The Sapienza Space Systems and Space Surveillance Laboratory (S5Lab) has organised an event within the “REXUS/BEXUS Programme: hands-on opportunity for aerospace students”, which objective is hands-on opportunity for aerospace students (ESA Educational Programme, for more details see http://www.esa.int/Education/REXUS_and_BEXUS_experiments_selected).
The Rome event, held in the morning of 15th July 2016, achieved resounding success. The room was full of students, professors and representatives of several aerospace Italian industries, interested in knowing more about the objectives and features of the Educational European projects as the REXUS/BEXUS programme.
Professor Piergentili from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (DIMA) of Sapienza – University of Rome welcomed the attendees by presenting S5Lab activities, from the nanosatellites design and development, where BSc, MSc and PhD students had the possibility to be involved in national and international projects, to the space debris observation and mitigation and the educational projects in the framework of the BSc degree of Aerospace Engineering. As second speaker, Annamaria Nassisi, Director of Communication of Women In Aerospace (WIA) Europe, had the possibility to show and promote the main activities and objectives of the organization, with particular emphasis on the support offered to young professionals and students active in the space field with hands-on activities and projects.
The part of the workshop dedicated to the educational programme started with the presentation of Stefan Kramer, REXUS/BEXUS programme manager from the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC). In particular, his speech was focused on the main features and experiences offered by the programme by considering both the sounding rocket and the stratospheric balloon. As part of the panel of experts, he offered rare and precious suggestions and advices for applying the programme and trying to better face the several related phases, from the design to the real experiment development. Then, Paolo Concari, REXUS/BEXUS programme supporting space expert from the European Space Agency (ESA) and mentor of the STRATONAV Team, focused his presentation on the description of the main programme phases and reviews and on how the selected teams he was mentor of have faced each problem or challenge before launching their experiments.
At the end of the workshop, three members of the STRATONAV team have presented their project that will fly on BEXUS 22 next October. Federico Curianò, the team leader and responsible for the experiment manufacturing, introduced the experiment team members and the main scientific and technological objectives. Paolo Marzioli, responsible for the scientific background, for the on-board software development and editor of the project documentation, explained the scientific core of the experiment with particular emphasis on its future possible applicability. Alice Pellegrino, responsible for system engineering, mission analysis, outreach and fundraising campaign, had the chance to highlight the main project milestones by describing the adventure the team had and are having in the framework of this European educational programme.
See also the attached flyer of the event: flyer_REXUSBEXUSevent_Sapienza_Piergentili.pdf
