MUSE (Master in Space Systems), an advanced master’s degree in space engineering

Abstract

In Spain, and most part of Europe, historically, space engineering education was a small part of a broader aerospace curriculum in aeronautics, dominated by fluid- and structures- focused engineering.
The Spanish universities have entailed a profound renewal within the last years as a result of the European Space for Higher Education implementation. In the case of Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) this change led to the possibility of setting up new official master’s degrees
(Masters Universitarios). One of these new degrees is MUSE (Master Universitario en Sistemas Espaciales), the Master’s Degree in Space Systems of UPM, which is fully devoted to space systems engineering and technology, and fully focused on the space industry needs.
MUSE is promoted, organized, implemented and run by Instituto Universitario de Microgravedad “Ignacio Da Riva” (IDR/UPM) research institute. The main purpose of this master is to share with the students the wide expertise and experience in space research/technology from the
IDR/UPM (and other research groups at UPM). At present, IDR/UPM collaborates with several space scientific nstitutions (ESA, NASA, JAXA, etc.) on different missions, such as Rosetta, Sunrise, Solar Orbiter,ExoMars, JEM-EUSO. Besides, IDR/UPM designed and developed a 50-kg class satellite (UPMSat-1) which was launched in 1995, and is currently developing another two: UPMSat-2 and Lian-Hé (in collaboration with Beihang University, China).
In this regard, MUSE is project-based learning oriented, as it is characterized by a significant amount of practical work by the students, directly linked to IDR/UPM running space projects. This master’s degree is designed to reduce as much as possible the initial training required by the
graduates once enrolled in a space engineering company.
The aim of this paper is to explain the origin of MUSE master’s degree program, its structure, the implementation focus and problems, student characteristics, study cases carried out, and future challenges.