The Experiments Workshop 2024 gathers nine teams of students
In brief
Thirty-one students from the nine teams currently participating in the ESA Academy Experiments Programme travelled to ESA Education Training Centre at ESEC, Belgium, to participate in the Experiments Workshop 2024. Along with hands-on activities, lectures were delivered by experts, covering a variety of topics from systems engineering to data processing.
In-depth
The objective of the Experiments Workshop was to bring together all teams preparing experiments for the different platforms of the programme and to provide them with valuable insights on the next phases of their project.
From June 5th to June 7th, 2024, the event gathered 31 enthusiastic university students from Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the UK.
The first day started with a lecture focused on systems engineering and space project management. Students were also introduced to project philosophy, and then attended an interactive outreach workshop. Each team pitched their project to the audience, giving everyone the opportunity to discover the various student experiments being developed for the six platforms of the programme – the Drop Towers, the Space Rider platform, the Parabolic Flights, the Orbital Robotics Lab, the ICECube Facility onboard the International Space Station and the Random Positioning Machine at the Large Diameter Centrifuge facility.
During the second day, students learned about product assurance, integration and test procedures, assembly and qualification for space projects, and how to conduct a science experiment. Alumni from the ESA Academy Experiments Programme were invited and shared their experience as well as valuable advice to the current teams. During the Meet an Expert session, teams met with the expert of their respective platforms and had a fruitful working afternoon. This was followed by an engaging visit of the ESEC Redu centre which displays antennas and facilities for satellite control. The day was concluded by a social dinner with the experts and the students all together.
The final day of the Experiments Workshop was again packed with lectures and hands-on activities. ESA’s Space Rider, the Parabolic Flight platform, and the Orbital Robotics Lab were each presented by a facility expert. Other topics covered throughout the day were handover activities and launch campaign for ISS payloads, software integration of subsystems, data processing, and scientific outreach. Students could also learn and ask about early career’s opportunities at ESA with a HR representative.
The schedule featured an additional working session where teams continued to progress on their project with the guidance of their expert. Meanwhile, students of teams selected for the ICECubes facility and the Space Rider platform visited the CubeSat Facility and participated in a complete AIV (Assembly, Integration and Verification) workshop, crucial for them to prepare the coming activities of their space experiments.
Participants especially enjoyed meeting the other student teams and interacting in person with the ESA and platform experts. All students showed a high motivation during the event and efficiently advanced their experiment development and documentation. Inspired by the various talks given during the workshop and rich of new helpful knowledge, they will continue working towards the success of their projects.