Small Satellites Project Group

Co – Leads

Prerna Baranwal

Small Satellite PG Co-Lead
India

Mail

[email protected]

LinkedIn

Prerna Baranwal

Prerna currently works as a research engineer at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Her current work involves developing FPGA firmware as well as designing the PCB’s associated with it for particle and astro-particle physics.

As a part of her work at KTH, she works in the ATLAS experiment at CERN; COMCUBE-s a phase -A proposal with ESA and with MIST the student satellite team of KTH.

She used to previously work as a research engineer at the Centre for Quantum Technologies, Singapore, wherein she developed hardware for ion-trap qubits. Her research interests include the hardware development for resource constrained environments mainly in the domain of astronautics and quantum computing.

Denis Acker

Small Satellite PG Co-Lead
Germany

Mail

[email protected]

LinkedIn

Denis Acker

Denis is a space systems engineer and researcher at the Institute of Space Systems (IRS) of the University of Stuttgart, Germany, where he is currently pursuing a PhD focused on sustainable lunar infrastructure and in-situ manufactured transportation systems based on magnetic levitation technology. With a strong background in aerospace engineering and systems design, Denis contributes to the development of future space exploration architectures, deep-space missions, and advanced spacecraft technologies.

As the Lead Flight Software Developer for the DESTINY+ Dust Analyzer — a joint deep-space mission instrument developed in collaboration between DLR, JAXA, and ISAS. Denis is responsible for the development, integration, verification, and delivery of the onboard flight software. In this role, he coordinates with international stakeholders and engineering interfaces, ensuring mission readiness through ECSS-compliant development, robust software verification, and autonomous fault-management strategies for deep-space operations.

Beyond his academic and professional work, Denis is deeply engaged with the international space community. He holds leadership roles across organisations including the Space Generation Advisory Council, ASTRAEUS, and DIANA, contributing to projects on lunar infrastructure, space-based solar power, small satellite missions, and sustainable exploration concepts aligned with the Moon-to-Mars roadmap.

Driven by a passion for advancing humanity’s presence beyond Earth, Denis actively supports interdisciplinary collaboration, technical innovation, and the development of future-oriented space technologies. Through research, international cooperation, and community engagement, he continues to help shape the next generation of sustainable space exploration.

 
 

Research Leaders

Raphael Eyiram Soglo

SAR Payload Design for Flood Monitoring in Nigeria, Lead, Aerospace engineering Graduate – Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology | SSPG project lead | Founder @Novera Energy and Technologies.
Ghana

Raphael Eyiram Soglo graduated with First Class Honours from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. In 2024, he contributed to projects at SSPG that were later presented at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC). He is the founder of Novera Energy and Technologies, a start-up company in Ghana dedicated to advancing electrical energy solutions, solar renewable energy, security systems, and automation technologies.

In the space sector, Raphael’s research interests lie in space propulsion systems and thermal aerodynamics, reflecting his passion for innovation at the intersection of energy and aerospace engineering.