UPC students will present innovative ideas in Space Exploration, with CTAE’s help

Published June 17, 2009

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 innovative engineering ideas.

The IAC is the world’s largest professional space conference, held each year in a different location around the world and gathering over one thousand participants. Thanks to the “Student Participation Programme”, funded by several space agencies (CNES in France, CSA in Canada, ESA in Europe, JAXA in Japan and NASA in the USA) student papers undergo a competitive process based on academic excellence and relevance of the proposed ideas to the ongoing and future international space programmes.

The following papers have been accepted at the Students Programme of IAC 2009, and their authors have received a travel scholarship from ESA:

•    “Advanced Materials for Balloon Missions to Other Planets”. Main author: Ms. Neus Lladó, a UPC student who provided the original idea.
•    “An Evolutionary Design Method for Optimizing Spacecraft”. Main author: Mr. Marc Prat, a UPC student who reports on his Final Thesis.
•    “Analysis and Design of Microrover Delivery System”. Main author: Ms. Laura Aivar, a UPC student who reports on her Final Thesis.

In addition, Laura Alvar has been invited to present her novel idea at three professional symposia in the frame of IAC 2009, focusing on Moon, Mars and Solar System exploration, respectively.

The selection of the above topics has followed a strategy of analysing industry/agency plans to find “real” projects for students that are motivating and useful. This strategy is described by Dr. Ed Chester in his paper “Linking Space Design Education with Agency Roadmaps for Exploration”, which will also be presented at IAC this year.

For more information, please contact:
Dr. Ed Chester – CTAE –   Ed.chester –at- ctae.org
Dr. David González – UPC -   david.gonzalez –at- upc.edu