©ESA/Sentinel 2 – Hereford, Texas
Space Optics Instrument Design & Technology 2025
11 May - 16 May 2025 Porto Cervo, Sardinia
About the course
The European Space Agency took in 2015 the initiative to organize a course for professionals operating in the sector of optical engineering for Space. Two types of courses are organized: one dedicated to space optics instrument design and the other space optics instrument technology. The two courses are organised alternatively, one per year. The course of 2025 is targeted at space optics instrument design.
The team of lecturers consists of professionals with a long-standing experience in the sector. Their accessibility during the course, gives the participants a unique opportunity to deepen their knowledge with one-to-one meetings aside from the planned lectures.
The venue hosting students and lecturers gives plenty of opportunities to develop a professional network. Sharing problems and discussing solutions together is the way to build a community of space optical engineers enabling and fostering growth in the space sector as a whole.
The contracted venue is again the Colonna Resort Porto Cervo, close to Olbia – Sardinia (Italy) https://www.colonnaresort.com/en.
Registration
For the registration please use the link below. The registration will be handled by the ESA conference bureau.
https://atpi.eventsair.com/soidt2025/
Course Overview and Schedule
The 2025 course will focus on the Space Optics Instrument Design process. All aspects and fields, important for the development of a successful optical payload will be addressed and its field interaction will be illustrated. This will help young engineers working as an optical-, mechanical-, thermal-, AIT-, PA-engineer or manager to broaden their view and to better understand the interaction of the different areas and the complexity of the optical payload development.
The schedule of the course can be downloaded here:
SOIDT - Design 2025 curriculum
• Calibration and L1 processing for hyperspectral imagers – Antje Ludewig (KNMI)
• Space Optical System Requirements Definition – Jose Lorenzo Alvarez (ESA)
• Space Environment – Dominic Doyle (ESA-retired)
• Optical CAD Instrument Modelling and Analysis – Flurin Heren (Ansys, Zemax)
• Introduction to Imaging Optical systems – Roland Geyl (Geyl Optical Consulting )
• System Budget Development – Tibor Agocs (ESA)
• Spectrometer Design – Bernd Harnisch (SOIDT Organization)
• Mechanical Engineering – Jean-Christophe Salvignol (ESA)
• Instrument Thermal Design and Analysis – Romain Peyrou-Lauga (ESA)
• Optical Coating Design – Angela Piegari (Consultant)
• Straylight Analysis and Control – Volker Kirschner (ESA)
• Performance Verification – Maurice Te Plate (ESA)
• Instrument Calibration – Ralph Snel (TNO)
• Complex Procurement – Luca Maresi (ESA)
• Product Assurance for Optical Instruments – Jorge Fiebrich (ESA)
• Hands-on activity – Building a Spectrometer – Volker Kirschner, Bernd Harnisch
Lecturer and Lecture Abstracts
Antje Ludewig,
PhD Physics
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Position: Coordinator for the DISC expert centre of ESA’s EarthCARE mission at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (NL)
Lecturing: Calibration and L1 processing for hyperspectral imagers
Antje Ludewig has worked for more than 12 years at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) on the calibration and L1 processing of hyperspectral imagers for remote sensing of the Earth’s atmosphere. For the TROPOMI L1b product of the Sentinel-5 Precursor mission, one of her responsibilities was the calibration design and implementation of the on-ground and in-flight calibration. With the experiences and lessons learnt from TROPOMI, she contributes to future Earth explorer missions: such as straylight studies for ESA for the FLEX and the Sentinel-4 missions, scientific support studies for EUMETSAT on L1b processing and calibration for the Sentinel-5 and the CO2 monitoring missions and as a calibration expert for the ESA scout mission TANGO.
