Participate in ESA Academy’s very first CubeSat Summer School

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Agency

24/01/2022
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In brief

Do you want to participate in a CubeSat project, but don’t know where to start? Or is your dream to have a career in the space sector, but you’re not sure what skills you need or which space-related subjects to specialise in? If so, ESA Education Office’s latest initiative, the CubeSat Summer School 2022, is for you! Taking place over four weeks from 8 August to 2 September 2022 at ESEC-Galaxia (Transinne, Belgium), applications are now open for university students with engineering and physics backgrounds.

In-depth

During the Summer School, ESA and external experts will deliver an extensive mix of lectures and hands-on activities. The entire project lifecycle of a satellite mission will be covered, from design to verification, launch and operations, including typical milestone reviews and new methodologies. Students will be introduced to project management best practices, legal, cybersecurity, and economic aspects of space projects. The Summer School will even introduce space entrepreneurship skills, offering support in devising methods of turning a CubeSat into a viable and profitable business opportunity!

Upon completing the CubeSat Summer School 2022, participating students will have gained the multidisciplinary knowledge and skills needed to undertake CubeSat or other space-related projects, be confident with engineering and project management standards, and be better prepared to join the European space sector.

More information is available in the CubeSat Summer School description.

Who can apply?

Students performing experiments on their ESAT, supervised by trainers.

To participate, students must fulfil the following criteria at the time of application:

aged a minimum of 18 years old; ESA Academy will only appraise applications from students who have no or limited professional experience in relevant scientific, engineering or other space-related topics;
be a citizen of an ESA Member State, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania or Slovenia;
be enrolled as a 2^nd/3^rd/4^th year Bachelor, Master, or PhD student in a university for the academic year 2021-2022;
be studying an engineering or physics subject with basic knowledge in space science and technology.

Students interested in starting a CubeSat project, or participating in an ongoing CubeSat project at their university, are encouraged to apply to this Summer School.

Students from the EIRSAT team performing functional checks in the CubeSat Support Facility.

At ESA, we value diversity and welcome people with disabilities. Whenever possible, we seek to accommodate individuals with disabilities by providing the necessary support during the Summer School. ESA can also provide assistance throughout the application process and the Summer School preparation. If you would like to discuss this further, please contact [email protected] .

The selected students are required to attend the full four weeks of the Summer School, and will be sponsored by ESA Education Office. This sponsorship covers accommodation for the full duration at a local hotel, meals during the weekdays, and up to 200 Euros for travelling to and from ESEC-Galaxia, Belgium.

CubeSat Summer School Overview

Week 1: Fundamentals 8 August – 12 August	Space Systems Engineering CubeSats and their subsystems Hands-on Practice with Educational Satellite Models
Week 2: Design 15 August – 19 August	Cybersecurity Awareness Project Management for Space missions Model-based Systems Engineering principles Preliminary design of a CubeSat mission using Concurrent Engineering methodology
Week 3: AIV – Testing 22 August – 26 August	Introduction to Space Product Assurance, Production and Procurement Assembly, Integration and Testing (AIV) Techniques in Space Radio Frequency Experiment – Decoding CubeSat data
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

Students will be evaluated during the Summer School 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.

How to apply

Expert delivering lecture on the Concurrent Engineering approach.

1. Complete the application form;

2. Upload a motivation letter (PDF, maximum 1 page, no images);

3. Upload a CV (PDF, Europass format, no images, maximum 2 pages);

4. Upload an essay presenting your idea on how CubeSat(s) could contribute towards solving one of the challenges in any one of the following areas: (PDF, maximum word count: 500, no images);

Earth Observation
Navigation and Telecommunication
Green and Digital Commercialisation
Safety and Security (e.g., clean space, cyber resilience, space weather etc.)
Space Exploration

5. Upload a formal recommendation letter (PDF, maximum 1 page, including signature, no images) from a university professor or academic supervisor of your current university (if not possible due to the current confinement situation in your country, please ask a university professor or an academic supervisor to send a recommendation email to [email protected]);

6. Upload a copy of academic records (PDF).

All answers and documents should be in English (except academic records if not available).

Students who wish to apply for the Summer School must submit their application by 21 March 2022 23:59 CET.

For more information, please contact [email protected].

Important note
Due to the evolution of the Coronavirus situation in Europe, and in line with governmental instructions across Europe and with the recommendations of ESA’s Director General on travel restrictions for health and safety reasons, the ESA Education Office reserves the right to cancel scheduled ESA Academy training sessions.