SHSSP22 TA Blog – Week 2

The space roller coaster of SHSSP 2022 program entered Week 2 with a bang!!!! The participants were divided into two groups, namely Australian and European time zone group, in the first week, with each group attending dedicated lectures, workshops and group events throughout the week.

Day 1 of week 2 started with food for thought for the Australian group on “why do we want to explore space?” and joined Kerrie Anne Dougherty in her lecture Cultural Rationales for Space Activities to find an answer for the same. This was followed by lecture from Joseph Pelton describing about the basic technical concepts of satellite telecommunications system design with a focus on commercial communications.

On the other hand, the European group started week 2 by attending lecture on GPS basics and applications given by Scott Madry followed by another lecture on Orbital mechanics given by John Connolly. The two groups met together to attend the group event of introducing their family of pets to the entire SHSSP2022 community. Everybody introduced their pets and family and explained how the pets have become a part of their life. Pets ranged from dogs to rooster to an Ilama, and I can say unofficially, each of the pets have now become part of the space community.


Day 2 began with the Australian group, attending the lecture on Space Law and New Space Economy by Steven Freeland wherein issues surrounding the regulation of ‘NewSpace’ activities were discussed. Following that James Green, our expert Space scientist, gave lecture on Electromagnetic Spectrum presenting the concept of waves as well as the nature of electric and magnetic fields, based on the observations of Oersted and Faraday.
The European group, also had the chance to interact with James Green and Kerrie Dougherty during their lecture on Electromagnetic Spectrum and Cultural Rationales for Space Activities, respectively. Lastly, the entire group came together for their Team Project (TP) session wherein the TP Chair, introduced to them various concepts of lunar outposts and the TP objectives that are to be achieved by the participants

Day 3 began with the Australian group, attending their Mentoring sessions that provided an opportunity for participants to get to know more from space professionals from all over the world. Then, ready to know more about A future with Technology with Omar Hatamleh provided an overview of the different forms of innovation in general, explains the particular nature of disruptive innovation, cross industry innovation, and open innovation.

The European Group, also joined Omar Hatamleh in understanding the future of the technology in his workshop which was followed by a lecture on Life Support Systems used in space missions from Virginia Wotring.

Lastly, the entire group came together to attend the highlight event of the week, namely, a fireside chat with a Space professional. The participants interacted with Adrianos Golemis, who is an expert flight surgeon from ESA, and learnt about how the flight surgeon assists in all the medical events for the astronauts. This was followed by the group building event, called the Space Debate, wherein, the participants, debated on the topic We are Alone in the Universe.


Day 4 began with the Australian group attending Individual Coaching sessions. Following this session, the participants enjoyed and enhanced their coding skill in the workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning by Ivan Lee. Then another AI lecture with Wolfgang Mayer about Digital twins AI/VR introduced the concept of the Digital Twin (DT) and recent advances in data collection and processing infrastructure, artificial intelligence, as well as human-computer interaction technologies have contributed to the adoption of DTs to the participants.

The European group, also sharpened their coding skills attending the workshops of Ivan Lee and Wolfgang Meyer, on the same topics, respectively. The day ended with the group meeting for the TP, wherein the Chair presented the basics and fundamentals on AI and Machine learning and showed how to apply it in their TP. This day can be nicknamed as Coding Day!!

Day 5 or the final day of this week, began with the Australian group attending the lecture from expert space scientist, James Green on The Space Environment which provided an overview of various aspects of space plasmas, orbital debris and their effect on spacecraft systems and components. Moreover, participants attended the workshop Future of Leadership to create a sustainable future for all living beings in the universe we all need to lead, presented by Anna Maria Kleregard.

The European group also attended the lecture from James Green on Space Environment, followed by another lecture on Economic rationales of Space Programs, which was delivered by Walter Peeters. To culminate the week, the entire group came together to celebrate their nationalities and cultures!


Shrrirup Nambiar, SSP15 Alumnus, SHSSP22 TP-TA
Sasiluck Thammasit, SHSSP20 Alumna, SHSSP22 TA