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The results of the elections of the Europlanet Society Executive Board were announced at the Europlanet General Assembly on Friday, 10 November. Eight new members of the Board were elected including a Vice-President, two Secretaries (co-position) and five new Board Members. 

They join Ann Carine Vandaele, who takes up the mantle of President following her year as President-Elect (elected 2022), Treasurer Didier Moreau (elected 2021) and Vice President Angelo Pio Rossi (elected 2019 with a one year extended term to ensure that the turn-over of the Board is staggered). 

Find out about their objectives and what they hope to achieve by serving on the Board of the Europlanet Society over the next four years. 

In November, some members of the Central European Hub utilised the weekly Discord Get-Together to discuss some upcoming events and activities. The Europlanet Discord has the ability to host both video and audio, making drop-in sessions like this a great way to coordinate with hub-members, or just get to know each other a little bit better. 

Feel free to drop into the next one!

Get-togethers are every week during Friday lunch, at 12:30-13:30 Paris time on Discord.

Attention Europlanet members: the final deadline to submit an application for observing through our Telescope Network is the 31st December 2024, with the final date of observation being 31st March 2024. 

There is still some time to apply, so submit your application via the link below!

Stephant et al. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Volume 615, 1 August 2023, 118202 

This study investigates primitive achondrite meteorites that provide information into melting and differentiation processes in the early inner Solar System and the source of water for planetesimals. The work was supported by Europlanet 2024 RI through access to the Open University’s NanoSIMS facility (TA project 20-EPN2-01). 

The exoplanet.eu team is pleased to announce the first release of an extended version of the Encyclopaedia of Extrasolar Planets, the It becomes the Encyclopaedia of Exoplanetary Systems. 

The planetary catalogue includes free-floating objects, orbiting exoplanets and companions (including binary systems), with masses up to 60 Jupiter masses. 

The encyclopaedia is updated daily. 

Beyond a simple catalogue of planetary systems, it includes: 

- an exhaustive bibliography on the theory, observations and instrumentation (26,000+ references) 

- an exhaustive list of conferences 

- a list of ground-based and space-based facilities detecting exoplanets 

- an extensive list of other websites devoted to exoplanetary systems. 

- a tools page (which will become more populated over time) 

- a news page 

- a binary planets page 

- a catalogue of discs (in development) 

The  abstract submission is open for EGU 2024, held in Vienna on 14-19 April 2024 and online. 

The EGU General Assembly 2024 brings together geoscientists from all over the world to one meeting covering all disciplines of the Earth, planetary, and space sciences. The EGU aims to provide a forum where scientists, especially early career researchers, can present their work and discuss their ideas with experts in all fields of geoscience.

The deadline for the abstract submission is 10 January 2024, 13:00 CET or before 1 December 2023, 13:00 CET to apply for travel support. 

In preparation for the next PEPR Origins White Paper (WP) Call, a new call is set to open in early 2025 within the existing framework of established WPs. Up to 3 to 6 projects will be funded, totaling €4.8 million, with a minimum budget of €800,000 per project. These projects can either be initiatives stemming from the initial PEPR results, developments in the scientific and international context, or projects related to potential stakeholders in PEPR ORIGINS (industry, society, academia). 

To prepare for this upcoming call, SFE and GdR PILSE are currently seeking to identify potential projects and facilitate collaboration among researchers. They are inviting individuals to share project ideas, express interest in collaboration, or participate in collective discussions on potential projects. 

Feedback is requested by early December 2023 . The goal is to establish a dedicated mailing list, facilitate exchanges from January to March 2024, and organize a meeting in March/April in Paris to present and discuss all proposed projects or ideas. A summary of this meeting will be shared with the community with participants' consent. 

Technologies and satellite systems developed by the space industry help our everyday lives on Earth. While satellite systems contribute widely to well-known areas such as Communication and Navigation, space technologies serve other innovative purposes such as healthcare improvement, multimodal transportation, and other downstream applications. Their commercialisation need people with creative flair, vision and business acumen, skills that this workshop aims to develop. 

Amongst other topics, students will learn about patenting, entrepreneurship, and business incubation. Group assignments will see them taking a real ESA patent, brainstorming potential application ideas and developing a business model around it. 

 Application deadline: 4 December 2023, 23:59 CET 

When we talk about space missions, sending commands to a satellite and receiving data back is paramount. Given the criticality and complexity of spacecraft communications, it’s fair to argue that there would be no space missions without highly skilled communications engineers. 

The course will be delivered by an ESA engineer of the Mission Operations Department of ESOC. It will include real stories of operations engineers battling wayward spacecraft and discussions about the implications of the way communications systems are designed, how they are used and what problems might occur. Students will also learn about ESA’s European Space Security and Education Centre (ESEC) on-site activities, including Galileo and PROBA spacecraft operations. Students will also experience live operations “close up” thanks to ESA’s OPS-SAT spacecraft. 

Application deadline: 11 December 2023, 23:59 CET 

This workshop will expose students to real-life concurrent engineering approach practices. 

Guided by ESA systems engineers, the students will delve into the world of concurrent engineering, getting acquainted with the Concurrent Model-based Engineering Tool (COMET) and identifying design drivers. Students split into groups will be asked to apply the knowledge acquired along the course on concurrent engineering and payload, propulsion, power, thermal, attitude, and orbital control systems (AOCS), amongst other disciplines, to create a CubeSat mission design.  

Application deadline: 18 December 2023, 23:59 CET