ESA title
Agency

Past opportunities 2018

3958 views 2 likes
ESA / Education / ESA Academy

Earth Observation Remote Sensing Workshop 2018

Status: Call for applications closedTraining course delivered.

Date: 10 - 14 December 2018

Description: The goal of this workshop was to introduce students to the various types of Remote Sensing (RS) images and how they can be used and analysed with the help of the tools used in the space industry. The students learned about remote sensing data analysis, radar, optical and thermal infrared image generation and processing. Technical lectures were complemented by exercises and practical sessions, using the example of PROBA-V and other space mission to show how raw data acquired by Earth Observation (EO) satellites are collected, calibrated and distributed to end-users. During the workshop, the students had the opportunity to visit the PROBA Control room, which is located in ESEC.

Schedule: 

 Day 1   EO Mission Introduction
  Remote Sensing Basics
  Exercise: Image opening, visualisation and analysis
 Day 2   Radar Remote Sensing Basics
  Radar Remote Sensing Applications
  Exercise: Radar RS
 Day 3   Optical Remote Sensing Basics
  Optical Remote Sensing Applications
  Exercise Optical RS
 Day 4   Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing
  Data processing workflow
  ESEC-Redu Visit
  RS Data Fusion
 Day 5   RS Data Fusion Exercise
  RS Data Fusion Applications 
 

 

Post-Alpbach School Summer School Event 2018

Status: Call for the applications closed; only opened to students who participated in the Alpbach Summer School 2018. Event delivered.

Date: 26 - 30 November 2018  

Description: Students got the opportunity to carry on working on the Calathus mission proposed by team Blue during the Alpbach Summer School 2018. Calathus is a mission designed to travel to the Occator Crater to perform mass spectroscopy and take high resolution images of the surface, but most importantly it will bring samples of the salty surface material back to Earth. The spacecraft consists of an orbiter to map the crater, a lander equipped with a drill, a mass spectrometer, a thermal mapper and a second camera to be left on the surface as the collected sample rejoins the orbiter to return to Earth for analysis. The objective of this event was to prepare a scientific paper to be presented at an international conference or published in a scientific journal. Students were supported by ESA and external experts, and had the opportunity to use the ESA Academy's Concurrent Design Facility (CDF).   

Schedule: 

 Day 1    Guidelines for the event
  Mission presentation
  Preparation for CDF session
  First CDF session 
 Day 2    Mission redefinition
  Second CDF session
 Day 3    Third CDF sessions
  Conclusion of CDF sessions
  Preparation of oral presentation and article
 Day 4    Delivery of preliminary oral presentation and article
  Finalisation of oral presentation and article
 Day 5   Final oral presentation 
  Visit to ESEC-Redu
 

 

Technology Transfer and Innovation Workshop 2018

Status: Call for the applications closed. Training course was delivered.

Date: 13 - 16 November 2018

Description: During this pilot workshop, the students were introduced to the different disciplines related to Technology Transfer and Innovation (TT&I). Students learned about various domains such as patenting, technology transfer, and entrepreneurships. These lectures were complemented by a case study based on an actual ESA patent. The students had to implement their newly gained knowledge to help ESA to find a suitable application, working on a simplified business plan proposal. The workshop was addressed to university students curious about the TT&I field, who would be interested in working in this field, or who perhaps are developing an innovative concept and want to know how to turn it into a business or start-up in the space sector.

Schedule: 

 Day 1    Introduction to TT&I
  Introduction to Patenting
  GA1: From Fiction to Reality
 Day 2    Technology Transfer Programmes
  Practical case examples
  ESEC-Redu Visit
  GA2: From Patent to Applications
 Day 3    Entrepreneurship and Business Incubation
  New Ventures and Business Model Canvas
  Start-up, from idea to business
  GA3: From Application to Business 
 Day 4    GA4: Technology Transfer Workshop
  Final Presentations

Watch the workshop video

 

 

Space Systems Engineering Training Course 2018 

Status: Call for applications closed. Training course delivered.