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2024- Coordinator for the DISC expert centre of the EarthCARE mission
2024- Calibration expert for ESA’s future TANGO mission
2022- Team Lead for L1b processing development & calibration TROPOMI and OMI
2020- Instrument expert for OMI on NASA’s Aura mission
2012- Calibration Scientist for TROPOMI at KNMI, The Netherlands
2012 PhD in experimental physics (ultracold atoms), University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2005 Diploma in Physics (Dipl. Phys.) Eberhard-Karls-University of Tübingen, Germany
2002 Bachelor of Science with Honours (BScHons) University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Calibration and L1 processing for hyperspectral imagers
Hyperspectral imagers are widely-used for remote sensing and the monitoring of the Earth’s atmosphere. The low concentration of the trace gases requires high radiometric accuracy and stability over the entire lifetime of a space mission. This asks for high-quality calibration both before launch and in-flight. In L1 processing, the calibration is applied to the raw instrument data to produce geolocated calibrated spectra. Calibration is of such high importance for a mission that it needs to be considered in all phases: from the initial planning, to assembly & integration and during flight operations.
This lecture will focus on how instrument design choices can support and improve the L1 processing and thereby the data quality over the entire mission life-time. Examples from instruments such as OMI, TROPOMI and TANGO will be discussed.
Jose Lorenzo Alvarez
MSc. Telecom. Engn.
Position: ESA Euclid Mission Mission Performance and Operations Manager
Lecturing: Space Optical System Requirements Definition
Jose Lorenzo Alvarez is a systems engineer working at the European Space Agency Science Projects department. He was the Principal System Engineer and Instrument Manager for the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) in the James Webb Space Telescope. Currently, he is the Mission Performance and Operations Manager for the Euclid Project.
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2018 – present ESA ESTEC PLATO Mission Performance and Operations Manager 2013 – 2018 ESA ESTEC, EUCLID Mission Systems Engineer
2010 – 2013 ESA ESTEC, JWST MIRI Instrument Manager
2006 – 2010 ESA ESTEC, JWST MIRI Systems Engineer
2003 – 2006 Brimrose Corporation of America – Optical Product Development Engineer
2001 – 2003 CIENA Corporation – Senior Passive Photonics Engineer
1999 – 2001 University of Maryland Photonic Switching and Integrated Optoelectronics Laboratory – Research Assistant
Education
2011 INCOSE Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP)
1995-1999 MSc Telecommunications Engineering, Polytechnic University of Catalonia (Barcelona, Spain) – Optoelectronics Major
Space Optical System Requirements Definition
Early in the lifecycle of projects Systems Engineering processes focus on the analysis of stakeholders needs and the definition of adequate requirements for the subsequent design and development phases. The lecture aims to describe the requirements engineering process with a focus on the analysis of science and user needs in typical Space Optical Instrumentation applications and the derivation of key optical system design parameters. We try to cover examples and practices to derive the most common types of requirements: geometrical , image quality, spectral, calibration and characterization and radiometric. In addition we will describe tools and methods to support completeness, traceability, verification and validation.
Flurin Heren
BSc.,
Mechanical Engineering
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Position: Optomechanical Engineer, Ansys Zemax
Lecturing: Optical CAD Instrument Modelling and Analysis
Flurin is the Optomechanical Engineer of Ansys Zemax ACE Team in Europe. Since he joined in early 2021, he has focused on helping Zemax customer in the use of OpticStudio, bringing Zemax OpticsBuilder to market, delivering webinar and online trainings to the Zemax e-learning platforms and working on the interoperability of Zemax OpticStudio with a vast variety of other design software such as Creo Parametric, Ansys Mechanical and Ansys Speos.
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2021 – Present: Optomechanical Engineer, Ansys Zemax London, UK
2016 – 2020: BSc, Microtechnology / Optics and Photonics, University of Applied Science Bern, Switzerland
2011 -2015 BSc, Mechanical Engineering, Technical College Fribourg, Switzerland
ZEMAX Training
- OpticStudio Introduction
- Performance analysis of an optical system (Spot, Aberrations, wavefront, PSF, MTF,…)
- Merit Function
- Local Optimization
- Tolerancing (short information)
- short OpticStudio introduction and short performance analysis of an optical system (Spot, Aberrations, wavefront, PSF, MTF,…)
- Merit Function, local and global optimization, tolerance analysis
- Straylight analysis and/or
- Controlling Zemax from other Software such as Python
Dominic Doyle,
MSc. Science
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Position: retired
Lecturing: Space Environment
Dominic is Irish and was born in Dublin at the start of the Space
Age in 1957. Since becoming intruigued with and fascinated by
Astronomy & Space during the NASA Apollo era, he pursued an
educational path in Science with a Diploma and Degree in applied
sciences from the Dublin Institute of Technology and Trinity
College Dublin, followed by a MSc in Atmospheric Physics from
Maynooth University, where he worked as a technical officer and
tutor.
