1 – 200 kg size). Its operating principle is the same as the propulsion as mentioned above, but the miniaturization generates a lot of limitations and features.

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by Massimiliano Vasile

This talk will give an overview of the activities on space sustainability currently undergoing in the Aerospace Centre of Excellence (ACE) at the University of Strathclyde. It will start by presenting what we consider a sustainability paradox. The sustainability paradox comes from the tension between the need for a sustainable use of space, due to the growth of the space sector and the increase in the number of launches, and the concurrent growing demand to use space. The talk will then expand on some of the key research activities, in ACE, on the management of the space environment, from space traffic to re-entry, and the assessment of the environmental impact of the space sector.

Massimiliano Vasile, is currently Professor of Space Systems Engineering and Director of the Aerospace Centre of Excellence at the University of Strathclyde.

He received his M.S. in 1996 and Ph.D. in 2001 from Politecnico di Milano. He sits on the IAF Astrodynamics and Space Power committees, the IEEE committee on Emerging Technologies in Computational Intelligence, and the UN Space Mission Planning Advisory Group. His research interests include Astrodynamics, Space Systems, Computational Intelligence and Optimisation Under Uncertainty exploring the limits of computer science at solving highly complex problems in science and engineering. Asteroid 2002 PX33 “Maxvasile” was named in his honour in recognition of Prof Vasile’s contributions to the development of innovative techniques for the design and optimisation of space trajectories and his work on asteroid manipulation.

Prof. Vasile has developed novel numerical methods for single and multi-objective optimal control problems, has pioneered the use of evolutionary computation for the global optimisation of space trajectories, and the use of imprecise probability theories in the optimisation of space systems. His research has been funded by the European Space Agency, the UK Space Agency, CNES, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Planetary Society and the European Commission.

He coordinated the Stardust research network on asteroids and space debris, one of the success stories of the EU FP7, and the UTOPIAE network on uncertainty treatment and optimisation in aerospace engineering and he is now the coordinator of Stardust Reloaded, that is exploring advanced solutions for space sustainability, space environment management and asteroid exploration.

3 1

Part 1: https://youtu.be/yJeCVdn96iM
Part 3: https://youtu.be/XbLPyVkIgAk
Part 4: https://youtu.be/TXThOHjnMAo

For this second seminar, prof. Koizumi will introduce mono-propellant thrusters, bi-propellant thrusters, and a chemical propulsion system.
The talk will also include the nozzle theory, which is the acceleration principle of the chemical thrusters and their performance index.

Prof. Koizumi has been our guest at eSpace since July 2021. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Advanced Energy and Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Tokyo, Japan, where he directs the Space Propulsion Laboratory and leads the developments of micro-propulsion systems for microsatellites: Hodoyoshi-4, PROCYON, AQT-D, and EQUULEUS.
In 2020, he started working as CTO at the space-propulsion startup Pale Blue Inc., that was founded by him and engineers who got Ph.D. at his lab.
Previously, Hiroyuki Koizumi served as an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science at JAXA from 2007 to 2011, where he was involved in Hayabusa-1 project and he was responsible for the operation of the ion engines mu-10 and the retrieval of the Hayabusa capsule at Woomera in Australia.
He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Keio University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Tokyo.
He was awarded the International Electric Propulsion Conference Best Paper Award (2015) and Prizes for Science and Technology, the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2017).

2 other seminars will follow and will feature:

Electric propulsion; categorizing electric propulsion by its acceleration method and briefly introduce the various types of electric propulsion thrusters. Here focusing on the gridded ion thruster and Hall-effect thruster, the most common in the current electric propulsion system.

Micropropulsion; meaning the miniaturized propulsion system dedicated to small satellites (1 – 200 kg size). Its operating principle is the same as the propulsion as mentioned above, but the miniaturization generates a lot of limitations and features.

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Part 2: https://youtu.be/6z3DNmmi20k
Part 3: https://youtu.be/XbLPyVkIgAk
Part 4: https://youtu.be/TXThOHjnMAo

Prof. Koizumi will introduce the fundamentals and applications of space propulsion systems.

This first seminar will tackle the principle of the rocket propulsion; the content is also applicable for rocket propulsion of the launch vehicle, but here mainly focusing on the propulsion system equipped on the spacecraft. The talk will also include some basics of the spacecraft’s orbit transfer and station keeping.

Prof. Koizumi has been our guest at eSpace since July 2021. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Advanced Energy and Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Tokyo, Japan, where he directs the Space Propulsion Laboratory and leads the developments of micro-propulsion systems for microsatellites: Hodoyoshi-4, PROCYON, AQT-D, and EQUULEUS.
In 2020, he started working as CTO at the space-propulsion startup Pale Blue Inc., that was founded by him and engineers who got Ph.D. at his lab.
Previously, Hiroyuki Koizumi served as an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science at JAXA from 2007 to 2011, where he was involved in Hayabusa-1 project and he was responsible for the operation of the ion engines mu-10 and the retrieval of the Hayabusa capsule at Woomera in Australia.
He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Keio University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Tokyo.
He was awarded the International Electric Propulsion Conference Best Paper Award (2015) and Prizes for Science and Technology, the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2017).

3 other seminars will follow and will feature:

Chemical propulsion; introducing mono-propellant thrusters, bi-propellant thrusters, and a chemical propulsion system. The talk will also include the nozzle theory, which is the acceleration principle of the chemical thrusters and their performance index.

Electric propulsion; categorizing electric propulsion by its acceleration method and briefly introduce the various types of electric propulsion thrusters. Here focusing on the gridded ion thruster and Hall-effect thruster, the most common in the current electric propulsion system.

