2010.08.17

'Youth on the Move' debate with EU Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou

On September 17, Commissioner Vassiliou will be hosting a webstreamed public debate on 'Youth on the Move,' the Commission's flagship initiative on promoting learning mobility and improving young people's skills and job perspectives. The Commissioner will respond to questions both from members of a live audience and from the public, via the web.
More information is available at http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/vassiliou/events/debate_en.htm

2010.03.29

ESA’s Maxus-8 sounding rocket was launched 2010-03-26 from Kiruna in northern Sweden carrying four microgravity research modules on a hectic 12-minute space voyage. The ultimate results may include improved turbine blades for aircraft engines. At 14:43 CET, Maxus-8 took off from the launch pad at the Esrange Space Centre watched by Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of ESA, Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight, Olle Norberg, Director General of the Swedish National Space Board, and Lars Persson, Director of the Swedish Space Corporation.
The Maxus programme is funded by ESA through the European Programme for Life and Physical Science in Space (ELIPS), with the sounding rocket and launch services provided to ESA by an industrial joint venture between EADS Astrium and the Swedish Space Corporation.
More info at http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMNVY8I77G_index_0.html

2010.01.01

The Helsinki University of Technology, one of the SpaceMaster Consortium members, has been merged into the newly-founded Aalto University, together with the Helsinki School of Economics and University of Art and Design Helsinki. From the Aalto University website: The combination of three universities opens up new possibilities for strong multi-disciplinary education and research. The new university's ambitious goal is to be one of the leading institutions in the world in terms of research and education in its own specialised disciplines.

2009.10.27

Representatives from Spaceport Sweden and Spaceport America met this past week to confirm their aim of developing in parallel as sister spaceports, a partnership initiated in January 2009 when the two groups signed a memorandum of understanding. This week's meeting took place in Las Cruces, New Mexico at the International Symposium of Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS). Two presentations were made by the Swedish team; the first was held by Mr. Bengt Jaegtnes, Vice President for Spaceport Sweden, who talked about new investments at Kiruna Airport in order to enable commercial spaceflight. The second was held by Mr. Dan Bjork, Marketing Director at ICEHOTEL, who spoke about the importance of developing the tourist concept in parallel with the space facilities. More information (in Swedish) in Visionbladet.

Johanna Bergstrom-Roos and Beatrice Nordin of Spaceport Sweden with Anousheh Ansari (middle), who is the world's 4th private space tourist, 1st female space tourist and 1st astronaut of Iranian descent.

2009.09.23

UWE-2, the second Cubesat developed at Würzburg University, successfully reached orbit today, piggybacked aboard an Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

The launch was followed live at an event held in the Robotics Hall at Hubland Campus. The first decoded beacons from UWE-2 were received later in the day during its second pass over Würzburg, confirming its operational status.

2009.09.01

The new Round 5 of the first edition of SpaceMaster now has started their semester 1 at JMUW in Würzburg, Germany. This is the final round in the first edition of SpaceMaster. Next round, Round 6 in the new edition of SpaceMaster, will start in early September 2010.

2009.07.20

The extended SpaceMaster Consortium has been selected by the EU Commission to become an Erasmus Mundus Master in the new Erasmus Mundus II framework. In this new framework there are very good scholarships for both non-EU and EU students. The deadlines for the application is 1 December for non-EU students and 15 April for EU- students. EM info: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus_mundus/index_en.php

2009.06.08

Astronaut Thomas Reiter was the guest speaker at Würzburg University's Summer 2009 Informatik Colloquium. Mr. Reiter has spent a total of more than one year in Earth orbit, on missions aboard the Space Shuttle, space station Mir and International Space Station. He spoke about his experiences working in this unique environment at a lecture in the Turing Hall of the Informatik Building Am Hubland.

2009.05.05

Top international planetary robotics experts met at the Planetary Rover Symposium between 20 - 21 April, 2009 at TKK's Department of Automation and Systems Technology. Dr. Richard Volpe, manager of the Mobility and Robotic Systems Section at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), talked about the history of space robotics, NASA's rover missions to Mars, and the status of current robotic technology research. Gianfranco Visentin, head of ESA Automation and Robotics Section, presented the ESA's space robotics development. Soviet and Russian planetary and mobile robots in 1963-2007 was presented by Alexei Bogatchev (Science & Technology Rover Company, St. Petersburg, Russia), while Professor of Embedded Systems at the University of Oulu, Juha Röning, talked about the robotics research at Oulu University and their experiences at the ESA Lunar Rover Challenge.

2009.03.20

The Ambassador of Japan, Mr.Akiro Nakajima, visited the Space Campus in Kiruna on March 13, 2009. He was very interested in Ground station which was shown by Dr. Victoria Barabash and Mr. Leif Carlsson.

2009.03.20

The Ambassador of India, Mr. Balkrishna Shetty, visited the Space Campus in Kiruna on March 9, 2009. He promised to request for financial support for students from India by the authorities in Japan.

2009.03.20

SpaceMaster Round 4 came to Kiruna on February 16, 2009. The weather was beautiful, sunshine and 25 degrees below zero, which was a special occasion for most of the students who had never experienced such cold weather. The first day the students got information from LTU, IRF, EISCAT and Spaceport Sweden. During the following weeks the students had planned visits to the Ice-Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, the ironore-mine in Kiruna and to Esrange.