Date: 6 – 9 November 2018

Description: During this four-day training course, students were given a 'crash-course' in systems engineering and its applications within the space industry, in particular within ESA. The course provided an overview of the scope and context of systems engineering in general, before outlining the roles of a system engineer. The course further explored some key system engineering roles, such as requirements capture, architecture definition and verification and validation. The full space system life cycle was explored from a system engineering viewpoint. The course was delivered by current and former ESA experts with a wealth of experience in Earth-Observation projects, in the form of interactive lectures and group exercises. By the end of the course, students had an understanding of what systems engineering is, and what a systems engineer does throughout a space project lifecycle, as well as some of the key challenges they face!

Schedule:

Day 1: Scope and context of Systems Engineering
What is Systems Engineering?
How to represent a System
The Space Programmatic Environment
Tasks of a Systems Engineer
Day 2: Systems Engineering Process
System Requirements
How to define the architecture of a system, including trade-offs and specification
Design of a space mission
Day 3: Development and Verification Approach
Systems Engineering and Project Management
Day 4: Application of a real space project
Process Management, Operations, and End of Missions  
 

 

Concurrent Engineering Challenge 2018

Status: Call for applications closed. Challenge delivered.

Date: 22 – 26 October 2018

Description

The ESA Academy Concurrent Engineering Challenge featured groups of 20 to 35 students, each one supervised by two system engineers in the four Concurrent Engineering Facilities (CEFs) in the Lulea University of Technology (Sweden), the Delft University of Technology (Netherlands), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain) and the ESA Academy’s Training and Learning Centre (Belgium). Groups were given a specific mission to design in four days.  

Students in each group were divided into small teams of two to four to cover the following disciplines: structures, configuration, power, mechanisms, thermal, attitude and orbit control system for a satellite (AOCS), propulsion, trajectory analysis and communications/data handling.  Students within each small team created a subsystem concept in order to achieve the mission parameters using the Concurrent Engineering approach. 

The groups did not compete against each other. Instead, they used video conferencing to share each day’s progress, raise any particular difficulties they were facing, and receive helpful input from the other participants. At the end of the week, each group presented their final design. 

Ultimately, students involved in the challenge learned about the Concurrent Engineering approach and its benefits, and how to use the Open Concurrent Design Tool (OCDT).
Schedule for the group in ESA Academy's Training and Learning Facility.

Schedule:

Day 1   Introduction Concurrent Engineering Approach
  Get familiar with Workbooks and OCDT 
  Visit of ESA Redu Centre
Day 2   Each group presentation general presentation 
  Introduction to the mission 
  Mission overview and requirements
  System  requirements
  Mission and system modes definition
  Each group results presentation
Day 3   First iteration of all subsystems
  First budgets
  Each group first results presentation
Day 4   Finalisation of the concept
  Product tree
  Budgets
  Each group second iteration presentation
Day 5   Final design consolidation & any open issues
  Each group final presentation
 

Earth Observation Satellite System Design Training Course 2018

Status: Call for applications closedTraining course delivered.

Date: 1 - 5 October 2018 

Description: : The aim of this training course was to provide university students with insights on the entire development of an Earth Observation satellite, from the definition of the initial requirements to the final in-orbit verifications, including risks assessment and ground operations, and with an emphasis on the sizing of the Earth Observation instruments. Taught by current and former ESA experts and external experts, this course was delivered through formal lectures, which were complemented by a group project, where the students designed a simple Earth Observation satellite, and illustrated by interesting videos in the evenings.

Schedule:

 Day 1  Introduction to EO Satellite Systems
 Requirements
 Orbit Selection
 Day 2  Risk Management
 Microwave Instrumentation
 Day 3  Optical Instrumentation
 Group Project
 Day 4  Satellite Design Ground Segments and Operations
 On-ground and In-orbit Verifications
 Group Project
 Day 5  Group Project Presentation
 

 

Ladybird Guide to Spacecraft Operations Training Course 2018

Status: Call for applications closedTraining course delivered.

