Spaceship EAC – Enabling Exploration Technologies for future Lunar Missions
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Spaceship EAC – Enabling Exploration Technologies for future Lunar Missions
Wed, 10/12/2014 - 16:00 to 17:00
Location:
Speaker:
Dr Aidan Cowley
Affiliation:
European Space Agency
Synopsis:
The European Astronaut Centre is made up of more than 100 professionals, complemented by staff from the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), the French space agency (CNES) and from the aerospace industry. Core activities include the selection and recruitment of new ESA astronauts, the planning and scheduling of their tasks and flight assignments, and the preparation and implementation of astronaut training programmes for space missions to the International Space Station (ISS). Recently, a new initiative has been launched to augment the core activities, known as Spaceship EAC. This initiative aims to use the unique assets and expertise present at EAC for a broader set of ESA activities and to address upcoming exploration challenges and problems on Earth. As such, EAC is actively developing its research capabilities and working towards making our facility a test‐bed for technologies that are important for future human space exploration missions. These include technologies relating to water processing and waste management, energy generation/storage, automation, robotics and system architecture. This talk will provide an overview of ESA and the EAC as well as detailing some of the projects that are currently commencing as part of the Spaceship EAC initiative.
Biography:
Aidan Cowley received his B.Sc in Computer Applications and M.Eng in Electronic Systems from Dublin City University, Ireland, in 2004 and 2005 respectively, and a Ph.D in 2011. Subsequently he went on to work as a researcher and lecturer at the National Centre for Plasma Science and Technology (NCPST), Dublin City University. There, his research activities included novel optoelectronic materials, thermoelectrics, plasma deposition and metrology as well as renewable energy systems. In 2014, Dr. Cowley joined the European Space Agency as a Research Fellow, stationed at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. There he is conducting research into energy generation and storage solutions for future lunar and cis-lunar missions, in‐situ resource utilization (ISRU) as well as investigating disruptive technologies such as additive manufacturing and their potential as an exploration enabling technology.