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The space industry is growing and space data are becoming accessible to businesses that were previously unthinkable. Constellations of small satellites in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) have created a gap that is allowing small and medium-sized space companies to gain momentum by developing new strategies and technologies. According to Euroconsult forecasting, the NewSpace market will grow from $12.6 billion to $42.8 billion in the next decade (2019–2028). Despite the study’s limitations and the uncertainties of the small satellite market, the results obtained in this exploratory research suggest that the Low-Cost Carriers (LCC) market, an already established market in the aviation industry, and the growing market of EO small satellite constellations in VLEO have similar behaviours. This behaviour shows that the evolution of EO smallsat constellations in VLEO is comparable with the evolution of the LCC airlines. In addition, the result also identifies a set of competitive factors that allow the researchers to observe similar strategic behaviour in both markets Peer Reviewed Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i Infraestructura

Law and policy provide the foundation for space actors engaging in space activities. Likewise, various levels of policy and regulation apply internationally, domestically, and even institutionally to both governmental and nongovernmental entities. Consequently, teaching the policy frameworks for space regulations and best practices is essential for a comprehensive university curriculum in space education. Challenges arise, however, when instructing technical and non-policy university students in humanities-centered topics. Reading comprehension, writing ability, critical thinking, and communication skills are critical elements of policy education, yet many technically oriented students struggle with these requirements. Given these are fundamental skillsets necessary for success in both academia and a dynamic space work force, adapting traditional teaching methodologies may be required to optimize desired learning outcomes for technical student audiences. Customizable strategies exist that can combine and scale these fundamental skillsets with substantive content and materials, providing a range of teaching and learning modalities for study, assessment, and experience. This presentation will highlight potential learning approaches tried at one aeronautical university to address these challenges. For instance, overarching strategies may include commencing with a visual of the student journey (much like a user journey in an investment pitch) delineating the value-added experience for students engaging in course content, and building substantive skill-based learning components which are introduced sequentially and with increasing level of difficulty. Examples of learning methodologies include applying Bloom’s Taxonomy in assignment creation. Most importantly: 1) Knowledge: involves identifying, understanding and remembering core content (e.g. pop quizzes, reading quizzes, cumulative review quizzes, question bank assessments); 2) Analysis: involves reading comprehension, interpretation, evaluation, analysis (e.g. essays, summaries, case studies); 3) Application: involves investigation, research and designing research projects (e.g. research articles, posters, digital presentations, short videos). Scaffolding assignments and artifacts into manageable pieces throughout the semester is key to guiding students towards success and reducing potential for ‘expert blind spots.’ Lastly, an end-of-course review and self-reflection of the student journey is helpful in underlining the critical thinking process and provide a visual review of the student journey in acquiring substantive knowledge, skills, and experience throughout the term

The Chair of Space Technology at TU Berlin continuously develops new satellite technology and software that is verified and used in various missions in orbit. 27 satellites were launched as of 2022. Many of these satellites by far outreach their design lifetime and work until today. At the same time, an increasing number of satellites not only in the academic domain is demanding for qualified operators. Hence, some of the satellites at TU Berlin are not fully operated anymore. To enable an efficient and sustainable use of those satellites, a novel hands-on student-driven project was implemented in order to utilize these aged but functional satellites to train a new generation of satellite operators. In this lecture course, students with various backgrounds are introduced to the basics of satellite operations by student tutors. Using a laboratory model of a CubeSat as a hardware-in-the-loop operations simulation, participants can collect first experiences in the university’s own Mission Control Center (MCC). Besides theoretical and practical foundations of satellite operations they gain skills in managing and coordinating satellite missions. After finishing the basic course in a theoretical and practical operations test, students qualify to participate in the advanced project giving them the opportunity to work with and operate the available satellites in orbit under supervision. Each semester, several interdisciplinary teams conduct experiments such as Earth Observation scenarios or work on related tasks like the improvement of the operations software or Human Factors of satellite operations. The pandemic has posed new challenges to this innovative educational concept, but was also a motivation to find alternative ways to teach satellite operations. The setup of simulated operations in the MCC was transformed into a combined setup of remote access and video conference. In this way, students are enabled to practice satellite operations from home. Theoretical lectures are prepared as screencasts. Further, the advanced project work was transferred to a remote manner. Students planned satellite scenarios from home, which subsequently were conducted by the student tutors, who provided the acquired telemetry data to the participants for analysis. Among the results of the project are several images with the focus on environmental monitoring of Earth, a software update for a satellite and the continuous analysis and documentation of degradation of components that have been in orbit for many years. These achievements do not only provide exciting hands-on classes and new skills to the students but often even contribute to the institution’s research