Date: 11 - 14 September 2018  

Description: Taught by an ESA expert from the Advanced Operations Concepts Office of ESA’ European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, Germany, the course was delivered through formal lectures without excessive mathematics or technical jargon, but with a heavy emphasis placed on the interaction with the students. Students learned about: 

  • the challenges of operating a spacecraft (as opposed to designing a spacecraft)
  • the operator’s view on all the spacecraft subsystems and the design features to implement in order to operate them
  • ‘physiological’ traps to be avoided during operations and testing

Schedule:

 Day 1 & 2  Introduction - the difference between design and operations engineers
 Mission design and payloads
 Attitude Dynamic and Control Subsystems
 Orbit Control System
 PowerGroup Exercise
 Day 3 & 4  Power (Storage)Thermal
 Telemetry-Tracking and Control Subsystems
 Command and ControlOn-board processors
 On-board software and Fault Detection, Isolation and Recovery
 Group Exercise and Summary
 

 

ESEO & FYS - Ladybird Guide to Spacecraft Communications Training Course

Status: Training course delivered.

Date: 3 – 6 July 2018

Description: An extraordinary edition of the Ladybird Guide to Spacecraft Communications was organised for the students involved in the European Student Earth Orbiter ESEO, which is an ESA Educational project. Taught by an ESA expert from the Advanced Operations Concepts Office of ESA’ European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, Germany, the course was delivered through formal lectures without excessive mathematics or technical jargon, but with a heavy emphasis placed on the interaction with the students. 

University students learned about:

  • the challenges of communicating with a spacecraft
  • the way communications systems are designed and how it can have a crucial impact on how they are used and what problems can occur
  • physiological traps to be avoided when communicating with a spacecraft

Schedule:

  Day 1    Introduction
  The Challenge
  Modulation
  Group Exercise
  Day 2    Demodulation
  Coding
  Decoding
  Visit of an antenna and baseband equipment
  Group Exercise
  Day 3   Protocols
  Visit of the PROBA operation room
  Radio Frequency transmissions/reception
  Link Budgets
  Group Exercise
  Day 4    Real Ground Stations
  Summary of the Group Exercise
 

 

ESA-ELGRA Gravity-Related Research Summer School 2018

Status: Call for applications closedSummer school delivered.

Date: 25 - 29 June 2018 

Description: During these four and a half days’ summer school, students were introduced to gravity-related research by ELGRA and ESA experts from across Europe. Through-out stimulating lectures about the current research under microgravity and hypergravity conditions in life and physical sciences, students appreciated the benefits of performing research at different g levels. Moreover, the students worked within small groups to come up with potential ideas for future gravity-related experiment student projects, also with the benefit of the existing ESA Educational platforms such as the parabolic flights, the human centrifuge or the ISS. 

Schedule:

 Day 1  Introduction to ESA, ESA programmes and opportunities
 Introduction to ELGRA and SELGRA
 Introduction to gravity-related research
 ESA Education Office and hands-on programmes
 Develop a gravity-related experiment
 Introduction to team project
 Day 2  Life science research part 1
 Physiology research part
 Physical science research part
 Project Management workshop
 Former students projects
 Team project
 Day 3  Life science research part 2
 Physiology research part 2
 Physical science research part 2
 Team project
 Day 4  Life science research part 3
 Physiology research part 3
 Physical science research part 3
 Space project life cycle
 Team project
 Day 5  Team project presentations
 

 

Standardisation Training Course 2018

Status: Call for applications closedTraining course delivered.

Date: 12 - 15 June 2018

Description: During this four-day training course, university students were given an introduction to ECSS system and will be taught the importance of using standards. They were also provided with an overview of how/why standards are used in different disciplines at ESA. Throughout face-to-face lectures from several ESA experts, students appreciated the importance of ECSS system, which will be an important part of their space-related career, complementing what they normally learn at university.  

