Planetary Missions

Important: the course has a cap of 40 students because of the number of staff members available to supervise. It is therefore mandatory to register for this course through Osiris. Priority will be given to students from the Planetary Exploration profile.

Lectures by topical experts give deeper insight and understanding in planetary sciences topics, with an emphasis on applied technologies, and previous, current and future space missions, as well as data analysis.

Lecture topics include: Planetary missions, space missions at ESA, JUICE mission to the Jupiter system, Earth observation, Gravity missions, Harmony mission for Earth observation, space dust, radiation en space weather, re-entry.

Students will work in groups of 5 to 6 students on the conceptual design of a planetary space mission, supervised by a staff member from the Planetary Exploration section. The focus is on coming up with the science questions (the "why" of the mission) and the instruments and operations needed to answer the science questions.