eSpace

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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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