Preliminary schedule:

 Day 1  Introduction to ECSS System
 Management
 System Engineering
 Day 2  PA&QA
 Thermal Engineering
 Control Engineering
 Day 3  Telecommunications
 Electrical and Electronics
 Mechanisms
 Day 4  SoftwareStructures
 Ground System and Operations
 
 

 

Product Assurance Awareness Training Course 2018

Status: Call for applications closedTraining course delivered.

Date: 29 May - 1 June 2018

Description: During this four-days training course, students were given an understanding of the PA&S engineer role in order to increase their awareness and the interest on PA&S and present them the different related disciplines. Throughout face-to-face lectures from several ESA’s PA managers and PA discipline experts, students understood that PA is an integral part of the engineering activities playing a role in the development, design, test philosophy, build and operation of the system. 

Preliminary schedule:

  Day 1    Overall Context of Space Projects
  Day 2    PA Disciplines: Quality Management & Assurance
  PA Disciplines: Dependability & Safety
  Day 3    PA Disciplines: Software Product Assurance
  PA Disciplines: Electrical, Electronic and Electro-mechanical components
  Day 4    PA Disciplines: Materials & Processes
  PA in Space Business
 
 

 

ESEO - Ladybird Guide to Spacecraft Operations Training Course

Status: Training course delivered.

Date: 15 – 18 May 2018

Description: An extraordinary edition of the Ladybird Guide to Spacecraft Operations was organised for the students involved in the European Student Earth Orbiter ESEO, which is an ESA Educational project. Taught by an ESA expert from the Advanced Operations Concepts Office of ESA’ European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, Germany, the course was delivered through formal lectures without excessive mathematics or technical jargon, but with a heavy emphasis placed on the interaction with the students.

Students learned about: 

  • the challenges of operating a spacecraft (as opposed to designing a spacecraft)
  • the operator’s view on all the spacecraft subsystems and the design features to implement in order to operate them
  • ‘physiological’ traps to be avoided during operations and testing

Schedule:

  Day 1 & 2    Introduction - the difference between design and operations engineers
  Mission design and payloads
  Attitude Dynamic and Control Subsystems
  Orbit Control System
  Power  
  Thermal
  Day 3 & 4   Telemetry-Tracking and Control Subsystems
  Command and Control
  On-board processors
  On-board software and Fault Detection, Isolation and Recovery
  Group Exercise and Summary
 
 

 

Concurrent Engineering Workshop – May 2018

Status: Call for applications closedWorkshop delivered.

Date: 1 - 4 May 2018

Description: Concurrent engineering is a method of designing and developing products in the space sector where all subsystems are designed simultaneously making the process more efficient. During these 4 days workshops, university students learned about concurrent engineering and its benefits, taking advantage of the use of the ESA Academy’s Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) . Guided by ESA experts, the students first learned to use the Open Concurrent Design Tool (OCDT) and identify design drivers. They were then divided into groups of 2 or 3 to cover the several subsystems and, together with their groups, they created a subsystem concept in order to later achieve an already identified mission concept using concurrent engineering. 

Schedule:

 Day 1    CubeSat architectures 
  ESA TEC CubeSats
  Mission analysis an design
  Introduction to Concurrent Engineering 
  Get familiar with Workbooks and OCDT 
 Day 2   Introduction to the Mission 
  Mission and System Modes Definition 
  Introduction to Fly Your Satellite! Programme
  First iteration of all Subsystems 
  First Budgets 
  Presentations of the first results
 Day 3   Second iteration of all Subsystems
  Product tree 
  Budgets
  Presentation of the second iteration
 Day 4   Final Design Consolidation & any Open Issues 
  How to increase CubeSat reliability?
  Preparing the Final Presentation 
  Final Presentations  
 

 

Space Debris Training Course 2018

Status: Call for applications closedTraining course delivered.