The ESA Academy is the ESA Education Office’s overarching programme for university students. The Academy’s portfolio consists of both ‘hands-on’ activities, and a Training and Learning Programme. Conventionally both of these elements involve a significant number of in person events, for example training sessions, workshops and test and launch campaigns. The educational nature and practical aspects of such events has traditionally necessitated in person participation. Additionally, most of the Academy’s ‘hands-on’ programmes revolve around student teams designing, building, testing and operating an experiment or spacecraft, activities which rely on the availability and delivery of commercial components, and access to manufacturing, testing and launch facilities, and laboratories. In March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic, and associated restrictions, began to take hold in Europe, nearly all the ESA Academy programmes were affected. Despite the challenges, the Academy continued to deliver activities, and the student teams participating in the Academy’s programmes continued to achieve major milestones, including launching experiments to the ISS, CubeSat testing and launch and execution of micro- and hyper-gravity experiments. This paper explores the challenges faced during COVID-19 and how both the programmes and the students participating in the programmes adapted to meet their educational, scientific, and technical goals. Furthermore, the longer-term adaptation of some of these changes into the future execution of the programmes is discussed

Space missions need software in order to be aware of the occurrence of geometric events in different phases of their project lifecycle. However, current software packages that provide capabilities to search for geometric events might lack desirable software qualities such as extensibility and reusability, and some conflate the definition of events with the search for the same. In order to improve the state of the art, we propose a framework named Tychonis that, via metamodeling techniques and conscious use of object-oriented design best practices, (i) can integrate with current and future mission software, (ii) enables end-users to extend opportunities and search algorithms without modifying the tools that use the framework, and (iii) promotes the cross-mission reusability of the framework and its extensions. These attributes make it less costly for projects to develop software to search for geometric events. Tychonis is provided as a software library that allows missions to add their own data structures and constructs to the framework, including geometric event types and search algorithms. This is accomplished with Tychonis’ use of the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) to capture its metamodel, which enables the generation of Java classes that represent built-in or user-developed Tychonis constructs. In the present paper, we elaborate on the impetus for the development of Tychonis, present its proposed design and use, and discuss growth opportunities for future consideration.

The future plans of the space agencies all across the globe, mainly focus on the advance of the Extravehicular Activities (EVAs) that are orientated in the repair and maintenance of the space vehicles. This thesis presents a brief history of the space suits (EMU, Orlan-M) utilized in space applications and the propulsion units (Hand-Held Maneuvering Unit, Manned Maneuvering Unit and the Simplified Aid for Extravehicular Activity Rescue-SAFER which is currently being used for performing self-rescue maneuvers, in the case the EVA crew member becomes untethered from the orbiter) that have been used during the space activities. After introducing the space environment and the critical conditions that surround the astronaut during these activities, the fundamentals of the Cold Gas Propulsion Systems on which the function of the SAFER propulsion unit is based, are presented. The aim of this thesis is to perform a performance analysis of the SAFER propulsion unit, with the extraction of the basic space propulsion concepts, i.e. thrust, specific impulse, etc. and the verification of the produced results with the technical characteristics of the unit. The orbital dynamics applying on the astronaut during an EVA are also being studied in this thesis, starting from the scenario where the crew member becomes untethered and floats freely in the vacuum of space and at the same time, examining the case where the SAFER propulsion unit is being activated for the performance of the self-rescue maneuver, and the return of the astronaut to the orbiter.

