July 11, 2023

SSP23 BLOG – Week 1

This week the astronauts took over the International Space University’s (ISU) Space Studies Program SSP23! The panel with the astronauts Robert Thirsk and Sian Proctor brought together around 4,000 people at Farmaconde Arena, in São José dos Campos/ São Paulo/ Brazil and enchanted the public that accompanied the event on 5th July.

The astronauts spoke about their experiences from their missions to space and answered questions from the audience. Students from public education were in majority among the audience.

In addition to the two astronauts, the event also featured a video of three Chinese astronauts currently on the Chinese Space Station welcoming and congratulating the SSP23 cohort!

This week's seminars dealt with the sun and were a great success. This lecture presented the evolution and structure of the sun. Life cycle of the stars. Stars have a life cycle of birth, death and in some cases rebirth. Orbits and applications. Most space missions are in orbits around the earth.

Lectures also included Human Performance in Space, National Implementation of Space, Satellite Telecommunications, Space Propulsion and Launch Vehicles, Muscles, bones and Countermeasures, Legal Aspects of New Space, Commercial Satellite Communications, Entrepreneurial Space, Our solar System and Exoplanets, Space Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing, Major Space Powers and Emerging Space Players, Disruptive Technologies and Innovation.

And the week ended with the seminars on Moon and Mars, Spacecraft Configuration and Testing, New Space and a presentation from Jaxa representative and CSIRO representative.