Date: 16 - 20 April 2018

Description: During this five-day training course, the university students were provided with an introduction to the concept of space debris, why it is necessary to address this problematic and how the mitigation policies set by ESA apply to missions. The students not only learned about the space debris environment and mitigation technologies, but also about how it affects spacecraft’s operations and the issues and solutions foreseen in the future. Taught by ESA experts, mainly from the ESA Space Debris Office, as well as external experts from the sector, the course was delivered through formal technical lectures, which were complemented with hands-on exercises based on a real-life case study.

Schedule:

 Day 1   The Environment.    Introduction
  Space Debris Environment
  Legal Environment
Mitigations Principles and Guidelines
 Day 2   Mitigation   Forces acting on a space object
  Assessment methods
  Mitigation Technology
 Day 3   Operations   Space Surveillance
  Collision Avoidance
  Operations in the Space Debris Environment
  Protection and Shielding
 Day 4   Re-entry   Aerothermodynamics
  Atmospheric Break-up
  On-ground Risks
 Day 5   The Future   The Future of the Environment
  Active Removal
 

 

Human Space Physiology Training Course 2018

Status: Call for applications closedTraining course delivered.

Date: 20 - 23 March 2018

Description: Throughout face-to-face and videoconference lectures, two groups of university students tooke part in this training course from two different locations: the ESA Academy’s Training and Learning Centre in Redu, Belgium and the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. Students wereintroduced to the human physiological effects of spaceflight and to the approaches to mitigate the effects of microgravity on the human body with the use of analogues and models of the space environment. They were also involved in a group project in order to increase their knowledge about a key physiological issue in Human Spaceflight. 

The students were introduced to the following topics:  

  • What it’s really like to live in space
  • The challenges, lessons, and successes that have led to permanent occupation of the International Space Station, and the conditions it must provide to protect and support life
  • Human Space Physiology research is performed both in space and on Earth
  • How the senses perceive being ‘weightless’ in an orbiting space vehicle
  • How key physiological systems respond to microgravity, what mechanisms underlie these changes, and some approaches that may be used to mitigate such effects
  • Major issues and challenges facing current human spaceflight and future space exploration
 

 

Ladybird Guide to Spacecraft Communications Training Course 2018

Status: Call for applications closedTraining course delivered.

Date: 6 - 9 March 2018

Description: Taught by an ESA expert from the Advanced Operations Concepts Office of ESA’ European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, Germany, the course was delivered through formal lectures without excessive mathematics or technical jargon, but with a heavy emphasis placed on the interaction with the students. 
University students learnt about:

  • the challenges of communicating with a spacecraft
  • an operator’s view on all the spacecraft subsystems both on-board and on the ground
  • ‘physiological’ traps to be avoided during operations and testing

 

Schedule:

 Day 1   Introduction
  The Challenge
  Modulation
  Group Exercise
 Day 2   Demodulation
  Coding
  Decoding
  Visit of an antenna and baseband equipment
  Group Exercise
 Day 3   Protocols
  Visit of the PROBA operation room
  Radio Frequency transmissions/reception
  Link Budgets
  Group Exercise
 Day 4   Real Ground Stations
  Summary of the Group Exercise
 
 

 

CubeSats Hands-on Training Week 2018

Status: Call for applications closedTraining week delivered.

Date: 26 February - 2 March 2018

Description: During this pilot 5-day training week, the university students learnt about small satellite design and testing through hands-on exercises on a CubeSat training model, the ESAT. These lab sessions were supervised by Theia Space and were complemented by technical lectures, delivered by ESA experts. The aim of this Training Week was to allow university students, who are involved in a CubeSat mission or would like to develop one, to get acquainted to the hardware and software of a CubeSat and to the assembly, integration and verifications of a small satellite as well as all the testing required.