He worked at the European Space Agency in the Optics section as
optical engineer since 1991. He has been responsible for
technology on telescopes, optical coatings, large mirrors,
contamination and cleanliness control, radiation effects on optical
materials etc.
As well as having been responsible for the optics testing lab at
ESTEC, he also supported the development of many ESA missions
in all domains.
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Space Environment
Roland Geyl,
MSc.
Optical Engineer
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Position: President GEYL Optical Consulting and FO-RS Association
Lecturing: Introduction to Imaging Optical systems
Roland GEYL is an Optical Engineer graduated from Paris Orsay Institute of Optics. For more than four decades he contributed to most of the space projects at SAFRAN – REOSC either as lens designer, manufacturing and testing engineer, program manager, sales manager and plant director. He conducted various research in advanced optical systems and freeform optics and predesigned the SAFRAN SEEING offer of high performance payloads for nanosatellites. Today retired, he is offering consultancy services and acting as president of the French freeform optics association FO-RS.
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2023-Today President Geyl Optical Consulting
2019-Today President Freeform Optics – Research & Solution Association (FO-RS) in France
2013 – 2022 SAFRAN-Reosc, France, Sales, marketing & Business Devt, Emeritus Expert
1999 – 2012 Sagem-Reosc, France, Sales Manager & Safran Emeritus Expert in High performance optics
1981 – 1998 Reosc, France, Lens design & Engineering / Optical manufacturing & Testing/ Program management / Division Manager
1982 – 2002 Lecturer in Lens Design at the Ecole Supérieure d’Optique, Paris-Orsay
1976 – 1979 Study at Ecole Superieure d’Optique (Major of promotion)
Introduction to Imaging Optical systems
The subject of this course module is to review the basics of imaging optical systems and the key few things to know in order to make more efficient use of lens design software tools for space optical instrumentation: the paraxial domain, the chromatic effects , third order aberrations, telescope systems, review of optical designs used in space imagers, freeform optics. The main goal is to offer a comprehensive overview of this complex subject without boring formulas and to help them to determine a sound starting point for maximizing success of the subsequent optimization work. Illustration will be done by short exercises.
Tibor Agocs,
MSc. Engn. Physics
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Position: Optical Engineer at ESA / ESTEC at TEC-MMO (Mechanical Department, Mechatronics & Optics Division, Optics Section)
Lecturing: System Budget Development
Tibor Agócs has more than 20 years of experience in optical design and analysis of optical systems. Currently, he is working as an optical engineer in the optics section (TEC-MMO) at ESTEC, ESA. He is supporting FORUM (Far-Infrared Outgoing Radiation Understanding and Monitoring) in phase B2CD, and he is the technical focal point of its two subsystems overseeing systems and performance engineering aspects as well. He is also supporting Sentinel 3 Next Generation Optical Mission (phase 0 and AB1) and until 2023 he was also involved in the CO2M mission and its MAP and CLIM subsystems (phase B2CD). He is the technical officer of various activities related to e.g. optical polishing technologies, metasurfaces, line of sight stabilization and chalcogenide infrared materials. He is also leading the TEC-MMO Optical Design Working Group at ESA, ESTEC. Before ESA, he was working at the at the NOVA Optical and Infrared Instrumentation Division for more than 10 years, where he was the lead optical designer of METIS, the Mid-infrared ELT Imager and Spectrograph for the 40m class ELT. He was also the optical designer of other ground based astronomical instruments (MICADO, MATISSE and Weave). He has strong experience in optical design and analyses and in performing simulations using Zemax OpticStudio, FRED, Python and Matlab for a wide variety of optical systems including freeform based optical systems.
