ESERO Space Goes To School

A Limerick born engineer looking to make his way into the space sector. Evan received bachelors degree in Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Limerick. "As the space sector is limited in Ireland I ventured abroad to do a Masters in Space Studies at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France." Evan will be joining you from Strasbourg and will tell you all about his journey through space academia so far, and how you can do so too!

Aoife Murphy is a recent graduate from Technological University Dublin, formerly Dublin Institute of Technology, with a BE (Hons) focused in Mechanical Engineering. In 2018, she took part in ESA Academy’s Ladybird Guide to Spacecraft Operations Training Course in ESEC-Galaxia in Belgium. She has also been recently accepted onto the Space Studies Program with the International Space University to be held next year. Aoife would like to share how she became passionate about space, her journey so far, her experience with the ESA course and the International Space University, as well as how she intends to continue pursuing a career in the space sector.

Aisling’s role at ESA is to ensure that the spacecraft gets to where it needs to go without breaking! The launch of a spacecraft is very tough from a mechanical perspective, lots of shaking and noise and some loud bangs! These shocks and vibrations are the main drivers for the mechanical design of the spacecraft. It is her responsibility to ensure that every part of the spacecraft is going to be able to survive the launch. A lot of analyses are performed to confirm this before we ever build anything.
Aisling will talk about her experience as an engineer at ESA and she would love to for students to show her their enthusiasm about space by showing off their own space projects!

Juan has worked in space programmes at the European Space Agency (ESA) for 27 years. He has recently retired from ESA but remains passionate about space and likes talking about its contributions to society. He enjoys explaining space and the underlying Physics to young students and interested public. Juan is Spanish, has a Masters in Industrial Engineering by the Polytechnical University of Barcelona and has worked in Germany and The Netherlands. His wife Gabrielle is Irish and they spend now a lot of time in Co. Louth.

Niamh is a performer, writer & communicator with 2 degrees in engineering & a PhD in science. Passionate about igniting peoples curiosity, she explores crossovers in STEM, art & communication to share the human story of science.
Niamh has set herself a mission to get to space as an artist and citizen. She has created 3 theatre shows, 3 multimedia installations, hit a zero gravity flight, witnessed live launches & landings of astronaut crews, completed over 20 EVA hrs as analogue astronaut at simulated Mars missions, studied & lectured at ISU’s Space Studies Programme, created her first RTÉ radio series ‘Curious Humans’. She has spoken at events including WIRED Live UK, Space Rocks (ESA), NASA Johnson Space Centre, Inspirefest, New Scientist (UK), at academic & space-related conferences, schools, career events & is a regular contributor to BBC’s Sky at Night magazine since 2016. Niamh is also a former Artist in Residence for MTU Blackrock Castle Observatory.

Danielle works as a Resident Astronomer and Telescope Operator at Blackrock Castle Observatory in Cork, Ireland, and Coordinator of Space Week Ireland. Danielle didn't originally go to school for astronomy or science; she actually has a degree in Spanish and studied several languages. Danielle found astronomy later in life.

Danielle is passionate about space and one of the main goals of her work is to communicate space, science, and astronomy to students and the public. She organizes many outreach programs throughout the year to make space accessible to as many people as possible.Her favorite part of her job, however, is getting to use the telescope at the observatory. It's a 16" Schmidt Cassegrain Meade LX200R. Danielle works alongside the on-site Astrophysicist gathering images. The research that's done is mainly on blackholes and exoplanets but they also image other target in space to use as educational resources for schools.