Francesca Scala’s research stay at the European Space Research and Technology Centre

Francesca Scala, from the COMPASS team, is spending six months of her PhD as visiting researcher at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA-ESTEC), where she will increase her experience and expertise acquired during her research activities on mission design and guidance, navigation and control strategies at the Politecnico di Milano.

Francesca is joining the System Analysis Office in the Earth Observation Projects Department under the Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes (EOP-PES), where she will work under the supervision of Dr Berthyl Duesmann to extend the knowledge about formation flying missions for Earth observation applications. This visiting period will allow gaining new insights on new mission concepts as well as on the design of the operational phases of in-orbit missions. Possible applications of Francesca’s work cover the possibility to study future follow-on concepts of the ESA SMOS mission and to other interferometry missions for Earth observation.