Student teams complete the Design Booster Baseline Design Review
The ESA Academy’s Design Booster Programme supports student teams in refining their preliminary designs during the early stages of development. Now in its second cycle, the programme is currently assisting five teams selected in December 2024:
- CHESS Pathfinder 1
- CIMER
- ELECTRA
- FEIsat
- StrathCube
As part of the programme, the teams undergo two design reviews, simulating the process of professional space missions. After a few months of support from the ESA team, they reached the first key milestone: the Baseline Design Review.
This review brings together experts from all major disciplines relevant to a typical satellite mission. They assess the documentation submitted by each team and identify issues through Review Item Discrepancies (RIDs), following the standards of professional space mission reviews. The teams then have the opportunity to engage directly with the experts in dedicated meetings, discussing the identified issues, proposing potential solutions, exploring alternative paths forward, as well as asking further questions on the experts’ topics or expertise.
“The ESA Design Booster colocations surpassed all expectations I had! The experts were helpful, kind and always open for discussion. The RIDs and colocations serve as a perfect introduction into industry standard design, and create structured next steps in all aspects of the mission development.”
Over the course of the programme, which spans approximately a year and a half, the teams are expected to address these issues by refining their designs, improving their documentation, and implementing the feedback received. This process ensures that the teams not only enhance the technical robustness of their projects but also gain practical experience of how a space mission is handled in the professional world.
If you are interested in learning more about opportunities like Fly Your Satellite! Design Booster you can check out the ESA Academy current opportunities website to find out more.