The Summer School Alpbach

Michaela Gitsch,Periasamy K Manoharan

doi:10.1051/swsc/2015002

Abstract

Sixty young, highly qualified European science and engineering students converge annually for stimulating 10 days of work in the Austrian Alps. Four teams are formed, each of which designs a space mission, which are then judged by a jury of experts. Students learn how to approach the design of a satellite mission and explore new and startling ideas supported by experts. The Summer School Alpbach enjoys more than 30 years of tradition in providing in-depth teaching on different topics of space science and space technology, featuring lectures and concentrated working sessions on mission studies in self-organised working groups. The Summer School is organised by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) and co-sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA), the International Space Science Institute (ISSI), and the national space authorities of its member and cooperating states.

Highlights

Four teams are formed, each of which designs a space mission, which are judged by a jury of experts
Students learn how to approach the design of a satellite mission and explore new and startling ideas supported by experts
The Summer School Alpbach enjoys more than 30 years of tradition in providing in-depth teaching on different topics of space science and space technology, featuring lectures and concentrated working sessions on mission studies in self-organised working groups

Summary

The structure of the Summer School Alpbach

The Summer School lasts effectively 2 weeks. During the first week, starting on Tuesday (day 1), a ca 16 hours long series of. This leads to designing the spacecraft and payload, and defining the details of the scientific and technical methodology needed to achieve the stated objectives They come to understand how the general constraints of operations in space, launcher capability and, as a driving constraint, the availability of the required technologies will impact the achievement of these goals. Some guidance about cost estimations is available to the teams, a detailed costing, in absolute terms, is beyond the possible scope of the format of the Summer School As this is an important aspect of all training for designing space missions, the students assess a class for their mission, depending mostly on launch mass and the cost of the required launcher. They have to justify the scientific objectives and requirements, and they have to show their understanding of questions related to the technical and programmatic feasibility of the chosen mission

Assessing the outcome of the student projects

Dissemination of the Summer School project results