ESA increases its presence in Barcelona: new research facility, the Council meeting, and new events for 2010

The month of June 2009 has seen a major presence of the European Space Agency (ESA) in Barcelona, with two major events happening in as many weeks:

The International Astronautical Congress (IAC), to be held in Korea from 12th to 16th October 2009, has accepted a record number of papers submitted by students of aerospace engineering at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). This unusual achievement results from an initiative of Dr. Ed Chester, Head of R&D at CTAE and lecturer on Space Vehicle Design at UPC, who has provided advice to the students in developing their projects.

The top management of ten Technology Centres belonging to the ACT association met on 15th May 2009 with members of the Convergència i Unió parliamentary group, to discuss the draft law on Science and Technology, and to thank the Members of Parliament for their support to the Technology Centres through the Spanish General Household, which included special subsidies in 2008 and 2009.

Laia Ramió, a school student from “Les Alzines” school in Girona, has completed an extensive study into the effects of lunar albedo upon spacecraft. The project was supervised by CTAE and by Laia’s teacher Lluïsa Codina, and has involved developing a thermal model for typical satellites in orbit around the Moon.