SGAC announces ASI (Italian Space Agency)/SGAC Scholarship for SGC and IAC 2019 Recipients
SGAC is proud to announce that five ASI/SGAC grant winners. These grants are part of the Higher Education programmes undertaken by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), in the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding between ASI and SGAC, regarding the promotion of joint activities for students and young professionals in the space sector and concerning research topics of interest to the Agency.
The grant will support the winners to participate in the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) on October 21st-25th, 2019 and in the Space Generation Congress (SGC), that will be held the previous week, on 17th-19th October 2019, in Washington DC, USA.
Stefano Silvestrini
Stefano Silvestrini is a PhD candidate at the Aerospace Science and Technology Department of Politecnico di Milano. He earned his MSc degree in Aerospace Engineering in 2017 from TU Delft. In 2015, he earned his BSc degree in Aerospace Engineering at the Università degli Studi di Padova. During his BSc, he spent a 6-months research period at the College of Aerospace Engineering of Boston University under awarded scholarship. He has been involved in national and EU-funded projects for developing nanosats constellation for science observation and mission analysis and system design for fractionated space architecture (S3Net). He has worked as a teaching assistant for three courses throughout the MSc and Ph.D. career, focusing on space mission analysis and design and relative orbit dynamics modelling. In 2016, he has worked as a trainee for Airbus D&S in Munich. His research interests include the development of learning algorithms for autonomous GNC in distributed space systems, particularly tailored for small platforms.
“I am grateful for being awarded the ASI/SGAC scholarship to attend the IAC and the SGC. It represents a great opportunity to foster international cooperation with fellow young space researchers.”
Paolo Pino
Paolo Pino has received a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Messina and a Masters Degree in Materials Engineering from Politecnico di Torino, in Italy.
In Turin he co-founded a small start-up and joined a second start-up experience at the European Innovation Academy.
In 2018 he has been admitted to the International Master Program in SpacE Exploration and Development Systems (SEEDS), building knowledge and interest in Mission Analysis and Systems Engineering.
The program included two concurrent engineering training sessions at ESA ESTEC and a 6-months full-time project work across Europe, focused on the development of a lunar outpost producing liquid propellant through in situ resources utilisation to support human and robotic exploration missions.
In this context, Paolo has gained early experience on disciplines ranging from economic aspects of Moon infrastructures to trajectory analysis for on-orbit refueling operations, passing through the preliminary design of mining rovers thermal control subsystem and refueling vehicles electric power subsystem.
Some of the works he has co-authored during the program have been presented in international conferences.
Paolo now looks forward to starting a PhD in chemical engineering and his career in space exploration and in the new space economy.
“Receiving the ASI-SGAC scholarship is a great honour and the opportunity to thoroughly join the thriving space community I aspire to contribute to, as well as a call to action and responsibility as a young professional in the field that I am definitely going to embrace.“
Lorenzo Rabagliati
Lorenzo Rabagliati has a M.S. in Aerospace Engineering at Polytechnic University of Turin, with a specialisation in space domain. Passionate about astronomy since high school, he pursued the aerospace path in his university years, eventually leading to work on the Phase 0-A design of ESA mission LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) for his Master’s Thesis.
He is currently attending SEEDS 2nd level specialising Masters with the aim of improving his system engineering skills applied to space mission design. Moreover, the possibility to live an enriching experience within a multicultural environment, together with the opportunity to work on such fascinating subjects, are the reasons why he decided to join this Master.
This July, he attended the 8th EUCASS Conference in Madrid, presenting a paper related to the thermal issues of the propellant production at the lunar south pole craters. Later this year, he participated at the 49th ICES Conference in Boston, competing in the student poster contest while presenting an origin.
“To me, the ASI/SGAC Scholarship represents a great recognition for all my past endeavours and a powerful inspiration for my future goals.”
Jacopo Prinetto
Jacopo is an Italian Aerospace engineer. After the Master degree in Space Engineering at Politecnico di Milano he spent one year as a research fellow in the same department, working on the Mission Analysis and the ADCS design for the ASI funded HERMES mission. He will start the PhD program in September 2019, working on multidisciplinary guidance synthesis methods for small satellite coupled dynamics continuous control. He is very interested in space exploration, and his main field of expertise is the low thrust trajectory design and optimization.
“I am very proud to be awarded the ASI-IAC Scholarship that will support me in attending the 70th International Astronautical Congress, giving me the possibility to present my work to international experts.”
Andrea Pasquale
Andrea Pasquale, is a graduate of Space Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. He is specialized in trajectory design and optimization, GNC and space mission analysis and design. In fact, during his academical career, he had the possibility to work on the development of a Phase A mission, where a deep space communication network had to be developed as well as to work on the design of interplanetary trajectories and attitude control algorithms.
He currently is a Research Fellow at Politecnico di Milano and there is going to start a PhD in collaboration with ESA (NPI Programme).
He always had an interest in space exploration and multidisciplinary engineering problems, in fact his last research is about the reconstruction of the gravitational field of asteroid using artificial neural network. It will be presented at the IAC 2019.
“I’m very grateful and honoured to be awarded the ASI – SGAC IAC 2019 Scholarship. My participation to the IAC 2019 is a unique opportunity to meet new people, exchange ideas as well as to present my work and myself to a panel of international experts.“
SGAC would like to thank the Italian Space Agency once again for their generous continued support of SGAC and this annual scholarship.
Congratulations to the winner, see you in Washington D.C., United States!