ESA Academy’s CubeSat Summer School 2022
In brief
ESA’s Education Office is developing an innovative new multi-week training opportunity: the CubeSat Summer School 2022. In the frame of ESA Academy’s Training and Learning Programme, this Summer School is designed for university students with engineering and physics backgrounds who are highly motivated to participate in a CubeSat project or pursue a career in the space sector, but currently lack knowledge or experience within this area.
The Summer School will run for four weeks from 8 August to 2 September 2022 at ESEC-Galaxia (Transinne, Belgium).
In-depth
In the frame of ESA Agenda 2025, the Summer School aims to transfer a set of multidisciplinary space-related skills and know-how to participating students, complementing their academic studies and helping prepare them to meet the employability demands of the European space sector.
During the four weeks, ESA and external experts will deliver an extensive mix of lectures and hands-on activities. Students will:
- Learn about the entire project lifecycle of a satellite mission, from design to verification, and onto launch and operations, including typical milestone reviews, new methodologies, and project management best practices.
- Identify economic, legal, and regulatory conditions relevant to space projects, and how they should be considered when undertaking a CubeSat project.
- Visualise the paths available to turn a CubeSat project into a viable business opportunity, identifying the skills needed to become a successful space entrepreneur.
- Become familiar with the engineering and project management standards applied in the European space sector.
- Develop a good understanding of the resources and multidisciplinary skills required to undertake a space project, and understand the interdependencies of the various disciplines.
Before the Summer School begins, students will be given the opportunity to participate in an online preparatory event. This will feature a tutorial on the Concurrent Model-based Engineering Tool (COMET), as well as providing useful information to act as a springboard into the Summer School itself.
The CubeSat Summer School 2022 is designed as follows:
Week 1:
The fundamentals of satellite engineering and related disciplines. Focus will be given to CubeSat missions. Students will learn through theoretical lectures and experiments on Educational Satellite (ESAT) models.
Week 2:
Students will learn about project management, cybersecurity and principles of Model-Based Systems Engineering applied in space projects. Students will be challenged to use the knowledge and skills gained so far to design a CubeSat mission using the Concurrent Engineering methodology, with tools available in ESA Academy’s Training and Learning Facility (TLF).
Week 3:
The students will discover how to conduct Assembly, Integration and Verification (AIV) in space missions, along with how to plan, prepare, and execute an environmental test campaign using hardware in the CubeSat Support Facility (CSF).
Week 4:
Training on the launch and operations phases will take place. Through real-time demonstrations on OPS-SAT, the students will gain a solid understanding of the subsystems involved in communications (both on-board and on the ground), and just how challenging it is to communicate with a spacecraft. In addition, there will be lectures and exercises about business skills and space entrepreneurship, providing insight into how a CubeSat project can be turned into a profitable business opportunity.
Students will be evaluated throughout the four weeks via group exercises. Upon completion of the Summer School, students will receive a certificate of participation and a course transcript, allowing them to request ECTS credit(s) from their respective universities.
Besides the learning experiences, students will also have the chance to participate in additional events including a team-building activity, professional visit, and networking session. Weekends are kept free (except for one day), and recommendations will be given for activities in and around Belgium.
Preliminary schedule
A typical weekday of the Summer School will be from 8:30 to 18:00 CEST.
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Week 1: Fundamentals 8 August – 12 August |
Fundamentals of Space Systems Engineering Fundamentals of CubeSat and its subsystems ESAT lab sessions |
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Week 2: Design 15 August – 19 August |
Cybersecurity Awareness in Space Project management for Space missions Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE) principles in Space Preliminary design of a CubeSat mission using Concurrent Engineering methodology |
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Week 3: AIV - Testing 22 August – 26 August |
Introduction to Space Product Assurance, Production and Procurement Assembly, Integration and Testing (AIV) Techniques in Space, with hands-on learning experience in environmental test campaign in the CubeSat Support Facility. Radio Frequency Experiment – Decoding CubeSat data |
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Week 4: Operations and Business Development 29 August – 2 September |
Launch and Operations Space Law and Space Debris Mitigation Developing skills for Space Business and Entrepreneurship OPS-SAT live passes and real-time demonstrations of operating commands. Student panel with industry and Fly Your Satellite! Programme experts Networking Event with ESA and External delegation |
To apply for the CubeSat Summer School 2022, please follow the steps given in the Call for applications.
