Topic 4
Climate, Environment and
the Green Deal
Sustainability and the Green Deal
Space is the next frontier which is explored already for several decades. But it is also a global system where human kind developed solutions and resources for our everyday life. As such space become a natural part of our environment and its essential links with Earth’s activities lead to consider wider perspectives on sustainability, together with the current promotion of the Green Deal.
• The Clean Space initiative and the environmental impact of space activities
• Guaranteeing our society's sustainability through Earth observation
• Asteroids as a threat and opportunity
• Building resilience as a multi-planetary species
Recorded Topic 4 Presentations
Speakers
Chair
Olivier Chazot
Olivier Chazot is professor and Head of the Aeronautic and Aerospace department at the Von Karman Institute. He carries out research in high enthalpy facilities and plasma wind tunnels to study laminar to turbulent transition and Gas-Surface interactions in re-entry flows. He participated in multiple ESA missions for the development of flight-testing experiments like the EXPERT probe, IXV program and QARMAN re-entry CubeSat.
He is also "scientist in residence" at Zurich University of Arts for transdisciplinary collaboration between art, science and philosophy in experimental research.
Chair
Guerric de Crombrugghe
PhD, Deputy General Manager of ScanWorld
Guerric is enthusiastic and self-driven, eager to understand the world he lives in, and to contribute to a better world. He holds a PhD is aerospace engineering from the University of Queensland, in Australia. Before that, he also obtained degrees from the Louvain School of Engineering, the von Karman Institute, and the International Space University. After working for different aerospace companies, he now dedicates his time to a new challenge in the field of Earth observation.
Practical steps for becoming multi-planetary through the use of Space Resources
Diego Urbina
Team Leader, Future Projects and Exploration at Space Applications Services
Diego Urbina is an Electronics Engineer and he works on research and development of technologies for the Exploration of the Moon, Mars, Asteroids, and terrestrial extreme environments at Space Applications Services. Urbina has led for ESA and performed for the EU and PwC/Government of Luxembourg the design of space mining demonstration and prospecting systems and space resources technology scouting. Between 2010 and 2013, he worked for ESA as consultant at ESA ESTEC, was CAVES Engineer at the ESA Astronaut Centre, and researcher at IBMP in Russia, where he served as crew member in the longest spaceflight simulation, Mars500.
The Clean Space initiative and the environmental impact of space activities
Bernd Helber
Senior Research Engineer at von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics
Bernd Helber graduated in Aerospace Engineering from the University of
Stuttgart after a stay at the Centre for Hypersonics at the University
of Queensland. He then obtained a PhD from VKI and the Vrije
Universiteit Brussel on ablative material characterisation. Since then,
Bernd works as senior researcher and project leader at VKI on the
aerochemical characterization of thermal protection and space debris
materials in the world's largest inductively-coupled plasma facility.
Currently, he is the principal investigator of an ESA project initiated
by the Clean Space initiative in order to better understand the demising
process of spacecraft components.
Asteroids as a threat and opportunity
Ozgur Karatekin
Research scientist at ROB
Ozgur Karatekin obtained his PhD from VKI and the Universitè Libre de Bruxelles. Since then, he has been working at Royal Observatory of Belgium on planetary sciences. He is the Principle Investigator of the Juventas Cubesat and co-chair of proximity operations working group on Hera mission. Hera is ESA's contribution to the Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA) international cooperation, targeting the deflection demonstration and in-depth investigation of a near-Earth asteroid and the preparation of asteroid resources utilization.
Bird's eye view on sustainable development
Paul Counet
Head of Strategy, Communications and International Relations Division and Chef de Cabinet of the Director-General at EUMETSAT
He supports the Director-General in developing and enacting the strategy for the organisation, plans and enacts high-level activities with EUMETSAT’s international partners and ensures that suitable information about EUMETSAT’s goals and achievements is communicated to the media and the grand public.
Space Technology to the Power of Hundreds
Agnieszka Lukaszczyk
Senior Director for European Affairs at Planet
Agnieszka Lukaszczyk is the Senior Director for European Affairs at Planet. A Polish/American national, has worked at the European Commission, Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Space Data for Societal Challenges and Growth Unit. She also worked at the Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry, Space Policy and Research Unit. Before she joined the Commission, Agnieszka was the Brussels Office Director for the Secure World Foundation. In addition, she is the former Chairperson and the former Executive Director of the Space Generation Advisory Council in Support of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications. Agnieszka also worked at the European Space Policy Institute as a research fellow. Agnieszka serves as the Vice President - Europe for the World Space Week And Sits on the Board Of Directors for the Women in Aerospace-Europe. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Space Security at the Polish Defence Academy. She holds a Master's degree from the Warsaw School of Economics in Management of Space in New Economies and a Master's degree from the American University School of International Service in International Politics plus a Bachelor degree in Political Science from the University of Tennessee. She also studied at the Universite Catholique de Louvain in Brussels, Belgium; the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland and the World Trade Institute in Berne, Switzerland. She gained professional experience at the Political Section of the Polish Embassy in Washington C, American Electronics Association in Brussels, European Department of the Polish Senate in Warsaw and the Warsaw Business Journal.
