The spanish contribution to the 1st ESA academy's concurrent engineering challenge : design of the moon explorer and observer of water-ice (meow) mission

Abstract

The IDR/UPM Institute1 (Instituto Universitario de Microgravedad ‘Ignacio da Riva’) joined the 1st European Space Agency (ESA) Academy’s Concurrent Engineering Challenge in September 2017. The aim of this Challenge was to gather around students of different ESA members or associated States to design a mission in the ESA Educational Concurrent Design Facility (CDF). Three more groups from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain), Politecnico di Torino (Italy), and University of Strathclyde (United Kingdom) were invited to join the Challenge. The purpose of this exercise was the design of a mission proposed by ESA. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) was represented by students and professors from the Master in Space Systems (Máster Universitario en Sistemas Espaciales - MUSE2), who successfully developed a full mission (Moon Explorer and Observer of Water-ice -MEOW-), which is described in the present work. This mission fulfilled all ESA requirements. In this paper the educational point of view is described (students preparation, challenges encountered, lessons learned, etc.).