Happy holidays from eSpace! We hope that you have a wonderful and relaxing holiday season. Read below to see what we've been up to for the last few months, and we will see you again in 2023!

Two events celebrating Italy and Switzerland in space

To celebrate the Italian Day of Space (giornata Nazionale dello Spazio) in Switzerland, eSpace hosted two exciting events on December 15 and 16, 2022. On the evening of December 15, eSpace and EPFL organised the event “Italy and Switzerland: Together in Space”, which featured fantastic presentations from astronauts Claude Nicollier and Paolo Nespoli  and two of the new class of ESA astronauts, Megane Christian and Slawosz Uznansky. On December 16, eSpace ran a technical workshop for the Italian Day of Space in Switzerland: “Space technology and sustainability: a challenge for the future”.

Lunar Hub: a venture to explore the extreme and the uncharted

On December 12, eSpace Engineer David Rodríguez presented the new Lunar Hub at eSpace at the latest eSpace Seminar Series. This Lunar Hub is the next iteration of the lunar initiative that began in 2020, aimed at bridging a series of identified knowledge and technology gaps within the latest lunar exploration and infrastructure development roadmaps. 

SKACH celebrates start of SKA telescope construction in Australia and South Africa

On December 5, construction began in Australia and South Africa on the sites for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescopes. The Swiss Consortium for the SKA (SKACH) marked the commencement of construction with an event on December 9 at EPFL. This event included talks from eSpace Academic Director Prof. Jean-Paul Kneib, talks from members of industry, videos from the ceremonies in Australia and South Africa, a radio telescope demonstration, and a private tour of the Cosmos Archaeology exhibition at EPFL Pavilions. 

ESA CM 2022: what’s in it for Switzerland and EPFL?

In November, the European Space Agency (ESA) Council at Ministerial level, a key decision-making event where the budget for the next three years is adopted by all ESA’s member states, took place. eSpace carefully followed the discussions and compiled a brief review and opinion piece to go into more details on the key decisions taken and on the opportunities ahead for Switzerland and EPFL.

eSpace joins Net Zero Space initiative

New class of ESA astronauts includes one Swiss and one EPFL researcher

The European Space Agency has chosen 17 new astronaut candidates from more than 22 500 applicants from across its Member States. In this new 2022 class of ESA astronauts are five career astronauts, 11 members of an astronaut reserve and one astronaut with a disability. One of the astronauts, Marco Sieber, is from Switzerland, and another, Raphaël Liégeois, is a scientist at EPFL.

A new course, Concurrent engineering challenge (ENG-411), will be offered as part of the Space Technologies Minor next spring at EPFL. The main objective of this course is to teach students the fundamentals of concurrent engineering for space missions and systems. The course is built around a similar framework to that of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Concurrent Engineering Challenge.

As part of eSpace's educational offerings, a number of semester projects related to the Lunar Hub and the Space Sustainability Rating are available for interested students. The eSpace website has more detailed information about each project and how to apply if interested. Be sure to check back regularly as the semester projects are continuously updated. 

• A deux pas de chez nous, des jeunes préparent une mission spatiale
  La Côte
• A bord de la mission Artemis, des petits satellites low cost mais ambitieux Le Temps
• «Claude Nicollier war mein Mentor»: Wie Marco Sieber zum zweiten Schweizer Astronauten wurde Aargauer Zeitung
• Mieux comprendre l'Univers Le Courrier
• Space Sustainability Rating System, the Chameleon Effect, and How to Blow Your Nose Curiosity Daily Podcast
• Espace : des débuts de solution pour nettoyer les orbites Le Monde

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