Space Colloquium Würzburg

The OPS-SAT concept is to launch a series of powerful, reconfigurable flying laboratories for in-flight experimentation not possible, or desirable, on any other mission. In-flight experience can be gained very rapidly to ensure that potential future technology works in all operational scenarios (including “on the edge” situations) before it is too late, or too costly, to modify it. Using a special design and operational expertise, ESA assumes the risk of executing these experiments, thereby releasing industry to concentrate on completing de-risking activities as fast and cost effectively as possible.

OPS-SAT-1 is the first satellite in this series and is now providing a cost free experimenter service for European and Canadian Industry, education and research institutions. Over 200 of these experiments have been performed. OPS-SAT-2 will concentrate on optical ground-space communications and quantum experiments. At the heart of the satellite is an optical communications terminal and a state of the art data processing unit (DPU) connected by a high-speed data bus. The DPU consists of a powerful processor and an integrated FPGA, which can be reprogrammed, in flight. This allows experimenters to reconfigure everything on the optical link data layer, and test state of the art AI based planning and control algorithms.

Live presentation: If you are interested to follow the presentation on premise, please register by sending a short email to Mrs. Frankenberger at frankenberger@informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de. Given limited seating, you will receive confirmation by email if you can take part on premise. 

Remote presentation: Interested persons can dial in for the presentation at https://go.uniwue.de/space-colloquium. 

Curriculum Vitae David Evans: David instigated and now manages ESA's innovative OPS-SAT "Space Lab" cubesat missions. He was the EUTELSAT satellite control centre manager from 1997-2007 where he oversaw a period of intense expansion of the fleet with 20 launches, 5 re-orbitings and the transformation of EUTELSAT from an intergovernmental agency into one of France's most successful companies. On joining ESA, he specialised in small spacecraft missions and advanced technology. He is the holder of several ESA patents on housekeeping telemetry compression and the author of the popular “Ladybird Guide to Spacecraft Operations” lecture courses.