Help explore the future with ESA’s Advanced Concepts Team
Next week ESA’s future-oriented Advanced Concepts Team, the ACT, will mark its 20th anniversary by contemplating the coming two decades in space – and outside space researchers, engineers and students are cordially invited to take part.
On Wednesday 14 and Thursday 15 September, the ACT is organising a pair of events at ESA’s ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
A one-day work shop on 14 September drawing upon some of the latest ACT research, followed by a one-day ‘unconference’ the next day where attendees will set the agenda, proposing and leading sessions related to their own interests and/or work and how it might relate to ESA activities in the future.
There is capacity for a limited number of non-ESA personnel to attend; please register via this link.
Torben Henriksen, Head of ESTEC and ESA Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality comments: “The space sector is changing more rapidly than we were used to. At this workshop we want to explore together topics which are only emerging now, the seeds of tomorrow’s disruptive innovations.”
Composed of a multidisciplinary team of temporary researchers, the goal of the ACT is to prepare ESA for developments to come by peering beyond the immediate curve of the future, across topics ranging from fundamental physics to bio-engineering, informatics to novel mission trajectories and design.
Some of the early concepts explored by ACT researchers have led to missions and mainstream activities, such as the NASA DART and ESA Hera missions for planetary defense against asteroids, the use of artificial intelligence and computer vision for Earth observation and spacecraft guidance, navigation and control, and the concept of fully relativistic positioning systems to name a few. Others have ‘just’ led to academic papers.
In addition to taking the first steps in new topics, the team has pioneered a variety of novel working methods, ranging from scientific crowd-sourcing, podcasts and open science to open source tools and recognition of the value of fresh approaches such as biomimetics.
The 14 September workshop will be an occasion to spark discussions on a concepts and research trends that emerged from the ACT within recent years, focusing on topics such as artificial intelligence, neuromorphic computing, quantum technology, architecture and material design as well as evolution-guided ‘evomimetics’ for space.
Then on 15 September an unconference offers the occasion to all to set the agenda, inject thoughts on novel concepts and working methods and discuss together their potential for the future of space.
The programme for the two days can be found here.