This Monday, 27th June 2022, the Portuguese Space Agency – Portugal Space, Instituto Superior Técnico and the Oeiras City Hall welcome the participants of the 2022 edition of the Space Studies Program (SSP22), promoted by the International Space University (ISU). In total, nearly a hundred participants, from more than thirty countries, including nine Portuguese, will spend the next nine weeks in an intensive training with a strong connection to the Portuguese space ecosystem.
The SSP22 opening ceremony, which is scheduled for Monday, June 27, at 6 p.m., at Técnico – Taguspark campus (auditorium), will be attended by the President of the International Space University, Pascale Ehrenfreund, the President of Técnico, Rogério Colaço, the Mayor of Oeiras City Hall, Isaltino Morais, and the President of the Portuguese Space Agency, Ricardo Conde. The ceremony will be broadcast live on ISU’s Youtube channel.
The SSP is the result of two years of work carried out by the LOC (Local Organising Committee), composed of members of the Portuguese Space Agency and Técnico, with the International Space University. The training course was designed with the aim of contributing to the training of academia and industry. “Aware of the importance of education for the sustainable development of the space sector, hosting the SSP in Portugal was one of the first projects presented by the Portuguese Space Agency, which was embraced with tremendous enthusiasm by the entire organisation”, says Hugo André Costa, Executive Director of the Portuguese Space Agency.
With a study plan that includes fifty master classes, 200 interactive seminars, lectures with renowned national and international experts, and professional visits, the SSP participants will develop projects that address the current challenges facing the national and international space ecosystem. The teamwork/consultancy projects they will have to develop during the 2022 edition include exploring opportunities arising from synergies between the space and non-space sectors; Space-Ocean-Climate interactions; the use of microgravity for new business development are central themes of the Portugal Space 2030 Strategy; Research and Development in microgravity for the benefit of all and cooperation on the Chinese Space Station. The calendar for the next nine weeks includes professional visits to more than a dozen Portuguese companies, research institutes and universities, including CEiiA, Pedro Nunes Institute, Gulbenkian Science, Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon Astronomical Observatory, or MAAT, among many others.
“Since the very beginning, the goal has been to involve the national ecosystem, because we know that this is a unique opportunity to exchange experiences and disseminate national capabilities, a key moment to bring our industry and academia closer to the main international agencies and global industry,” says Hugo André Costa, who is also co-chair of the LOC, along with Helena Galhardas, Vice president of Técnico. According to Hugo André Costa, the list of local experts includes space managers, professors, researchers, lawyers, psychologists and artists.
“The SSP will involve the Portuguese industry and academia allowing participants to gain a strong understanding of the Portuguese and European space industry and its importance in the global space sector,” adds Pascale Ehrenfreund, president of the ISU.
The curriculum includes traditional disciplines such as engineering and sciences, and other less obvious ones such as space policy, law, economics, humanities and the arts related to space. In all, more than 250 world leaders from 30 countries, including astronauts, CEOs of major companies, and researchers will be in Portugal.
Among them is Jeffrey Hoffman, American astronaut who has been to space five times and was responsible for replacing the Hubble Space Telescope’s solar panels in 1993, an experience that is especially relevant when there is increasing talk about the need to reinforce repair services in orbit.
Also part of the group of professors are the first South Korean woman to go into space, Yi So-yeon, and Paolo Nespoli, Italian astronaut who participated in the mission responsible for installing one of the modules of the International Space Station. The American writer Michael Benson, author of the book “Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke and the Creation of a Masterpiece”, will also be present to talk about how fiction condensed the past of space exploration and anticipated many of the increasingly autonomous exploration capabilities in the form of HAL-9000, the supercomputer that controls the spacecraft.
