ESERO Space Goes To School

Nitish is in his first year of a PhD at WIT, working on optical system of CubeSats for satellite-based quantum networks. His main work is on miniaturization of components and choosing appropriate protocol to establish a secure communication link between the satellite and optical ground station. The talk is going to focus briefly on quantum cryptography, why satellite-based links to realize a global quantum internet and other quantum application of these networks in other fields of physics such as detection of gravitational waves, etc.

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. Last summer, she took part in the first ever online Interactive Space Program (ISP) with the International Space University. She has also been recently accepted onto the Space Studies Program with the International Space University to be held next year in Granada, Spain. 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.

Aidan's Research is on using Artificial Intelligence to process data on board a Satellite. Currently images captured by a satellite are transferred to ground and handled there but because there is a lot more satellites will a lot better sensors there is too much data to transfer. Aidan is hoping to design software to be run on a satellite that will extract what we need from the images and transfer this directly to who needs it. During the talk he will give a little bit of information on what satellites currently do and could do in the future and also what he is hoping to achieve in his PhD.

Caoimhín de Bhailís has worked as an Explainer at Blackrock Castle Observatory for 6+ years and has been staring into space with unbridled interest and enthusiasm since childhood. He has appeared on RTÉ Nuacht, TG4's Spéis sa Spás and RnG to explain astronomy in Irish as well as English.
He facilitates the Transition Year Placement program at The Observatory and leads workshops designed to give students hands-on experience with STEM education and its uses in the real world.
He is also the author of the Observatory's Monthly Newsletter Sky Matters and the principal script-writer for the Observatory's planetarium shows.

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 my 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.