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2021 – present Optical Engineer at TEC-MMO, ESTEC, ESA (NL).
2015 – 2021 Lead optical designer at the NOVA Optical & Infrared Instrumentation Division at ASTRON (NL).
2011 – 2014 Optical designer at the NOVA Optical & Infrared Instrumentation Division at ASTRON (NL).
2006 – 2011 Optical engineer and designer at the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes on La Palma (ES).
2003 – 2006 Development engineer and optical designer at Holografika (HU).
1997-2003 Master’s degree in engineering physics, specialization in optics (Faculty of Natural Sciences, Budapest University of Technology and Economics).
System Budget Development
Proper tolerance analysis and budgeting are critical in space optical instrumentation to optimize system performance within constraints. By understanding how the various degrees of freedom in an optical system impact optical performance and creating allocations and building budgets, engineers can design robust systems that meet mission requirements while managing trade-offs between performance parameters. The lecture focuses on optical tolerancing and discussing allocations, budgets, and margin philosophy at various levels of the instrument. It also illustrates through examples how to create allocations for optical performance parameters and build budgets that are verified by optical analyses and tests in the verification phases.
Bernd Harnisch,
PhD Physics
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Position: SOIDT course academic programme manager
Lecturing: Spectrometer Design, Hands-on application
Bernd Harnisch worked 23 years at the European Space Agency in the Optics section as optical engineer. During his career he was responsible for technology developments on telescopes, spectrometers and lightweight ceramic mirror materials. Further on he was supporting the following optical flight instruments: GOMOS on ENVISAT, MSG, GERB on MSG, NIRSpec for JWST, MIRI for JWST and SEOSAT. Co-founder of the SOIDT course and programme manager of the SOIDT academic programme.
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2016 – SOIDT academic programme manager
1992 – 2015 ESTEC, optical engineer in the Optics section
1997 – 1992 Scientific Assistant in at Friedrich-Schiller University Jena
1985 – 1987 Academy of Sciences Jena
1981 – 1985 PhD in Holographic Interferometry at Friedrich-Schiller University Jena
1976 – 1981 study of Physics at Friedrich-Schiller University Jena
Spectrometer Design
In this lecture the design of optical spectrometer is explained. The general spectrometer set-up and the the basic formulas for the diffraction grating and the refraction prism will be recalled. Typical spectrometer configurations will be discussed and their advantages will be highlighted. The manufacturing process for gratings will be addressed. In an example the first order design process of an spectrometer will be shown: starting from the spectrometer requirements the grating line density and the focal lengths of the Spectrometer Collimator and Imager will be deduced.
Hands-on Activity
In the hands-on activity the participants will develop a spectrometer. Starting from a set of requirements they will perform the optical and opto-mechanical design, they will manufacture and integrate the spectrometer, verify the achieved performances and give a short presentation of the achieved results.
Jean-Christophe
Salvignol,
MSc. Engineer
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Position: ARIEL Project Manager
Lecturing: Mechanical Engineering
Jean-Christophe Salvignol is the Ariel project manager working in the Science directorate of the European Space Agency. He leads a team in charge of the development of the Ariel mission aiming at the characterisation of exoplanets. Before that he was in charge of the development of the Euclid Payload Module composed of an all ceramic telescope and of two large instruments. He also acquired a solid expertise in mechanical engineering thanks to his positions of mechanical engineer in JWST and Rosetta.
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2019 – Ariel Project Manager
2012 – 2019 ESA, Euclid Mission & Payload Manager
2004 – 2012 ESA, JWST NIRSpec and MIRI Mechanical Engineer
2001 – 2004 ESA, Rosetta Mechanical Engineer
1992 – 2001 ATOS-NL Consultant in structural design and analysis for space programs
1986 – 1991 Engineering degree at Institute National des Sciences Appliquées
Mechanical Engineering
Designing an optical instrument or a telescope is a system job that requires solid theoretical knowledge of optics, but this is not sufficient! A good understanding of material properties, structural behaviour, thermal aspects, manufacturing, cleanliness requirements and the AIT process is mandatory to meet the required performances.
