Space Informatics

Space Informatics

A module offered by the Chair of Dependable Systems and Software as a block course in September/October 2025. It is worth 6 CP ECTS.

Context

Space technology is experiencing an unprecedented expansion in what came to be known as the “new space”.

Massive mega-constellations comprised of thousands of satellites are being deployed in near-Earth orbit to provide worldwide Internet coverage and real-time imaging. This is enabled by lower cost and reusable rockets, which are launching more and cheaper spacecraft than ever before. Indeed, nano-satellite platforms of a few liters of volume are leveraging state-of-the-art miniaturization and electronics to pack capabilities traditionally exclusive of large satellites.

As a result, space is becoming more democratic, accessible to many academic actors, and open for start-ups to develop innovative commercial opportunities. Moreover, these advances spill to an increasing number of interplanetary robotic exploration missions, which in turn boost and motivate the possibility of manned missions to the Moon and Mars in the upcoming years.

Motivation

The amount and features of “new space” orbiting assets would simply fail to scale up without the proper support of automated, optimal, efficient, scalable, usable and robust computer sciences models and techniques combining both on-board as well as on-ground components.

Also, informatics can play a decisive role in facilitating a more sustainable space with accurate battery models, delay-tolerant data handling, trajectory optimization, debris collision avoidance, system verification and validation, and online telemetry learning, among many other application opportunities.

Space is within reach, and future space professionals with this know-how at hand will become a valuable resource in the immediate future of the space industry.

Space Informatics

The Space Informatics course is framed in the new space context and motivated by the hypothesis that computer sciences will play a central role in future near-Earth and interplanetary space missions. To this end, we present a curriculum layout organized in three axes:

1. the fundamentals of space environment ranging from orbital dynamics to maneuvers and interplanetary trajectory design,
2. the specifics of space technology comprising energy handling, computers, communications and networking, and
3. the application of informatics to 1. and 2. including linear and dynamic programming, model checking, and scheduling techniques.

These axes are accompanied by practical exercises and hands-on projects involving state-of-the-art software toolchains such as Systems Toolkit (STK). We will exploit scriptable interfaces (Python) to control STK and evaluate and optimize distributed space missions using informatics modelling tools such as Gurobi and Uppaal.

Contents

1. Fundamentals
   1. Space Applications
   2. New Space
   3. Physics and Orbits
   4. Propagation and Perturbation
   5. Launch and Maneuvers
   6. Trajectories Design
2. Technology
   1. Satellite Technologies
   2. Basic Communications
   3. Link Budget and Multiplexing
   4. Space Networks
   5. Transport Layer
   6. Simulation and Analysis Tools
3. Informatics
   1. Linear and Dynamic Programming Optimization
   2. Battery-Aware Scheduling
   3. Contact Plan Design
   4. Routing in LEO
   5. Machine Learning in Space