Manfred Ehresmann is a PhD candidate and research assistant at the Institute of Space Systems University of Stuttgart, where he also obtained his degree of aerospace engineering (B.S. and M.S.)). He has been awarded a PhD scholarship of the state Baden-Württemberg to develop a systems engineering software for optimal spacecraft design based on evolutionary algorithms. 

Furthermore, Manfred Ehresmann was a founding member and chairman of the small satellite student society (KSat e. V.)  in its founding year 2014 until 2016. A student team supervised and guided by Manfred Ehresmann was able to win an experiment slot on the International Space Station with the “Überflieger” competition of the German Aerospace Center in 2017. The subsequent experiment PAPELL conducted experiments on the mechanic-free actuation of ferrofluids on the ISS successfully in 2018. 

Initial technical and scientific connections to celestial bodies were created during his master thesis, where a mission and system analysis for a lunar massdriver was conducted. Parts of this work were later reconsidered for utilizing a massdriver for asteroid mining. The results and knowledge obtained during the development have influenced this study for asteroid deflection.


“I am excited and truly honored to be selected for the Move an Asteroid Competition. I hope that the concept of asteroid surface laser treatment will mitigate future impact risks. Thank you SGAC for allowing me to present this idea to the space community.”