Topic 3
Space Technologies for
the Moon & Mars
October 19th, 2022 at 14:30 – 16:30
Egmont Palace, Brussels
Space Technologies for Moon & Mars
Reaching the Moon and the planet Mars requires specific technologies and an extensive development of new tools and a huge preparation and testing phase. Some of these technologies will be presented in our session:
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Propulsion systems with high performance for the different stages of the rocket and for the trip back to Earth
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Trajectory optimization in real time for orbit changes and corrections
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Artificial intelligence and robotics for improved communications and navigation services
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The capabilities of nuclear propulsion for Mars exploration
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Instrumentation for Mars atmospheric analysis, searching for traces of life.
Speakers & Presentations
Vincent Massaut
Nuclear Electro-Mechanical Engineer at SCK.CEN
Gert Pille
Nuclear-mechanical engineer at Tractebel
Vincent Ledoux
Space Program Manager at SAFRAN AERO BOOSTERS
Romain Charles
Research Engineer at CNES
Nicola De Quatro
Head of Engineering and Innovation at Telespazio Belgium
Stefan Lesschaeve
System engineer space and team leader optical engineering at OIP
Mattias Genbrugge
Project Manager at Antwerp Space
Serena Bollis
Optical System Engineer at Lambda-X
Nuclear propulsion for the missions on Mars
Nuclear propulsion for the missions on Mars
Liquid rocket propulsion Switch to New Space
The CNES Spaceship: preparing the future of space exploration
The future of Lunar Communications and Navigation Services
NOMAD instrument for Mars atmospheric analysis (searching for traces of life)
How Radio Wave technology, Boiled Eggs and the Inner Structure of Mars are Related
Speakers
Nuclear propulsion for the missions on Mars
Vincent Massaut
Nuclear Electro-Mechanical Engineer at SCK.CEN
Vincent Massaut is a nuclear Electro-Mechanical Engineer from the University of Liège. He spent almost his whole career at the SCK CEN (Belgian nuclear research center) where he worked on various topics, from which nuclear fusion R&D and decommissioning of nuclear facilities. He is now in charge of business development and in particular in the spatial exploration R&D. With some of his colleagues, he started a project for the generation of Plutonium 238 for giving independence to Europe for the Radio-isotopes thermo-generator (i.e. generating electricity in space even when the sun is not available...). He is now also looking at the far future with nuclear propulsion, which is the only solution to envisage actual travels to Mars !
Nuclear propulsion for the missions on Mars
Gert Pille
Nuclear-mechanical engineer at Tractebel
Gert Pille is a nuclear-mechanical engineer working on Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) for Space Applications at Tractebel. As part of an initiative to diversify the global nuclear expertise of Tractebel, it was evaluated that a switch to Space was a natural fit. The newly awarded contracts by ESA and the European Commission set an ambitious and exciting course for future nuclear applications in Space.
Liquid rocket propulsion Switch to New Space
Vincent Ledoux
Space Program Manager at SAFRAN AERO BOOSTERS
Vincent is Space Program Manager at SAFRAN AERO BOOSTERS and member of the board of Belgospace and Wallonie Espace. He is active in the space industry for 12 years following 10 years of experience in automotive/motorsport. Vincent in an Electro-Mechanical Engineer from the University of Liège. In his current position, his ambition is to spread SAFRAN electrical valves technology for launcher engines and stages fluid control in order to reduce the global launcher costs and improve its performance to offer the best launch service for autonomous space access.
The CNES Spaceship: preparing the future of space exploration
Romain Charles
Research Engineer at CNES
Romain Charles of French nationality received a Masters degree in Engineering from the French Institute of Advanced Mechanics in Clermont-Ferrand, France and worked for 6 years in the automotive industry as a quality engineer. In 2010, he was selected by the European Space Agency to become the Flight Engineer of the Mars 500 crew. This mission of 520 days simulated a journey to Mars between the 3rd of June 2010 and the 4th of November 2011. For more than 7 years, he then worked as a crew support engineer at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, Germany. He’s now helping CNES to develop the “Spaceship FR” structure in Toulouse, France. The goal of the “Spaceship” network, coordinated by ESA, is to prepare the future of exploration.
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The future of Lunar Communications and Navigation Services
Nicola De Quatro
Head of Engineering and Innovation at Telespazio Belgium
"We're going back to the Moon shortly, and further away from Earth from there. After the first pioneers, we're going to have infrastructures to stay longer and live. We are preparing the new world to enable and facilitate space travels, starting from our natural satellite. Communicating while navigating on the Moon is what Telespazio aims at offering to astronauts with its Lunar Navigation and Communication Services."
NOMAD instrument for Mars atmospheric analysis (searching for traces of life)
Stefan Lesschaeve
System engineer space and team leader optical engineering at OIP
Stefan Lesschaeve started his career at Barco, as optical designer of projectors for concerts and digital cinema. In 2008, he joined OIP, mainly supporting various space projects. He was the system engineer for the NOMAD spectrometer, currently still in orbit around Mars, generating science data. Currently, Stefan is head of the optical engineering team at OIP Sensor systems and lead system engineer for the CLIM instrument, a part of ESA’s CO2M mission.
How Radio Wave technology, Boiled Eggs and the Inner Structure of Mars are Related
Mattias Genbrugge
Project Manager at Antwerp Space
Mattias is a senior Engineering Project Manager for various projects at Antwerp Space. In the past he has been responsible for the development of the Communication Subsystem for the JUICE Spacecraft (Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer - planned for launch by ESA in 2023). Currently his main involvement is on the development of a new X-band Transponder to be used on future scientific interplanetary missions.
Technical challenges for compact optics in space missions
Serena Bollis
Optical System Engineer at Lambda-X
Serena Bolis received a Master Engineering Physics from the Politecnico di Milano and the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). She then obtained a joint PhD from the University of Ghent and the Université libre de Bruxelles on nonlinear optics and light emission in soft matter (liquid crystals). Since 2018, she is an Optical System Engineer at Lambda-X SA (Nivelles, Belgium), where she contributes to the design, review and integration of complex optical systems dedicated to the space environment.
"Because we believe that the future of space exploration starts today, our team at Lambda-X is focused on bringing developments to the next level of innovation. For many actors in both classic and New Space, we provide state of the art optical systems and offer innovative solutions that meet the many requirements of space exploration, opening the doors to Moon and Mars observation as well as on-orbit services."
Chairs & Co-chairs
Koen Puimège
Koen is chairman of the board of the Flemish space industry (VRI), member of the board of Belgospace and managing director of Antwerp Space NV. He has been active in the space industry for more than 24 years in various leadership roles and has a background in electronics and business administration. In his current position, his ambition is threefold: to strengthen cooperation between space companies and universities in Belgium, to represent them to national and international governments and to make them known to the general public. At European and international level, Koen builds bridges between the Belgian space sector and foreign agencies, companies and institutions. He has a creative, result-oriented and entrepreneurial mentality.
Patrick Hendrick
Patrick Hendrick is Professor at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) as well as at VUB, KULeuven and Royal Military Academy of Belgium, with also strong collaboration with the VKI. He has been involved in diffferent space technology research projects funded by ESA in programmes as GSTP, FLPP or Prodex but also in European Commission space projects as LAPCAT, ASCENSION, CHAT or FAST20XX. He is specifically active in the field of reusable launchers technology studies and experiments, together with academic partners and industry as Safran, SABCA, SONACA or Aerospacelab. Dual technologies, low cost access to space and reusable systems are a common concern in his space vision.
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