ESA at the Toulouse Space Show

The conference will focus on four themes: space applications, space and law, knowledge management for space missions, and antenna technology and applied electromagnetics.

The event will begin with an inauguration ceremony on Monday 25 June in the presence of authorities from the Toulouse region and the space community.

Then, throughout the three-day conference, experts from ESA will present papers on each of the four topics.

Toulouse is not only one of the leading European cities in aeronautics and research, but it is also home to a great deal of space activity.

ESA has been well-established in the region for many years, with operations teams and technical means based there, most notably developing the EGNOS European navigation system, and Alphabus/Alphasat, the new-generation telecommunication satellites.

The city is also home to the Automated Transfer Vehicle control centre, located at the CNES Centre spatial de Toulouse which oversees all operations of the cargo ship that resupplies the International Space Station.

France plays a crucial role in European space. It is one of the two Member States providing the greatest contributions to ESA. CNES, the French space agency, which manages France’s participation in ESA programmes, is a key partner.

At the first conference on Space Applications, ESA will focus on the services it is developing using space, with benefits in areas ranging from healthcare to shipping and aviation. Gonzalo Martin de Mercado from the Directorate of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications will present a paper on ‘Space applications to improve healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa’, while his colleague Norbert Hübner from the same Directorate will co-chair a plenary session on ‘Maritime Transport’.

In the symposium on Antenna Technology and Applied Electromagnetics, Nelson Fonseca from the Directorate of Technology and Quality Management will focus on the design of 3D lens antennas for multiple beam applications such as multimedia and broadband telecommunication applications.

He will compare different designs and highlight the effect of the main design parameters while proposing some guidelines.

In addition, ESA will co-host with CNES a welcome and reception area featuring the agencies’ respective activities at the entrance to the Business-to-Business exhibition.  

For more information, see the link in the column to the right.

Published 22 June 2012
Last updated at 06 August 2014 - 10:38