This course will aim at giving some basic knowledge about structural design & verification and (a bit) of materials. It won’t be sufficient to become a knowledgeable mechanical engineer but should at least allow the optical designer to understand the risks and potential issues and to discuss with mechanical experts when needed.
This lecture will address in particular:
– Basics of mechanics
– Mechanisms
– Threats to the image quality
– Materials
– Mounting Solutions
– Verification
Ralph Snel
PhD Physics
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Position: Senior Optics Specialist at TNO, calibration expert
Lecturing: Instrument Calibration
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TNO (2016-present):
- Sentinel 5 Core Team member: verification and characterisation of the Sentinel 5 instrument,
- Absolute Radiometric Calibration Facility (ARCF) scientific point of contact
- GOME-2 / Metop: on-ground calibration, phase E mission support
- NASA Ocean Color Instrument / PACE: Bright Calibration Target characterisation
- FLEX-FLORIS on-board diffuser characterisation
SRON (1998-2001, 2006-2016)
- ESA SCIAMACHY Quality Working Group member: Level 1 product improvement, in-flight calibration, on-ground calibration, feedback from and to Level 2 product scientists and users
- TROPOMI / Sentinel 5p: Short Wave Infra-Red system requirement definition, performance prediction, calibration definition and planning
- GOME / ERS-2 in-flight instrument characterisation, Level 1 quality improvement
- ARIEL instrument definition, performance simulation
- Use of the Moon as radiometric calibration target for in-flight instrument monitoring and calibration
Lund Observatory / European Southern Observatory (2001-2006)
- ALMA prototype sub-mm antenna characterisation
- Euro-50 (50 m optical telescope) design and performance simulations, science use
Education:
- PhD, Lund Observatory (1993-1998): Star formation history of the Large Magellanic Cloud, observations with the Hubble Space Telescope and Nordic Optical Telescope
Instrument Calibration
An instrument is as good as its calibration, and proper characterisation and calibration of an instrument can – to some degree – overcome limitations of the instrument hardware.
Any instrument is designed to be sensitive to a well-defined number of properties of the outside world, and in general also turns out to be sensitive to many other properties. This lecture will address how to approach instrument calibration from a mission perspective and the corresponding requirement, and will address topics such as on-ground and in-flight calibration till end of life. The focus will be on on-ground calibration in the ultraviolet to short wave infrared wavelength range, how to derive the calibration requirements, which instrument characteristics will need to be investigated and how to design a calibration and characterisation campaign that will allow to learn the relevant instrument parameters at the right level of detail and accuracy. This includes the calibration sources needed to obtain this goal. Topics that will be addressed are radiometric, spectral, spatial (geometric) and polarisation calibration, and attention will be given to stray light characterisation and correction.
MSc. Thermal Engineer
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Position: Thermal Engineer at ESA
Lecturing: Instrument Thermal Design and Analysis
Romain has 25 years of experience in Space Thermal Engineering, including 12 years in industry at Airbus Defence and Space (Toulouse), as thermal analyst and thermal architect for several Earth observation and Science instruments. Working now at ESA, he mainly supported Science projects (SWARM, CHEOPS, Comet Interceptor…) and his main project is currently JUICE (JUpiter Icy Moon Explorer). He is also the Technology Focal Point at ESA for both Multi-Layer Insulations (MLI) and Phase-Change Material (PCM) thermal capacitors.
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2010-present: Thermal engineer at ESA
– main thermal engineer for JUICE, Comet Interceptor, CHEOPS
– support to several projects (SWARM, Sentinel 1, EDRS…)
1998-2010 : Thermal engineer at Airbus Defence and Space (Toulouse, France)
– thermal architect of Sentinel 2 instrument, GAIA Focal Plance Assembly demonstrator, Herschel Telescope
– support to several projects of Earth observation instruments
– thermal analysis and tests for several projects (SPOT 5, Helios 2, Telecom satellites…)
Instrument Thermal Design and Analysis
Designing optical instruments, for space as well as ground applications, requires careful optimisation, at systems level, between the desired optical performances, and the mechanical stability and the coupled thermo-mechanical effects, but not limited to thermal expansion coefficients. Today most optical systems also comprises AO subsystems (Adaptive and/or Active Optics items) that again are sources of thermal loads, and induced stress and vibrations that further influences the ultimate optical performances.
