Call for applications for the Online CubeSat Design Training Week 2021

ESA’s Education Office is inviting university students to apply for the inspiring upcoming CubeSat Design Training Week to get the opportunity to improve their knowledge on spacecraft and mission design. Due to the continued Covid-19 situation, the CubeSat Design Training Week will be held online in nine afternoon sessions from the 13^th to the 23^rd of September 2021.

This Training Week is a great opportunity for university students to learn about the early design stages of a CubeSat mission. Students will get an introduction to space systems engineering, mission analysis and will discover the opportunities and constraints of the CubeSat platform through lectures given by ESA experts on various topics. This training week is suitable for students with innovative ideas for educational CubeSat missions or members of CubeSat teams at conceptual and preliminary design stages. As an outcome, participants will be able to inject the knowledge gained from the training week into the early development phase of their CubeSat projects.

The focus throughout the duration of the training week will be to apply the acquired theoretical knowledge in a group project. Students will work in teams of 5 to 6 members and will be able to select a mission from a list of different proposals. These missions can range from Earth Observation to Astronomy and Science. Each team will prepare an initial design of a CubeSat to meet the requirements of the selected mission.

During the training week, our experts will cover a range of interesting and relevant topics:

• Introduction to Space Systems Engineering
• Fly Your Satellite! Programme (FYS)
• Mission Analysis
• CubeSat Configuration
• Electrical Power Supply
• Attitude Determination Control System
• On-Board Data Handling
• Communication
• On-Board Software
• Assembly, Integration and Verification
• Spacecraft Operations

Lectures are followed by group project sessions, during which the students have the opportunity to work on their project and integrate subsystem-specific knowledge into their design. During these sessions, engineers from the FYS programme will guide the student team and offer support for the most challenging questions and design decisions. At the end of the training week, each team will have the opportunity to present their CubeSat design, discuss the outcome with a panel of experts and exchange their experiences with the other participants.

Preliminary schedule

Who can apply?

Students enrolled in university who fulfil the following criteria:

• aged minimum 18 years old.  ESA Academy and relevant partners will only appraise applications from students who have no or limited professional experience in relevant scientific, engineering or other space-related topics;
• be a citizen of an ESA Member State, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania or Slovenia;
• be enrolled as a Bachelor, Master, or PhD student in a university for the academic year 2021-2022; Final year students of academic year 2020-2021 can apply as long as they do not graduate before the training week.
• be studying an Engineering or Scientific subject (with good knowledge in space technology). 

Selected students will be requested to attend all 9 afternoon sessions live.

Students will be evaluated on their group project throughout the training week and during their final presentations. Upon completion students will receive a certificate and course transcript, allowing them to request ECTS credits from their respective universities.

How to apply?

• Fill in the application form;
• Upload a motivation letter (PDF, maximum 1 page, no images);
• Upload a CV (PDF, Europass format, no images, maximum 2 pages);
• Upload a formal recommendation letter (PDF, maximum 1 page, including signature, no images) from a university professor or academic supervisor of current university (if not possible due to the current confinement situation in your country, please ask a university professor or an academic supervisor to send a recommendation email to tlp@esa.int);
• Upload a copy of academic records (PDF).

All answers and documents should be in English (except academic records if not available). 

The deadline for applications is the 26^th of July 2021 23:59 CEST.

For more information, please contact tlp@esa.int.