The main objective of this project is to design an aerial vehicle which can contribute in planetary research in a more optima l way than the current missions. It has been decided that an aerobot, which consists in a balloon and scientific instrumentation (also known as payload) hanging from this balloon, would be a suitable option due t o its better resolution than orbiters and it s better mobilit y than rovers. This balloon is filled with a buoyant gas that must be lighter than the atmospheric air in order to make possible the balloon flight. In this project there is a study of the different aerobot and buoyant gas options that coul d be employed for this mission. In more specific terms, the chosen aerobot is a helium Super Pressure Balloon made of LLDPE, which has a positive pressure differential pressure between the internal and atmospheric pressure, so its float altitude would kee p constant along its flight. The balloon size and mass , internal properties , vertical speed during ascension and lifetime of the balloon are some of the aerobot characteristics that have been computed in this project. This balloon endurance is determined b y the film leakage features and helium diffusion . Moreover, a study of Mars has also been performed in order to apply the design of the aerobot to the singular Martian conditions. An atmosphere model for Mars has been settled , the Viking - Pathfinder , from which the balloon characteristics have been determined. Furthermore, there have been exposed different extra systems that could improve the performance of the aerobot, increasing its exploration capabilities or its endurance . Finally, it has been conclud ed that a planetary aerobot is a system that would improve to a large extent the current exploration of solar system bodies with a substantial atmosphere due to it is proved that its design is possible . However, it is also needed a great improvement and fu ture work at the balloon envelope materials and buoyancy technology of a balloon in foreign atmospheres to make it a feasible mission.

This project focuses on the study previous to the development of an Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) of a small space telescope, the Humble Space Telescope (hST). The ADCS is essential for the telescope operation as it must guarantee a good observation of the space regions of interest. The proposed system is based on the use of quaternions to lighten the computational weight. The QUEST (Quaternion Estimator) algorithm will be used for the attitude determination from the vector observations made with the sensors, mainly star trackers. The control part will be done by means of a PD (Proportional Derivative) controller using a control law based on the error quaternion between the actual and the desired attitude. The stability of the proposed control law will be verified by a Lyapunov study. An empirical study of the effect of the propotional and derivative gains on the system's response will be carried out. The main hardware for the control part will be reaction wheels, combined with the use of magnetorquers for the desaturation of the reaction wheels. The numerical simulations that are going to be conducted will verify the viability of the proposed system.

In the circular restricted three-body problem (CR3BP) the weak stability boundary (WSB) is defined as a boundary set in the phase space between stable and unstable motion relative to the second primary. At a given energy level, the boundaries of such region are provided by the stable manifolds of the central objects of the L1 and L2 libration points, i.e., the two planar Lyapunov orbits. Besides, the unstable manifolds of libration point orbits (LPOs) around L1 and L2 have been identified as responsible for the weak or temporary capture around the second primary of the system. These two issues suggest the existence of natural dynamical channels between the Earth's vicinity and the Sun–Earth libration points L1 and L2. Furthermore, it has been shown that the Sun–Earth L2 central unstable manifolds can be linked, through an heteroclinic connection, to the central stable manifolds of the L2 point in the Earth–Moon three-body problem. This concept has been applied to the design of low energy transfers (LETs) from the Earth to the Moon. In this contribution we consider all the above three issues, i.e., weak stability boundaries, temporary capture and low energy transfers, and we discuss the role played by the invariant manifolds of LPOs in each of them. The study is made in the planar approximation.

En aquest treball es descriu i analitza els efectes de la radiació espacial en diferent parts del cos humà i, en particular, sobre un model de tòrax humà. La principal eina utilitzada és el programari SPENVIS, desenvolupat per l'Agència Espacial Europea (ESA) per estudiar la radiació espacial i els seus efectes a components estructurals, electrònics i organismes vius. Per entendre els efectes de les característiques de l'òrbita utilitzada considerem una òrbita baixa (LEO) i una òrbita mitja (MEO), totes dues amb diferents inclinacions de 0º, 45º i 90º, i amb una durada determinada d'un any. Utilitzant SPENVIS podem determinar els valors de les magnituds que caracteritzen la radiació (fluxos i fluències) en cada cas. La següent part del treball consisteix en fer els models dels components i teixits d'interès. SPENVIS proporciona un llistat complet de materials però, a més, permet introduir materials addicionals a partir de la seva estequiometria i densitat. D'aquesta manera hem pogut realitzar models d'un tòrax humà i de components estructurals de l'Estació Espacial Internacional que, a més, serveixen per apantallar parcialment la radiació a l'espai. Finalment, a partir de les característiques de la radiació espacial a cada òrbita i de la descripció dels materials de blindatge i els teixits afectats, hem pogut determinar les dosis ionitzants acumulades a cada cas i comparar amb els estàndards de les dosis que es consideren perjudicials o mortals i les dades biogràfiques (dates de naixement, mort i causa de mort) dels cosmonautes al llarg de la història. D'aquesta manera es pot realitzar estimacions de les probabilitats de supervivència dels éssers humans a l'espai i fer estudis previs de disseny de materials de blindatge envers la radiació.