For space instruments, vacuum, Sun radiation and even the Earth Albedo, depending on orbit, will influence the thermal behaviour of the instrument, often differently than on Earth and during performance tests.
Thermal aspects enter the Optical System design at many levels, hence the thermal performance optimisation require a constant and bidirectional interaction between the optical, the mechanical and the electrical engineers during the concept development, validation and testing phases.
This course chapter aims to review different coupled interactions of thermal behaviour on the optics, on the structure and on/from the related active and passive parts. Interactions via the respective material properties and choices, their design, assembly and dimensioning thereof, including approaches to minimise the thermal sensitivity of your optical system design will be presented.
Angela Piegari,
MSc. Physics
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Position: Space Optics Advisor
Lecturing: Optical Coating Design
Angela Piegari has been working for more than 30 years in the field of optical thin films and coatings and she has been in charge of the Optical Coatings Laboratory at ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Sustainable Development). She has collaborated with many International Organizations and European Institutes, including ESA, and published more than 200 papers. In the past years she has been appointed as President of the “Italian Society of Optics and Photonics” (national branch of the European Optical Society), and is presently acting as co-director of the biannual International School of Space Optics – ISSO.
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2022 – Space Optics Advisor
2010 – 2021 Research Director at ENEA
1994 – 2015 Responsible for the Optical Coatings Laboratory at ENEA
1977 – 1994 Researcher in the field of Optical Coatings
1977 Physics degree with honors
Optical Coating Design
Optical coatings are widely used in space instrumentation and in some cases they represent even the most critical elements of the instrument. A large class of coatings is based on interference phenomena that take place in layered structures; nevertheless the behavior of several coatings is essentially due to the materials properties. The selection of materials and the design of the coating structure will be described, depending on both the required performance and the operational wavelengths. Many types of coatings will be analyzed: high-reflectance mirrors, antireflection coatings, narrow-band filters, blocking filters, beam splitters, etc., highlighting the critical aspects. The effect of the angle of incidence and polarization, as well as the influence of the environment conditions will be discussed. Examples of application in space instruments will be also shown.
Volker Kirschner
MSc. Physics
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Straylight Analysis and Control
The control of straylight is a driving aspect in modern optical instruments. The lecture will address the basic approaches how to suppress straylight in optical systems. The different types of straylight based on the originating concept will be explained. Guidelines for optical designs robust against straylight will be given and the principles of analysing the level straylight of an instrument will be illustrated. Finally, some examples of typical straylight performances of frequently used optical elements will be presented.
Hands-on Activity
In the hands-on activity the participants will develop a spectrometer. Starting from a set of requirements they will perform the optical and opto-mechanical design, they will manufacture and integrate the spectrometer, verify the achieved performances and give a short presentation of the achieved results.
Maurice Te Plate
MSc. Applied Physics
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Position : ESA LISA Senior Payload Systems Engineer, ESA-ESTEC Noordwijk
Lecturing : Performance Verification
Maurice te Plate is an Optical Systems Engineer working at the European Space Agency (ESA). He is currently holding the position of LISA Senior Payload Systems Engineer. He is based at ESA-ESTEC in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. His main fields of technical expertise are physics and optics.
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2024 ESA-ESTEC, ESA LISA Senior Payload Systems Engineer
2017 – 2024 NASA Goddard and ESA STScI, ESA NIRSpec Systems Engineer
2012 – 2017 NASA Goddard, ESA JWST System Integration and Test Manager
2003 – 2012 ESA-ESTEC, ESA JWST Optical System Engineer
2001 – 2002 ESA-ESTEC, Optical Engineer in the Optics section
1995 – 2001 TNO Institute of Applied Physics, Optical Engineer/Designer
1994 Abbott Laboratories USA, Optical Consultant
1988 – 1993 Master’s Degree in Applied Physics at Technical University of Twente
Performance Verification
In the world of space optical instrument design, proper optical performance verification is of pivotal importance. Maurice te Plate has extensive experience in this field. The lecture will describe the suite of optical performance verification techniques available to the modern optical engineer.