Micropropulsion; meaning the miniaturized propulsion system dedicated to small satellites (1 – 200 kg size). Its operating principle is the same as the propulsion as mentioned above, but the miniaturization generates a lot of limitations and features.

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By Roméo Tonasso, Alice Barthe, Laurene Delsupexhe

A preliminary feasibility study for an airship operating on the red planet.

Various space orbiters, landers and rovers have given us precious data on the Red Planet. Orbiters allow global analyses and landers have an increased capacity of detailed observations but their accuracy is at the cost of restriction to the small area where they land. Ingenuity helicopter has shown us that we can take profit of another dimension by hovering just above ground at slow speed, since the Martian atmosphere, though tenuous, has proved dense enough to allow lift and propulsion.

An airship would allow for observations similar to those of a helicopter but over longer missions since it could float above the ground without consuming energy. Therefore, whereas a helicopter can be used as a scout, an airship could be used for autonomous full missions. Its ability to observe cliff walls over long distances would be unmatchable.

The study provides a preliminary design for such an airship. It contains design drivers, trade-offs and provides a preliminary sizing of the main subsystems. The Design Reference Mission is to explore parts of Valles Marineris. This region shows interesting geomorphological context. Additionally, the depth of the canyon yields a higher air pressure which means heavier surrounding air.

The reference scientific goal would be to perform mineral mapping of the cliff walls using a hyperspectral sensor of a maximum mass of 3 kg. Adding the navigation, command and data transmission systems, the airship has been designed for a total payload mass of 10 kg.

Roméo Tonasso, EPFL, Student in Mechanical Engineering, Master semester 4 / Laurène Delsupexhe, Consultant engineer for ArianeGroup / Alice Barthe, Space engineer / Julie Hartz, Astrobiologist. Laurène, Alice and Julie are members of the WoMars Team.

Mentors: Claude Nicollier, Pierre Brisson (Mars Society Switzerland).

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by Gwendolyne Pascua

Unknown to many, a Ground Control center linked to the International Space Station (ISS) exists in central Switzerland.
This talk will introduce one of the User Service and Operations Center (USOC) of the European Space Agency, the Biotechnology Space Support Center (BIOTESC).
In a second part, Gwendolyne Pascua will explain what The Cimon project is, a first of its kind Free-Flyer in the ISS with an artificial intelligence. As the Operations Lead of this project, she will share with her experiences, her journey and missions.

Gwendolyne Pascua is currently working as Operations Lead, Ground Controller at the Biotechnology Space Support Center (BIOTESC); and as a Senior Research Associate at Hochschule Luzern.

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By Dr. Shimrit Maman

Nano satellites are a relatively new category in the field of satellite technologies and space science.In the past years, several Earth Observations (EO) missions using nano-satellites have been successfully launched and used, forecasts for the upcoming years display an increase of such missions.BGUSAT is an example of such EOremote sensing single band, SWIR sensor via a spatial resolution of 600 meters per pixel.In the seminar, we intend to overview the satellite design and capabilities and to present the results of the ongoing remote sensing research.

Dr. Maman is a research associate in the Homeland Security Institute and director of the Earth and Planetary Image Facility (EPIF), both at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Her research deals with the application of satellite technologies (remote sensing and GIS) to environmental challenges and climate change. She is an integral part of the research team leading BGUSAT, Israel’s first research nanosatellite.She also serves as a UN-SPIDER expert, and heads the Israeli Regional Support Office of the United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response.Previously she served as the board director of D-mars, and is a founding board member of WiSpace, a women’s association promoting gender equality among Israeli STEAM professionals and was appointed by UNOOSA as a mentor in the SPACE4WOMEN Network.Maman leads diverse education and outreach programs promoting Science Technology Engineering Arts and Mathematics (STEAM), using hands-on research activities, at both the national and international scales, including the unique, all-girl, international remote sensing science program: She Space.

Quote by Dr. Maman:“Although it is a vast, icy void, I think space holds unique opportunities for dreamers unafraid to boldly face meaningful challenges”.

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Presented by Aline Decadi
Read the publication here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468896720301476

Crew safety is of paramount importance for future human exploratory spaceflight. In order to ensure optimum safety standards, the design criteria for this new generation of spacecraft must be matured, such as the level of crew safety required.
Through a hazard control process assessment, several risk mitigation strategies may be found suitable to achieve both an acceptable level of crew safety and mission success. Such an assessment thus requires both: elaboration of a regulated safety assessment process, that is shared and approved worldwide, and definition of safety criteria that are required to fulfil the mission objectives, and need to be approved by a Certification Authority.
The paper will evaluate existing standardized safety and regulatory processes that are in place for civil aviation, which are largely accepted as being a premier example of industry safety standards, and assess how it could be extrapolated and adapted to ensure similar safety standards in future human space exploration missions.
The civil aviation process presents commonalities in terms of methods for conducting a safety assessment, that are expandable to space exploration. This paper describes the related transfer function from civil aviation to space exploration (ISS, Moon and Mars) as a stepping stone to reach an international consensus to be targeted by the Space Agencies to ensure the crew a safe journey and return to Earth.

Aline Decadi is a Dependability and Safety engineer working on the development of the Launch System Ariane 6 at the European Space Agency. In addition, she is involved in ESA Moon/Mars workshops and she volunteer on Mars analogue missions for the Mars Society. She is passionate by the human space exploration, and works on the evolution of the crew safety criteria for future exploration missions.

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