SSP22 – Week 1

Space Camp!

This Summer I am participating in the International Space University (ISU)’s Space Studies Program 2022 (SSP22) in Oeiras, Portugal. I am one of 94 participants representing 37 different countries. The Space Studies Program is a nine-week course hosted each year in June-August in different locations around the world. The SSP provides courses in all space disciplines, as well as hands-on education through workshops and professional visits. However, when I try to explain this program to family and friends, the only thing they really take away from the conversation is, “You’re going to Space camp!”. And I suppose it is a bit like a grown up Space Camp.

We have arrived!

On Saturday the 25^th June 2022, I arrived to registration for SSP22! I got checked in and shown to my room , which will be my home for the next 9 weeks.

That evening we had a welcome dinner reception, organised by the local committee and the Municipal of Oeiras. I have to say, that when I saw the welcome dinner on the calendar I didn’t expect much more than a big room and some finger food. Instead, my expectations were well exceeded when I walked into a roof top restaurant with the most fantastic view of the ocean and Lisbon in the distance.

I finally got to meet some of my fellow ISP20 crew mates 2 years later, in person! We had a wonderful evening, mixing and mingling, and getting to know who we would be spending almost every waking hour with for the summer. Towards the end of the evening, we each got up and introduced ourselves and gave the obligatory ‘fun fact’ about ourselves. I always struggle to come up with a fun fact about myself to share when I first meet people but some of my fellow participants had brilliant ones! From fears of jellyfish, to the shocking revelations that some had never seen Star Wars… it was certainly a good ice breaker.

On Sunday, we then had a welcome brunch at the Palácio Flor da Murta organsied by the local committee and Municipal of Oeiras again. The food was delicious and the location was beautiful! Here we also got introduced to all the staff members of SSP22. It takes quite a team to organise and run such an intensely packed program like this, and it was lovely to get the chance to see the faces of some who are constantly working behind the scenes to give us such a great summer.

We then set off to visit the Instituto Superior Técnico – Taguspark, where our lectures and workshops will be held. Here we had the chance to make sure the wifi was working and our computers would all connect so there would be no delays the next day. We then had some dinner before returning to our accommodation for the night.

SSP22 has officially launched!

Monday the 27^th June was the official start of SSP22. We began our day with some academic introductions. We were introduced to the wide array of departments that we will get to experience as well as our Team Projects, which we have previously chosen before arriving in Portugal. We also received a presentation on our SSP22 patch design which can be seen below. It was designed by some of my fellow participants and represents the various aspects of our program.

The patch design team put a lot of effort into the design and I really love how they incorporated everything into it. The overall shape of the patch is based on a compass to signify Portugal and the history of Explorers associated with the country. The images inside the compass then represent our Team Projects. The two divisions on the left represent the Team Project on ‘Space-Ocean-Climate Interactions’. The top division on the right represents the Team Project ‘ Search for Life’. The next section down has an image of a satellite to represent ‘Space for Non-Space’. And the final section on the right represents two Team Projects on ‘Microgravity for Business’, and one on ‘The International Cooperation on the Use of the Chinese Space Station’.

You can also pick out a number of stars illustrated on the right hand side of the patch. There are 3 in the top division and 5 in the bottom division to signify the 35 year anniversary of the International Space University (ISU) this year.

Then, it was time to pop back to our accommodation to get ready for our opening ceremony! The opening ceremony was live streamed on YouTube, you can watch it back here.

I am extremely honoured to be the only participant representing Ireland this summer. The image here is from the opening ceremony where I entered carrying the Irish flag. Although, did you know there is a very specific and kind of awkward ‘correct’ way to carry a flag? Who knew..

As I previously mentioned, some of my fellow crew members from ISP20 are here this summer. There are a few of us here as participants and also some of us as members of staff! It has been a busy couple of days since registration on Saturday so it was great to get to catch up more at the opening ceremony reception.

We decided we better try to get a photograph together and happened to get a few famous faces in our picture too! Astronaut Paolo Nespoli on the left, and on the right hand side, Jim Green, Previous Chief Scientist at NASA, and Michael Simpson, former President of ISU.

