European students design a satellite

Paris, 24 April 2002

Throughout this week, the European Space Agency (ESA) is playing host to a group of forty young engineers and scientists from all over Europe, who will co-design a satellite.

The workshop is taking place at ESA’s sophisticated Concurrent Design Facility (CDF). This is the third workshop organised by the Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative (SSETI) of the ESA Education Office.

Previous SSETI workshop, 4 May 2001

Students from 20 European universities are in the process of designing the European Student Earth Orbiting satellite (ESEO). The students' design passed its feasibility phase review at ESTEC, and now the teams are working on a more detailed design of the satellite. The workshop is expected to be a very productive week, which will bring students one step closer to being able to "launch their dream".

This is the second time that SSETI students will be working in the CDF, which is a unique facility in Europe. From 1 to 4 May 2001, students had a chance to interact with experts from the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC). The review sessions produced useful and instructive suggestions and comments on the design. In turn, ESA staff had the opportunity to see the achievements of young people first-hand.