Building the stellar calibrator catalogue for the Ariel mission

Ariel is an ESA space telescope planned for launch in 2029. It is aimed at observing ∼1,000 exoplanets using transit spectroscopy at infrared wavelengths between 0.5-7.8μm, to characterise the chemical composition and thermal structure of their atmospheres. To detect minute flux variations and confidently extract the exoplanet signal, Ariel...

Mars Ascent Vehicle trajectory optimisation: Investigation of the optimum trajectory for the Mars Ascent Vehicle to bring samples from the Martian surface to its orbit

The Mars Ascent Vehicle will bring samples back from the surface of Mars to its low orbit in 2031. Its preliminary design has been performed by NASA, defining it as a two-stage solid propellant rocket. However, a research gap exists in finding what the optimum solid rocket motors geometries are to bring the Martian samples to a target orbit...

Meteorite aerodynamics during dark flight: An experimental investigation using a subsonic wind tunnel

The dark flight of the meteorite in the atmosphere complicates the estimation of the impact point on the Earth’s surface. The irregular shape of the meteorite affects the aerodynamic forces during the dark flight, which can influence the trajectory of the meteorite. This further complicates the meteorite recovery. Limited knowledge of the...

Linking Enceladus’ plume characteristics to the crevasse properties

Supersonic plumes consistent of water vapor and ice particles have been observed by the Cassini spacecraft when flying over the tiger stripes of Enceladus at the south polar terrain of the satellite. Measurements of the salinity of the plumes (0.5-2%) and the size of the emitted particles, indicate a subsurface liquid ocean beneath the crust of...

Formation of planets via pebble accretion

Within a Protoplanetary disk (PPD), planets form from micron sized particles, but what are the processes taken for planet formation? How does the evolution of micron sized particles via settlement and coagulation lead to the gigantic planets as the ones in our Solar System? This thesis explores the planet formation process of pebble accretion...

Optical appearance of ices in planet forming discs

This thesis aims to improve our understanding of the role of ices in planet forming discs, known as protoplanetary discs. Computer models of such discs have been used extensively by the community to understand and predict the observational data. It has always been a challenge to observe ices in the discs and their optical appearance is largely...

Linking Single Event In-Orbit Data, Space Weather and Satellite Operations

This thesis studies single events (SE) in an SRAM from the identical satellites Sentinel 2A and 2B, in order to find links between SE, space weather, satellite operation and device properties from time and position of event occurrence. A study of theory on single event rate prediction and space radiation environments lies the foundation for the...

Characterisation of the Dicke-Switch Chopper System and AGPM Coronagraph for the NEAR Experiment at the ESO-VLT

As part of the New Earths in the Alpha Cen Region (NEAR) experiment, VISIR, an imager and spectrometer for the mid-infrared at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory, will be soon upgraded to improve its performance in terms of high contrast and sensitivity for the detection of Earth-like planets in the Alpha...

Asteroid characterization through serendipitous detection by the Mid-Infrared Instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope

The interest in asteroids is increasing, due to their promising clues on the origin of the Solar System, e.g. their albedos and sizes can provide insight into the protosolar nebula. The new scientific mission scheduled to launch in 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), provides an opportunity for observation of asteroids. In this thesis,...