Down to Business

We began Tuesday with an introduction to the program and the seminars, workshops, and activities we will be doing over the coming weeks. The introduction was given by our three Core Co-Chairs, Dr.Nimah Shaw, Dr. James Green, and Michael Simpson.

We got straight into our Core Seminars and covered a lot of ground in week 1 alone. Some of the lectures we had include, but are not limited to;

• International Space Policy with Michael Simpson
• Space & Society with Kerrie Dougherty
• Astrobiology with ISU President Pascale Ehrenfreund
• Tech Transfer and Export Control with Walter Peeters
• Climate Change with Paula Bontempi
• Introduction to Space Applications with Scott Madry
• Introduction to Remote Sensing with Scott Madry

Workshops with Astronauts!

This week we also met our Team Project group. I am part of Team Space-Ocean-Climate Interactions. Each afternoon this week we had a workshop in our Teams on Communication skills. Most of these workshops were very interactive and extremely fun. I think, my whole team would agree that the best workshop we had this week was one on Team Building with Astronaut Soyeon Yi! We were given the task of designing and building a re-entry vehicle for our ‘Eggonauts’. We had a few hours to complete this, before our designs and teamwork were put to the test by a drop from the 2nd floor.

A limited amount of supplies were provided, but anything we could get our hands on for free was fair game. I don’t know how, but one of my team members managed to convince the staff in the canteen that we required flour… I can confidently say that dough makes for a decent reentry vehicle shock absorber. But I’m not sure our Eggonaut appreciated the mess it involved to make…

Nonetheless, I am delighted to announce that all of our ‘Eggonauts’ made it safely to the ground!

If you are interested in some videos of our exciting Egg drop workshop, you can find some on my Instagram stories here.

My Space Journey

Sharing your Space journey is a great way for everyone on the program to get to know each other a little bit more and to learn about all the different ways that people find themselves in the Space Sector. The biggest thing I learnt from ISP20 was just how vast the industry is and how there is no one route to get there. Some people take very direct routes into the Space Sector, others change career paths later in life, and some just happen to fall into it somewhat accidentally. It’s always fascinating to hear everyone’s story and how they have gotten to where they are today.

Distinguished LEctures

We had two distinguished lectures this week. One was on ‘Disaster Management using Space Assets’ presented by Paula Bontempi which you can watch here. The second was a lecture from Astronaut Soyeon Yi that she calls ‘Mindfulness from Weightlessness’.

All of the distinguished lectures this summer are livestreamed on YouTube to the public, with one exception. Soyeon’s lecture was a closed lecture where she shared with us her own space journey and some of the lessons she learnt along the way. It was a truly lovely and inspiring lecture. Soyeon herself is a wonderful human being and also an SSP alumna. She actually completed her program after already being an Astronaut! Below are some photographs taken the night of her lecture.

GLEX Conference Ignition Session

Portugal Space kindly invited all SSP22 participants to the GLEX Conference Ignition Session. We heard about the future of the Space economy, about Zero-G flights on G-Force 1, about Earth Observation and the future of GEOSAT, and finally from Axiom Space and humanity’s commercial future in Space. A very interesting and lovely evening spent in Lisbon enjoying the beautiful views and hearing about all things Space.

Hectic Schedule

I told everyone at home that this program is very intense with little free time, and to expect some long periods of radio silence. However, I don’t think anyone really understands just how intense this program is unless they have been a part of it. To give you a little bit of an idea, this is a screenshot of my calendar from Week 1. Our day normally starts around 8am and doesn’t finish until about 11pm every day. A bit of a hectic schedule, don’t you think? But it’s definitely worth the long days, when you get to learn so much from so many amazing and well established figures in the Space Sector!

Finally Sunday, our day off. This was the first chance most of us had to run to the shops and stock up on any necessities, and also to finally get some laundry done. After that, it was beach time! We are staying only a 15 minute walk from the beach, it would be rude not to!

A very chilled out and relaxing day to get us ready to start the week again on Monday. I hope you enjoyed this first initial taste of the Space Studies Program. Stay tuned to see what we get up to in Week 2!