Welcome to Luciano Iess's Homepage

On the left: the BepiColombo spacecraft, the MORE - Mercury Orbiter Radioscience Experiment - logo and team. BepiColombo is an ESA mission devoted to the scientific exploration of Mercury. Launch: 20 October 2018.

Guest Lectures

*** Guest Lectures on Space Navigation:

J.B. Jones, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Navigation Team Chief, Cassini mission

*** Guest Lectures on Mission Operations (2010):

J.L. Webster, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Chief Operations Manager, Cassini mission

*** Guest Lectures on Space Missions (2014):

R.T. Mitchell, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (ret.), Former Project Manager of the Galileo and Cassini missions

*** Guest Lectures on Space Missions (2016):

Space Systems Engineering Lectures - BepiColombo: the Challenge of a Mission to Mercury

Jan Van Casteren, ESA ESTEC, former Project Manager of the mission BepiColombo.

Room 15, May 3 and 4, 10:15-11:45 am, May 5, 10:15-11:00 am

BepiColombo is an international mission for the exploration of planet Mercury, using two orbiters equipped with scientific instruments. The energy required to bring a spacecraft to Mercury is very large, hence a novel mission design with electric propulsion together with planetary gravity assists is used. The combination of a harsh thermal environment close to the Sun and the tight launch mass constraint, drives the need for new technologies and makes the mission implementation a true system engineering challenge. The lectures touch upon some main system engineering subjects like mission design, specifications, system budgets, technology development and verification.

*** Guest Lectures on Space Missions and Space Environment (2017):

Space Systems Engineering Lectures - The science and engineering of the Juno mission

Scott Bolton, Southwest Research Institute, Principal Investigator of the Juno mission to Jupiter.

Lecture hall 41 May 3, 10:15-11:45

Lecture hall 38 May 3, 12:00-13:30 

Jack Connerney, NASA GSFC, Deputy Principal Investigator of the Juno mission to Jupiter.

Lecture hall 41 May 2 10:15-11:45

Lecture hall 38 May 4, 12:00-13:30

 *** Guest Lectures on Space Missions and Space Environment (2018):

Space Systems Engineering Lectures - "Cassini and the Golden Age of Space Exploration"

Images, Memoires and Details from a fantastic mission.

Charles Elachi, Caltech, former director of Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Lecture hall 7, March 6 10:00-12:00

Space Systems Engineering Lectures - "NASA’s Planetary Missions: From Design to Disposal"

Jim Green, Director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division

Lecture hall 7, March 7 10:00-12:00

Lecture hall 7, March 7 12:00-14:00 (replica)

Mercury