Topics

Technical assessment and design of space exploration vehicles and systems for the exploration of Moon, Mars, Venus and other planetary bodies in the solar system, as well as asteroids and comets; Overall feasibility and viability assessments, as well as design of vehicles of this type; Ascent from and descent to planets, moons and asteroids 

Launch Vehicles & Space Transportation Systems 

Analysis, architecture design and technical assessment of expendable and re-usable launch vehicles, orbital transportation systems and applications, including boosters and upper stages; Overall feasibility and viability assessments, as well as design of vehicles of this type; Ascent analysis and computation of payload injection and deployment; Propulsion and combustor analysis related to liquid, hybrid, gel and solid engines; Multi-phase flow phenomena; Free-surface flow models; Cooling, atomization, ignition; Chemistry models; Acoustics and instabilities; Plume interaction; Payload impingement; Buffeting and flight testing; Cryogenics and propellant storage 

Suborbital Vehicles & Sounding Rockets 

Small, micro and nano-launch vehicles; Ground and in-air launches (airplane, balloon, etc.); Sounding rockets and suborbital vehicles; Ground infrastructure, assembly, and flight readiness; Flight termination for small launchers; Ground testing for small systems; In-orbit demonstration of small launch systems; Planetary small ascent systems (Moon, Mars); Airplanes, drones, and balloons systems for planetary exploration 

Super- and Hypersonic Flight Vehicles & Missions 

Supersonic and hypersonic flight transportation systems; Supersonic aircraft and hypersonic spaceplanes for cargo or passenger transport; Aerothermodynamics for high speed flight; Ram- and scramjet air breathing engines; Air-breathing electric propulsion; Winged vehicles 

(Re)-Entry Vehicles & Capsules 

(Re)-entry vehicle and mission design; Skipped and bounced planetary entries; Aerocapture, aerobraking and aerogravity assist manoeuvres; Descent and landing 

New Space Missions & Technologies 

Technology developments and missions by New Space actors; Analysis, feasibility and design of new opportunities and markets for space businesses; Space ports and logistic systems; Space tourism; Public and private partnerships for new space businesses in the area of space transportation systems 

Parachutes & Aerodynamic Decelerators 

Hypersonic, supersonic and subsonic parachutes; Inflatable and deployable deceleration systems; Parafoils; Aerodecelerators and stabilisers; Inflatables for crewed or uncrewed planetary (re)-entry; Retropropulsion Systems 

Aerothermodynamics 

Fundamentals in physical modelling; Including radiative gas dynamics, gas-surface interaction, spectroscopic measurement techniques; Theoretical and computational spectroscopy; Thermochemical nonequilibrium flows; Statistical thermodynamics and thermodynamic properties; Chemical kinetics; Thermal relaxation 

Thermal Protection Systems 

Ablative and reusable systems; Flexible TPS, material development and manufacturing; Advanced materials (e.g. tailored ablators, metal alloys, Ultra-high temperature ceramics), advanced concepts, detailed design, mathematical re-building and analysis; Ablation-radiation-convection coupling; Fabrication, testing, health monitoring, instrumentation and operational use of TPS & hot structures; Advanced heatshields and decelerator concepts 

Design for Demise & Space Debris 

D4D techniques and methods; Disposal and recycling; Sustainability; End of life disposal of spacecraft; Tools for long-term environment modelling; Tools and techniques to model perturbations; Shielding analysis; Meteoroid and space debris environment database; Atmospheric impact; Safe trajectories and splash down of rocket stages; Rules, regulations, regulatory authorities; Prediction of debris fall out and footprint analysis; 

Rarefied Gas Dynamics & High-Altitude Missions

Rarefied gas dynamics; gas-surface interaction; kinetic theory; Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) missions and platforms; high-altitude atmospheric modelling; MHD & plasma flows

Engineering Tools & Multi-disciplinary Design Optimisation

Software tools for analysis, design and development of flight vehicles; Modelling and simulation of flight physics, aerodynamics, thermodynamics and fluid dynamics; Architecture design and analysis of space transportation and exploration vehicles; Tool use and perspectives; Databases; Advanced numerical methods; Multidisciplinary design methods 

Testing Facilities & Measurement Techniques 

Ground testing facilities; Qualification and measurement techniques; Non-intrusive measurement techniques; Sensor development and miniaturization; Flight measurement techniques and extrapolation from ground to flight; Methods to verify and validate tools, techniques and models; Comparison of tools; Performance analysis of methods; Quality and software quality assurance tools; Independent verification and validation 

Flight Data Analysis & Exploitation 

Post flight data analysis and correlation; Qualifications and measurement techniques; Nonintrusive measurement techniques development and sensors miniaturization; Flight measurement techniques and extrapolation form ground to flight; Data collection, recording and instrumentation; Data presentation and representation; Lessons learnt and risk reduction