Jorge Fiebrich
> MEngn. Space Systems and Business
Position: Ariel Product Assurance and Safety Manager, ESA
Lecturing: Product Assurance for Optical Instruments
Jorge Fiebrich is the Ariel Product Assurance and Safety Manager working at the European Space Agency. He coordinates a small team of experts in the quality domain and is responsible for the overall spacecraft product assurance and safety activities. Product assurance activities are covering a wide range of activities such Quality assurance, RAMS, Materials and processes, cleanliness, radiation hardness and software assurance, all of which are required to ensure that the final product not only meets the requirements during the verification campaign but also keeps meeting them throughout the satellites lifetime.
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2020 – Today Ariel PA Manager
2018 – 2020 Solar Orbiter deputy PA Manager
2017 – 2018 MEeng. Graz University of Technology
2015 – 2018 PA manager of the ESTEC Test Centre
2014 – 2015 PA engineer for Lisa Pathfinder
2008 – 2014 AIT / Systems engineer at TNO (NL)
2005 – 2014 BEng. Electrical engineering, THRijswijk
Product Assurance for Optical Instruments
Developing an optical instrument for a space mission application requires a good understanding of the operational environment and constraints as sending a repair crew is normally speaking not an option. The optical performance of a systems is greatly dependent on the design, quality of manufacturing and the choice of materials, as even the best theoretical design can be thwarted by poor workmanship, uncontrolled processes or unsuitable materials and components. Product assurance aims to minimize the risk of adverse effects being introduced due to choice of wrong or not matching materials, uncontrolled or unverified processes and management of cleanliness levels. This lecture will address in particular:
- Materials and processes for optical system,
- Manufacturing challenges and considerations,
- Cleanliness and contamination control
- Environmental considerations and effects
- Read out electronics and EEE challenges / considerations.
- Requirement baseline, change management
Luca Maresi,
MSc. Theor. Physics
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Position: Lead Optical Engineer at ESA/ESTEC,
Lecturing: Complex Procurement
Luca Maresi has more than thirty years of experience as Optical System Engineer for Space systems at Leonardo (Italy), Terma (Denmark), and ESA. He has worked on a number of large projects, such as Cassini, Rosetta, and Sentinel 5 Precursor. He has also initiated and managed groundbreaking projects, such as the Star Tracker 15AS at Terma, the Proba-V payload, and the HyperScout. In October 2013 he was appointed as Head of the Optics Section. Luca Maresi is the Chairman of the Symposium on Small Satellite Systems and Services since 2004. In 2016, together with Bernd Harnisch, he started the SOIDT.
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2021 – present: Lead Optical Engineer – Mechanical Dept. at ESA/ESTEC
2013 – 2021: Head of the Optics Section – Mechanical Dept. at ESA/ESTEC
2006 – 2013 Senior Optical System Engineer – Optics Section at ESA/ESTEC
2001 – 2006 Systems Engineer – Directorate of Industrial Matter and Technology at ESA/ESTEC
1996 – 2001 Senior Optical System Engineer – Space Division at Terma A/S – Denmark
1990 – 1996 Optical System Engineer – Space and Optics Division at Leonardo (formerly Officine Galileo) – Italy
1989 – 1990 System Engineer at Field Data – Italy
1989 Laurea in Physics – University of Milan
Complex Procurement
In most of the professional activities we will need to procure or sell complex equipment. In the Space optics business, it is normal practice to purchase sub-systems through a process that entails the definition of specification, a contract and a payment plan. The procurement can span over a few years, and the success of a project can be undermined whenever one of the unit is not delivered according to the needs. This process entails the preparation of the technical specifications, the work logic, a payment plan, key inspection points, and the acceptance of the purchased item. The lecture will provide an introduction on the process to defining the various part of the procurement of complex systems and will give real life experience of possible pitfalls when purchasing complex systems.