Portugal

Since 1998, when Portugal joined as an ESA (European Space Agency) and later as an ESO (European Southern Observatory) member state, space industry and awareness started to grow, though slowly. Most people still see space as being an astronaut, but new generations are looking at it as a source of opportunities for the future. However, most enthusiasts still leave the country at some point of their studies/work to search for better opportunities.

Country Overview

There are quite a few small companies working in space sector, but always as subcontractors of other subcontractors. The space opportunities and activities are also monitored in parallel by a governmental entity, whose main role is to ease communication between these companies and the main european space players, like ESA and the European Commission. Regarding universities, there is one degree in aerospace engineering and a few in astronomy or astrophysics, normally as a study branch of major physics degrees. There are however many other universities that do some research on the space area, more specifically in other engineering areas, like mechanical or electronics engineering.

There are two main student space associations with representation in Portugal: Euroavia and SSETI. The first one has two local groups, one at IST, Lisboa and another at UBI, Covilhã. SSETI is more recent and growing. There is one team in IST and at least two teams in FEUP, Porto, currently participating in designing and building a student micro-satellite.

Annual Report 2008

• ESA Astronaut Recruitment Informative Session

The European Space Agency (ESA) opened, in late May, a call for applications for astronaut recruiting. It was opened for all member states, for the first time in 16 years and the first time for Portugal as well. The goal was to recruit at least four new astronauts to join the current crew of eight, for missions to the International Space Station (ISS) and “beyond”.
FCT, a governmental institution for science and technology, together with ESA, organized an open session in Lisboa to present the call and to provide some clarification to those interested in applying. It counted with the presence of the head of the Astronaut Centre, a german astronaut and a Portuguese space biomedical researcher.
In the end, there were a total of 220 applications from Portugal, of which 192 were men and 28 were women, resulting in 2.5% of the total of applications. The number is significant but far from ideal.

• SSETI ESEO AOCS 4th Mini-Workshop

The Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative (SSETI) has started inside the European Space Agency Education Department and is now an independent student association with three projects supported by ESA, joining students from universities all over Europe to design, build and launch micro-satellites. ESEO is an earth orbiter, has started in 2000 and is now preparing for a Preliminary Design Review.
In Portugal, there are several teams participating in the SSETI projects, spread among different universities. The Attitude and Orbit Control Subsystem (AOCS) team belongs to Instituto Superior Técnico, in Lisboa, and is responsible for determining and controlling the orientation and orbit of the spacecraft.
On last 23, 24 and 25 of July, the AOCS students involved with this project organized themselves to gather during three days after the summer exam period, to advance in their work and compensate for the lack of dedication during the exams. It was the fourth time such workshop was organized and it normally involves interaction with professors and sometimes industry, which provide some of their experience and knowledge to guide the students on their tasks. More information can be found in http://sseti.ist.utl.pt.

• SSETI-IST participation at IST activities exhibition.

The Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative (SSETI) student group at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) had the chance to show their work in the ESEO project to all students and professors at that university.
The exhibition took place on the 6th, 7th and 8th October, at the main hall of the university, and allowed showing some practical experiments being carried and even some of the attitude determination prototypes under development for the satellite. A Portuguese space company, Lusospace, whose founder was previously involved in SSETI, also participated with a presentation of the company and their current activities. More information can be found in http://sseti.ist.utl.pt.

Quarterly Reports

December 2008
September 2008