2009.03.20

The Swedish Prime Minister, Mr. Fredrik Reinfeldt, visited the Space Campus in Kiruna on February 11, 2009. He meet representatives of the Department of Space Science, the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, the Swedish Space Corporation (Esrange) and EISCAT. LTU presented and discussed plans for the future of space related activities in Kiruna.

2009.03.20

8kg Nano-satellite "PRISM" developed by students of University of Tokyo was launched by H-IIA launch rocket from Tanegashima Space Center, Japan at 12:54 pm, January 23, 2009. The first CW (Continuous Wave) beacon was captured by Kiruna Ground Station at the Department of Space Science, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden. This satellite operation was performed in the framework of an international project of collaborative ground station operations between the SpaceMaster Programme, Department of Space Science, Luleå University of Technology, and University of Tokyo. More information: 2009_03_20_PRISM_press_release.

2009.02.09

A planetary rover symposium, supported by the Erasmus Mundus SpaceMaster program, will be held at the Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) on April 20-21, 2009. The symposium guest speakers Dr. Samad Hayati (JPL/NASA), Mr. Gianfranco Visentin (ESA), and Mr. Alexei Bogatchev (Rover Company/St. Petersburg) assist to review the robotic space programs and present their current research activities. More information: http://spacemaster.tkk.fi.

2009.01.29

The application deadline for EU students applying for SpaceMaster is 15th May, 2009. Studera.nu is currently closed after the non-EU students' deadline of 15th January, and it will be re-opened in mid March for EU-applicants.

2008.12.12

The EU Commission has decided that for the intake of Erasmus Mundus 2009-2010, there will be a "Western Balkans and Turkey Window". That means that students from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo under UNSC Resolution 1244/99, as well as the three candidate countries, namely Croatia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey can apply for the Erasmus Mundus scholarships. Do notice that the deadline for these students is the same as for non-EU students, that means 15 January 2009.

2008.10.30

The SpaceMaster round 2 students from the European study curriculum “SpaceMaster – Master in Space Science and Technology” received their certificates on 24. of October, 2008 in Würzburg.

2008.10.28

The SpaceMaster programme application deadline for non-EU students is 15th of January 2009 and for EU students 15th of May 2009. An on-line application system will be opened on 1st of December 2008 for Non-EU students and in the middle of March for EU students.

2008.10.07

The SpaceMaster Round 4 students have now arrived to Würzburg for the start of the first Semester at JMUW.

2008.05.09

The SpaceMaster Round 2 Graduation Ceremony will be held on October 24, 2008 in Würzburg.

2008.04.22

If you are having problems with the on-line application system at studera.nu please contact anette.snallfot-brandstrom@ltu.se.

2008.03.13

The on-line application system at studera.nu will be opened again 17 March for EU-students.

2007.12.03

The on-line application system has now been opened. The website is: https://www.studera.nu/english/. The application code for SpaceMaster is: LTU-86801. For detailed information about how to apply, see the LTU-link: http://www.ltu.se/studentwebben/d4375/d4650/d4672/1.8820?l=en.

2007.11.28

Three SpaceMaster students from Round 2 (Paavo Heiskanen, Jan Hakenberg and Felix Cabrera) have been awarded grants by the Human Exploration Promotion Division, European Astronaut Department, Directorate of Human Spaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration, ESA. The grants have been provided in the frame of ESA's support of the SpaceMaster programme.

2007.11.22

Information and application forms of the SpaceMaster Global Partnership programme (Erasmus Mundus Action 3 programme) are now available, see menu item SpaceMaster Global Partnership.

2007.11.08

The SpaceMaster programme application deadline date for non-EU students is 15th of January 2008 and for EU students 25th of May, 2008. An on-line application system will be opened on 1st of December, 2007.

2007.09.26

In Würzburg’s baroque Residence the first students from the European study curriculum “SpaceMaster – Master in Space Science and Technology” received their certificates on 21. of September. More information: 2007_09_26_SpaceMasters_Press_Release.

2007.09.18

The tenth Bengt Hultqvist Prize for "the best space engineering students of 2007" was awarded at the Space Campus in Kiruna. This year's prize was shared by Thomas Ott and Israel Alejandro Arriago Trejo. More information: http://www.irf.se/link/pressrel_070914.

2007.05.24

SpaceMaster Action 3 Proposal for SpaceMaster's Global partnership has been selected by the EU Commission. More information: http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/mundus/projects3_en.html.

2007.05.08

Fifth BEXUS (Balloon EXperiment for University Students) mission successful completed on 28 March 2007 at the Esrange Space Center in Sweden. After lift off, the balloon ascended to about 25 km ceiling. Total flight time was 3.5 hours. The balloon carried onboard two experiments with SpaceMaster participation. More information: 2007_05_05_sm_website_news_update, http://www.ssc.se/?id=7697.

2007.03.21

The SpaceMaster application deadline dates for EU students have been changed. The new dates are 28 May 2007 for students from EU countries and 25 July 2007 for German students.

2006.11.07

Two consortium universities (Würzburg and Luleå) are participating to ESA Global Educational Network for Satellite Operations (GENSO) project. The Department of Space Science (IRV) ground station in Kiruna has been identified as an exemplary student ground station. The work at IRV ground station is predominantly done by the space master students.

2006.09.26

A new SpaceMaster brochure is published for the academic year 2007-2009 (spacemasterfolder_2007).

2006.09.11

The new group of SpaceMaster students have now arrived to Würzburg for the start of the first Semester at JMUW.