École Polytechnique, Thales Alenia Space, ArianeGroup and the École Polytechnique Foundation Inaugurate a New Academic Sponsorship Program
New Delhi: In response to student requests and the ambitions of the Student Space Center at École Polytechnique, Hervé Derrey (CEO of Thales Alenia Space), André-Hubert Roussel (CEO of ArianeGroup), Yves Laszlo (Provost of École Polytechnique), and Jean-Paul Cottet (Executive Director of the École Polytechnique Foundation) inaugurate the “Space: Science and Space Challenges” sponsorship program, in order to increase academic activities in the space field.
Centered around aerospace themes, the objective of the academic sponsorship program “Space: Science and Space Challenges”, since the official signature in July 2019, is to respond to students’ interests on these topics. It offers courses relevant to careers in space and helps to develop space-related projects within the Student Space Center at École Polytechnique. Today, Hervé Derrey (CEO of Thales Alenia Space), André-Hubert Roussel (CEO of ArianeGroup), Yves Laszlo (Provost of École Polytechnique), and Jean-Paul Cottet (Executive Director of the École Polytechnique Foundation) come together to inaugurate the sponsorship program, which combines the excellence of École Polytechnique’s Research Center with the industrial activities of its patrons.
Led by Pascal Chabert, CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research) Research Director at the Plasma Physics Laboratory[1] and professor at École Polytechnique, and with the assistance of Jean-François Roussel, Director of the Physics Instrumentation Environment Space Department at ONERA (the French Aerospace Lab), the program associates the students of the Ingénieur Polytechnicien Program at École Polytechnique with the projects of the Student Space Center. These projects range from the realization of launchers or nano-satellites, called CubeSat, to more fundamental studies in observation and astrophysics.
Thales Alenia Space and ArianeGroup, patrons of the program and world-renowned experts in the space field, offer their in-depth knowledge in order to help students carry out space-related projects. They collaborate on ambitious projects that can last multiple years and which require several teams of students, as is the case for the development of the CubeSat IonSat, an electrically-powered satellite.
Concluded for a period of five years, the “Space: Science and Space Challenges” sponsorship program began in July 2019 and has already made it possible to create a specialization track for 3rd year students in the Ingénieur Polytechnicien Program at École Polytechnique. This specialization track, titled “Science and Space Challenges”, is based on fundamental courses in Physics, Applied Mathematics or Mechanics as well as project-based teaching from researchers and engineers from the École Polytechnique Research Center, ONERA, or patrons of the program. The CNES (French National Center for Space Studies) has also showed its support for the program by creating a training program in Toulouse on space vehicles which is dedicated to students.
Thanks to these different actions, its interdependence between students, patron and partner support, and the excellence of its teaching aspects and projects, the program “Space: Science and Space Challenges” meets students’ expectations when it comes to the field of space, and helps to accompany them in their projects on the topic.
Head of the Sponsorship Program
A specialist in cold plasmas and plasma thrusters, Pascal Chabert is a Research Director at the CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research) and a professor at École Polytechnique. Following a post-doctoral degree at the University of California, Berkeley, he joined the Plasma Physics Laboratory (LPP) in 2000 and was director of the lab from 2015 to 2020. Recognized for his work with international awards, Pascal Chabert became Head of the “Space: Science, and Space Challenges” sponsorship program when it was created in July 2019. In charge of the “Science and Space Challenges” specialization track (offered during the 3rd year of the Ingénieur Polytechnicien Program at École Polytechnique) since September 2019, he also supervises the activities linked to the Student Space Center at École Polytechnique, alongside Antoine Tavant, the Center’s Technical Director.