Nanosatellites for Astrophysics - Archive ouverte HAL
Traduction Année : 2024

Nanosatellites for Astrophysics

Boris Segret

Résumé

“NewSpace” is great. Known for its mega-constellations of nanosatellites around the globe, continuous monitoring of fires, tracking of illegal vessels and, soon, the exchange of encrypted keys. It’s a hotbed of innovation, with excellent financing opportunities. But astrophysics, whose political importance is undeniable in the modern era, remains the poor cousin of this paradigm shift, due to a lack of immediate commercial outlets. And yet, I’m convinced that we still need to build up our skills in this field, so that funding decisions can be taken as a matter of course. This dissertation is therefore a politically committed act. In it, I will describe my industrial experience and my arrival in scientific space, which coincides with the launch of the first French nanosatellite in 2012, continues with the first interplanetary CubeSats in 2018 and, now, a first armada to the Moon and the double asteroid Didymos. It’s a safe bet that all exploration missions from now on will offer opportunities for nanosatellites, and therefore also opportunities for rapid technological developments for astrophysics research teams. With my mentors Pierre Drossart and Jean-Pierre Lebreton in 2015, we took this gamble and chose to make a long-term investment in the new skills required for scientific-quality nanosatellites, because a “CubeSat” is far from being a kit satellite: dedicated methods, tools and equipment were required, in other words an ecosystem, which soon has become a center of expertise at Observatoire de Paris - PSL. This environment enabled me to co-supervise 4 PhD students, 9 engineers and 45 students in their final year of a BTS or Master’s degree. I designed an original engineering support for more than 7 research teams on their scientific nanosatellite project. I also set up a number of partnerships with industry. For me, the purpose of an HDR is now to promote the specificities of nanosatellites for astrophysics, at the highest academic levels, so that the engineers and PhDs thus trained in turn produce knowledge and know-how.
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Commentaire English translation for the HDR manuscript 'Nanosatellites pour l'Astrophysique', tel-04644369 , version 1 (11-07-2024), by the author.

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hal-04663511 , version 1 (28-07-2024)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04663511 , version 1

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Boris Segret. Nanosatellites for Astrophysics. 2024. ⟨hal-04663511⟩

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