22 páginas, 16 figuras, 6 tablas.-- Planck Science Team: et al., The European Space Agency's Planck satellite, launched on 14 May 2009, is the third-generation space experiment in the field of cosmic microwave background (CMB) research. It will image the anisotropies of the CMB over the whole sky, with unprecedented sensitivity ( ~ 2 × 10-6) and angular resolution (~5 arcmin). Planck will provide a major source of information relevant to many fundamental cosmological problems and will test current theories of the early evolution of the Universe and the origin of structure. It will also address a wide range of areas of astrophysical research related to the Milky Way as well as external galaxies and clusters of galaxies. The ability of Planck to measure polarization across a wide frequency range (30-350 GHz), with high precision and accuracy, and over the whole sky, will provide unique insight, not only into specific cosmological questions, but also into the properties of the interstellar medium. This paper is part of a series which describes the technical capabilities of the Planck scientific payload. It is based on the knowledge gathered during the on-ground calibration campaigns of the major subsystems, principally its telescope and its two scientific instruments, and of tests at fully integrated satellite level. It represents the best estimate before launch of the technical performance that the satellite and its payload will achieve in flight. In this paper, we summarise the main elements of the payload performance, which is described in detail in the accompanying papers. In addition, we describe the satellite performance elements which are most relevant for science, and provide an overview of the plans for scientific operations and data analysis.

A business roadmap is a high-level strategic management tool that maps the actions to develop new industries. It serves as a guide to plan and forecast technological, market and product developments in a more operational way. Precisely, the business roadmap of this article highlights the main actions to be taken by the European Union (EU) space ecosystem with regards to Low Earth Orbit (LEO)—orbits from 450 to 2000 km—and Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO)—orbits from 150 to 450 km. On the one hand, it is necessary to (1) develop industrial and technological space capabilities, (2) continue investing public funds in European Programs to develop new vehicle concepts of access to space, (3) improve testing, demonstration and exploration for faster the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) development, (4) promote an entrepreneurial and risk-taking culture, and (5) leverage the private investment to boost the development of advanced access to space technologies, attract talent, promote collaboration between public and private companies, and finance NewSpace Small–Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). On the other hand, it should also strengthen its relationship with the European Space Agency (ESA) to foster its space capabilities and become a competitive player in the access to space market in the medium term (5–10 years). The implementation of these actions will help the EU to improve its international positioning, and adapt the technology to the needs and requirements of NewSpace demand, mobilizing around €40,500 million euros for the EU economy during the first 10–15 years of operations with an average Leverage Factor (LF) of 4 Peer Reviewed Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i Infraestructura

Este estudio esta destinado al dise?o, construccion y prueba de una plataforma llamada Aerial Wireless Inertial Platform (AWIP) que tiene capacidad de comunicacion inalambrica, altas prestaciones y fiabilidad, sensor de actitud y velocidad de giro, bajo consumo, bajo coste, un alto nivel de integracion y bajo peso. Esta plataforma tiene muchas aplicaciones pero la mayor restriccion es debido a las exigencias del entorno para el espacio que debe reunir. La AWIP debe ser dise?ada como un demostrador multi-funcional para aplicaciones de Femto-satelites asi como vehiculos no tripulados UAV en enjambre, nube de sensores, etc. En esta Tesis, se estudia la posibilidad de aplicarlo a un Femto-satelite para una mision basica en LEO y que tiene como finalidad probar el modelo escalable para misiones de complejidad aumentada. El lugar de investigacion sera en los laboratorios aeronauticos, como el tunel de viento, con un bajo coste y creando herramientas SMT o Surface Mount Technology. The present work is aimed to demonstrate the development and implementation of a scalable femto-satellite technology demonstrator, experimentation and development platform in order to practically prove the possibility of meeting the N-Prize competition requirements as well as introducing some possible scientific applications of a femto-satellite as a satellite-on-a-board spacecraft. In order to achieve these goals the low-cost low-power self-sufficient platform with communication, data processing position determination and keeping abilities was designed and implemented. A set of subsystem qualification tests was designed and performed in order to obtain numerical results and calls for the future studies. The ability to meet the general space qualification and particular N-Prize competition-related requirements was studied and the overall conclusions were stated.

