On May 19, 2015 the TU Delft Space Institute was officially launched, consolidating all space related research of the university.
Under the direction of Dr. Eberhard Gill, the new institute will combine departments and researchers from five different faculties. These include Aerospace Engineering (AE), Applied Sciences (AS), Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS), Civil Engineering and Geosciences (CEG), and Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (3mE). “TU Delft has a lot of expertise that is relevant for the space sector, distributed over many different faculties and research groups,” said Dr. Gill. “Although these are often very successful by themselves, TU Delft in my view still has a lot of unharvested potential if they would cooperate more.” He also noted that many space companies and knowledge institutes that worked intensively with one of the TU Delft research groups were unaware that there were other groups from which they could benefit.
With a vision that focuses on contributing ground-breaking solutions to the space sector to serve scientific, economic and societal needs, the new institute has a lot to live up to. “Obviously, when the goal is to increase internal and external cooperation, the first period will involve a lot of talking to each other,” said Gill. But there are some concrete short-term goals. For example, Gill said they plan to seek out joint research funding in distributed space systems, space robotics and sensing from space, the institute’s three areas of focus. In addition, there are plans to further develop the ground station on the roof of the EWI building, which is currently used to track and operate small Delfi satellites in orbit. Gill said they also hope to increase the use of the facility for the education of students and for cooperation with Innovative Solutions in Space (ISIS), a spin-off from a research group at the AE Faculty.
Another important goal for the new institute will be strengthening the relationship with the European Space Agency (ESA), specifically with the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC). It is the technical arm of the ESA, with their largest European facility located in Noordwijk. Gill noted one example of a current ESA/TU Delft collaboration as 3mE Professor Andre Schiele and his project to operate robots on earth that are remotely controlled from the International Space Station.
The institute is already close to realizing a key goal, when in September 2015 there will be the option of a Space Minor, which will gradually be developed into a complete online course.
For more information on the TU Delft Space Institute visit www.spaceinstitute.tudelft.nl
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