“The Spacecraft Team often takes priority”

Is Switzerland really a space nation? For sure – just look at the distinguished astronauts we’ve sent into orbit, such as Claude Nicollier and Marco Sieber, and our university ecosystem that’s training the next generation of aerospace engineers. At EPFL, the 70-plus students on the Spacecraft Team are helping to tackle some of the key challenges facing the space industry, with the support of EPFL’s MAKE initiative. They’re carrying out cross-disciplinary research projects to study all steps of satellite design, fabrication, testing, launch and operation.

Today, the team is taking part in the Constellation of High-Performance Exospheric Science Satellites (CHESS) mission, together with the University of Bern, ETH Zurich and the European Space Agency. This mission, scheduled for launch in 2027, aims to determine the chemical composition of the exosphere, or the uppermost layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. The exosphere hasn’t really been explored since the 1980s, and the mission’s findings will probably shed light on the impact of climate change.

“I learned to organize my time and rank my priorities”

The work being done by the Spacecraft Team draws on a broad range of skills: systems engineering, embedded system programming, structure design, telecommunications, project communications and more. We spoke with some of the rising stars in this endeavor.

Alvaro Martinez-Vizmano was the Spacecraft Team’s president until this summer, when he stepped down after a one-year term. Before that, he led the team’s system engineering group. “Being the team’s president was hard for me at first,” he says. “I had to shift my focus away from the technical aspects and spend more time writing emails, helping our communications group contact partner organizations and supporting our philanthropy unit. I needed to keep an eye on everything and everyone.” It was a demanding experience, but also a great learning one. “I learned how to organize my time, rank my priorities and work until midnight if I had to.”
Martinez-Vizmanos is no longer at the helm of the Spacecraft Team, but his sights are still set on the aerospace industry. He’s pursuing a minor in space technology and is completing his master’s internship at Almatech, an EPFL spin-off that’s been involved in around a dozen space missions including Solar Orbiter, BepiColombo and Sentinel-5. Almatech developed the tubular structure and titanium supports for the CHEOPS telescope. “I’ll see if the pace of in-company R&D suits me, because things tend to move forward very slowly in this industry, unlike what I experienced on the Spacecraft Team,” says Martinez-Vizmanos.

“The to-do list never ends”

Ana Schwabedal, who recently completed her bachelor’s degree in microengineering, has taken over as Spacecraft Team president. She’ll now be the one coordinating the different groups to ensure deliverables are completed on time. Her predecessor doesn’t seem terribly upset about handing over the reins: “To be honest, I’m looking forward to enjoying long weekends, clocking out at 6pm and taking some vacation,” he says. For her part, Schwabedal is well aware of all that’s involved in leading the Spacecraft Team, which is why she’s decided to spread her master’s degree out over four semesters instead of three. “The to-do list on the Spacecraft Team never ends,” she says. “I think this upcoming school year will be pretty intense. By taking more time for my master’s degree, I’ll be able to better balance my role on the team with my studies.”

Although the Spacecraft Team focuses on long-term missions, it also draws students looking for semester projects, which are generally completed as part of their degree programs. These projects help the team make concrete steps towards solving specific problems. For example, Alice Baruzier, a master’s student in mechanical engineering with a specialization in fluid mechanics, performed a detailed analysis of the satellite’s vibrations to make sure it can withstand the shocks that occur during launch. “It was important for me to spend at least a semester working on a technical aspect of the project,” she says.

Baruzier has also been in charge of the team’s communications for the past 18 months. There, she manages the team’s social media accounts, designs posters and plans events. For instance, she helped develop the Spacecraft Team’s booth for the ESA 50 Year Anniversary Celebration held at EPFL, making several parts of the booth herself. “I love working with my hands and spent hours at the SKILL workshop!” she says.

Has it been hard to juggle all this with her studies? Baruzier admits that sometimes her classwork takes a back seat. “Things move really fast in student associations,” she says. “There’s always something going on, problems to solve and decisions to make. So sitting down to work on class exercises or go back over a lecture seems pretty boring in comparison. It’s true that the Spacecraft Team often takes priority.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing what I’m capable of”

Frédéric Piguet, a first-year master’s student in electrical engineering, learned about the Spacecraft Team on its website. He was intrigued by the many different kinds of semester projects on offer – and especially projects related to telecommunications, his field of interest. Piguet plans to join the team in September. “I was a member of the Coaching student association when I was a bachelor’s student,” he says. “But now I want to get involved in something more tangible and also more specialized. Bachelor’s classes at EPFL tend to be quite general, which doesn’t really help us decide what we want to do after we graduate.” Piguet therefore hopes to not only contribute to a collective effort but also grow personally. “I’m eager to start on the Spacecraft Team this fall, but also a little nervous,” he says. “I signed up because it will help me build my confidence, learn how to manage several things at once and get to know myself better. I’m looking forward to doing that – and seeing what I’m capable of.”