En este TFC se realizará un estudio de la situación actual en cuanto ha la explotación comercial de vuelos parabólicos, con el objetivo de plantear las especificaciones de un vuelo de estas caracteristicas, analizando los vehículos necesarios para este tipo y las actuaciones para cada una de las fases del vuelo. El viaje espacial ha estado durante años destinado exclusivamente a los astronautas y recientemente a personas con gran poder adquisitivo originando un nuevo mercado orbital: el turismo espacial. Sin embargo, los vuelos suborbitales se presentan como la alternativa para promover el acceso público al espacio por un menor coste y sin las incomodidades del vuelo orbital. Resurgiendo así el interés por la actividad suborbital y las posibilidades comerciales que puede satisfacer. La intención de este trabajo es realizar una primera aproximación hacia la emergente actividad suborbital y desarrollarla con el objetivo de dar los primeros pasos en un tema pionero. En primer lugar se estudiarán las posibilidades comerciales con un análisis de los mercados e identificación de los potenciales. En segundo lugar se evaluarán los distintos modos de operación de los diferentes conceptos de vehículos suborbitales con el fin de determinar cual será el mas apropiado para la ejecución de la actividad comercial. En tercer lugar, puesto que se trata de una actividad pionera y se desconoce las actuaciones del vuelo suborbital para la ejecución de la actividad comercial, se evaluará la influencia de los parámetros de diseño del vehículo en la actividad comercial y la determinación de las condiciones iniciales del vuelo suborbital. Para ello se identificarán los parámetros de calidad y se integrarán las ecuaciones que rigen las trayectorias con Matlab®. Por último, una vez determinada la influencia de los parámetros de diseño, se propondrán unos valores para dichos parámetros, a partir de un estudio paramétrico, que permitan realizar las operaciones suborbitales, en la medida de lo posible, de forma similar a las operaciones de la aviación comercial.

A major limitation of current Low Earth Orbit Synthetic Aperture Radars (LEOSAR) is related to their revisit time of several days or weeks. They cannot provide continuous monitoring over the same area of the planet. The introduction of the Geosynchronous Synthetic Aperture Radar (GEOSAR) aims to provide permanent illumination over a wide zone of the planet. This work is performed in the context of the new ESA Earth Explorer pre-selected mission G-CLASS/Hydroterra. It is designed to help scientists unravel the details of the daily water cycle. The orbit determination of a GEOSAR is one of the main challenges of the mission. Previous studies show how the generic sub-wavelength tolerance requirement to build a well focused synthetic aperture can be substantially relaxed up to the sub-meter scale. Several orbit observation techniques are reliable and perform well to this end. Among them, interferometry stands out since it can provide orbit observables coming from current satellites operating in GEO, serving as illuminators of opportunity. The experimental orbit observation data resulting from the validation interferometer built at the campus of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona is presented. It depicts the expected motion of the ASTRA 1M satellite, serving as proof of concept for future GEOSAR missions such as G-CLASS/Hydroterra. This work has been supported by the SpanishScience, Research and Innovation Plan (MINECO)withProject Codes TIN2014-55413-C2-1-P and TEC2017-85244-C2-2-P and by Unidad de Excelencia Maria deMaeztu MDM-2016-0600 financed by the AgenciaEstatal de Investigación, Spain. Peer Reviewed Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::6 - Aigua Neta i Sanejament Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::3 - Salut i Benestar Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats Sostenibles Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::15 - Vida d'Ecosistemes Terrestres Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::13 - Acció per al Clima Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i Infraestructura