Schedule: 

 Day 1   Space Systems Engineering
  Introduction to the ESAT model
  Software 
 Day 2   On Board Data Handling
 Day 3   Electrical Power System
  Communications 
 Day 4   Attitude and Orbit Control System
  Assembly, Integration and Verification 
 Day 5   Satellite Operations
  Satellite Testing
 

 

Concurrent Engineering Workshop – February 2018

Status: Call for applications closedWorkshop delivered.

Date:  20–23 February 2018

Description: Concurrent engineering is a method of designing and developing products in the space sector where all subsystems are designed simultaneously making the process more efficient. During these 4 days workshops, university students learnt about concurrent engineering and its benefits, taking advantage of the use of the ESA Academy’s Concurrent Design Facility (CDF). Guided by ESA experts, the students first learnt to use the Open Concurrent Design Tool (OCDT) and identify design drivers. They were then divided into groups of 2 or 3 to cover the several subsystems and, together with their groups, they created a subsystem concept in order to later achieve an already identified mission concept using concurrent engineering. 

Schedule:

 Day 1   Introduction to the Mission and Concurrent Engineering 
  Get familiar with Workbooks and OCDT 
  Mission overview and Trade-Off 
  Mission and System Modes Definition 
 Day 2    First iteration of all Subsystems. 
  Modify Workbooks 
  First Budgets 
  Presentations of the first results 
 Day 3    Finalisation of the Concept 
  Product tree 
  Budgets 
  Presentation of the second iteration 
 Day 4    Final Design Consolidation & any Open Issues 
  Preparing the Final Presentation 
  Final Presentations 
 

 

CubeSats Concurrent Engineering Workshop 2018

Status: Call for applications closedWorkshop delivered. 

Date: 16–19 January 2018

Description: Students were introduced to the concurrent design of a CubeSat mission. Guided by ESA experts, the students learnt to use the Open Concurrent Design Tool and identify design drivers. Divided into teams, they first created a subsystem concept to later achieve an already identified mission concept, function tree and product tree, using concurrent engineering. The workshop helped to better prepare those universities that are planning to embark on a CubeSat project or are at the early stages of one. Teams wishing to participate do not need to be at an advanced stage in their CubeSat project. They can be at a conceptual and/or preliminary phase of their CubeSat design.

 

Schedule:

 Day 1   Introduction to the Mission and Concurrent Engineering 
  Get familiar with Workbooks and OCDT 
  Mission overview and Trade-Off 
  Mission and System Modes Definition 
 Day 2   First iteration of all Subsystems. 
  Modify Workbooks 
  First Budgets 
  Presentations of the first results
 Day 3   Finalisation of the Concept 
  Product tree 
  Budgets 
  Presentation of the second iteration 
 Day 4   Final Design Consolidation & any Open Issues 
  Preparing the Final Presentation 
  Final Presentations 
 

 

Gravity-Related Experiments Training Week 2018

Status: Training week delivered. 

Date: 30 January – 2 February 2018

Description: The aim of this training week was to better prepare selected university student teams for their participation in the ESA Academy Hands-on Space Projects’ Fly Your Thesis!, Drop Your Thesis! and Spin Your Thesis! Programmes. By providing them with the information and basic knowledge that is required to design, develop, test, and perform a gravity-related scientific experiment or technology demonstration students were helped to achieve their objectives. The idea was to optimize the transfer of know-how and expertise from the experts in the field to the students, before their experiment campaigns, through lectures, workshops and meetings with the experts. Hence, the objective was to increase the quality of collected data and the success rate of the students’ hands-on projects.

Schedule:

 Day 1   Introduction to ESA, ESA Education programme and opportunities
  Student teams presentations
  System Engineering
  Physical Science at different g levels
  Visit of the Euro Space Centre 
 Day 2   Project and Risk Management 
  Former student projects
  SELGRA
  Presentation of the facilities
  Meet your experts (session 1)
 Day 3   Meet your experts (session 2)
  Visit of ESEC
  Life sciences at different g levels
  Human physiology at different g levels 
 Day 4   Experiment Automation 
  Communication 
  Former students outreach
  Inspirational Lecture