A sponsorship to promote academic activites in the space field

Thales Alenia Space and ArianeGroup inaugurate with the École polytechnique the « Espace: Sciences et Défis du Spatial » academic sponsorship program. Started in July 2019, This program develops teaching in the space field thanks to the creation of a specialization track for 3rd year students in the Ingénieur Polytechnicien Program at École Polytechnique, titled “Science and Space Challenges”. It 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.

Led by Pascal Chabert, CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research) Research Director at the Plasma Physics Laboratory  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. Such projects 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.

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. This Tuesday, October 13, 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.

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.

(1) LPP (A joint research unit between the CNRS/École polytechnique – Institut Polytechnique de Paris/Sorbonne Université/Observatoire de Paris/Université Paris-Saclay)

> about the sponsorship
> About the sponsors : Thales Alenia Space et ArianeGroup