Space Exploration – Possibilities and challenges for the Future 

From graduating high school to becoming an airborne ranger, Marcus’s journey has been nothing short of extraordinary. His academic prowess led him to Chalmers University of Technology, where he earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering while excelling in military leadership at the Karlberg Military Academy.

As a fighter pilot with the Swedish Air Force, Marcus participated in international exercises and operational deployments. In 2006, he founded Intuitech AB, focusing on tactical pilot training, before joining SAAB Aeronautics as an experimental test pilot. Rising through the ranks, Marcus now serves as chief test pilot and head of flight operations.

Recognised for his exceptional performance, Marcus was selected for the ESA astronaut reserve in 2022. He joined the European Astronaut Corps as an ESA project astronaut in 2023, embarking on a commercial spaceflight mission with Axiom Space. Marcus’s journey epitomizes excellence in aerospace exploration.

Space Exploration – Possibilities and challenges for the Future 

Since April 2017, Christer has held the prestigious position of professor in Space Travel, following four years as an adjunct professor seconded from the European Space Agency.

At KTH, Christer serves as the director of the KTH Space Center, a role he assumed in March 2014. Under his guidance, the center has flourished as a hub for cutting-edge research in space exploration.

Christer’s research focuses on particles in space, particularly radiation aboard the International Space Station (ISS), and he leads a pioneering project studying ultra-high energy cosmic rays through the JEM-EUSO initiative.

In academia, Christer oversees the AeroSpace Master program, where he teaches the course Human Spaceflight (SD2905), imparting invaluable knowledge from his extensive experience.

Commercialization of Space

Martijn van Delden is the Head of Business Strategy – Europe Consumer for Project Kuiper. He joined Amazon in Q4 of 2022, and in his role is responsible for go-to-market strategy, planning and strategic partnerships within Europe. He has previously worked in various roles for KPN, including on the introduction of 4G in the Netherlands. Within the satellite industry, he has previously worked for both O3b, during which he supported the commercial launch of O3b’s MEO constellation, and SES.

Chief Space Plans and Capability Development and Swedish Army Space Coordinator at the Swedish Space Force

The military perspective on Space

Lt Col Johan Nystrom has a professional background from the Swedish Army and the Joint Force Command, and with great experience from operations and various deployments. He holds a master of war science and a master of criminal justice.

He is currently the Chief of Space Plans and Capability Development and the Swedish Army Space Coordinator at the Swedish Space Force. 

Space is a recognized as one of five military domains. The space domain has a considerable effect on combined warfighting capabilities. The presentation will include a military and security perspective on space services as enablers and a force multiplier.

Julia Weis is leading ESA’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Suborbital Utilisation team in the directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration. She is responsible for utilisation activities, including payload development and integration, on the International Space Station, future LEO platforms, Sounding Rockets, Parabolic Flights and Drop Towers. Previously, she worked as Utilisation Planning and Payload Integration lead for ISS, as ESA ISS mission manager (Increment Manager) and in various mission preparation and operations positions in the Columbus Control Center in Oberpfaffenhofen. Julia Weis graduated with a PH.D. degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Technical University of Munich.

Kristine Dannenberg is the Head of Space Exploration and Access to Space at the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA). She joined SNSA in 2004 and since then has been working with various aspects of space exploration, space science and education as well as Earth Observation. Kristine represents Sweden in several programme boards and committees of the European Space Agency (ESA) and European Union (EU). Kristine is also responsible for the Swedish national rocket and balloon programme and bilateral student programme Rexus/Bexus and represents Sweden in the intergovernmental agreement Esrange Andøya Special Project. Kristine has also been in charge of coordination of the research programme of the new Swedish ESA astronaut Marcus Wandt. Kristine holds PhD in chemical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm.

Lars Karlsson (MSc, PhD, MD) is a researcher in environmental physiology at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. His research group uses extreme ambient conditions to learn more about the normal human physiology. By subjecting healthy individuals to microgravity in space, prolonged microgravity simulations (bed rest studies lasting up to 60 days), hypergravity in a centrifuge, and altered ambient pressure in a pressure chamber, the group gains insights into lung function, the cardiovascular system, and the effects and countermeasures of deconditioning in space.

Armelle Frenea-Schmidt has graduated from the French engineering schools ESTACA and SUPAERO2 as Aerospace engineer. As a student, she immediately joined the rocketry association ESTACA Space Odyssey to design, build and launch small rockets. This experience enabled her to practice hands-on work on mechanics, electronics as well as project lead. After her graduation in France, she joined the European Space Agency (ESA) as a Young Graduate Trainee, to support the Swedish-German student porgramme REXUS/BEXUS, executed in collaboration with ESA. In 2020 she joined SSC as the REXUS/BEXUS programme manager. Today, Armelle is working with the Science Business Development team of SSC.

Jenny Gardner is Senior Director of Future Capabilities, Innovation Strategy and Portfolio at Digital Battlespace Solutions at Saab and leads on international strategy, research and experimentation concerning space, cyber, communications and C-UAS.

Ms. Gardner has spent her career mainly in management positions in the ICT sector as well as serving UK Government as Director of the Department for International Trade (DIT) for Sweden.

Ms. Gardner established, in collaboration with Imperial College London, the Saab Innovation Hub to support Saab’s UK-wide network pertaining to technology R&D and she produces the podcast Zero Pressure, hosted by the UK’s first astronaut, Helen Sharman. She is since several years a member of the Working Group of Innovair, Sweden’s National Strategic Innovation Programme for Aeronautics and the Working Group for Cyber Defence at the Swedish Security & Defence Industry Association (SOFF).

Dr. Åke J. Holmgren is Director of Cybersecurity and Secure Communications at the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB). At MSB Dr Holmgren is responsible for the public authority’s cybersecurity services, its secure communication services, including the national digital communications system for emergency services RAKEL, and the authority’s work with civil command centers and space related activities. He is also member of the strategic management board of the national cybersecurity center (NCSC) in Sweden.

Dr. Holmgren has been Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Risk and Safety Analysis, and a M.Sc. degree in engineering, both from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, and a B.Sc. degree in business administration and economics from Stockholm University.

Christian Hedelin, Chief Strategy Officer at Saab Group. He joined Saab 2018 and has a background from the telecommunications industry, where he worked for more than 20 years. He started as a design engineer within Ericsson Radar electronics and has since held various positions within the telecom industry, including R&D, Product Management and Sales divisions. Between 2014 and 2018 Christian was Head of Strategy for Ericsson’s Network division.

Christian Hedelin also serves in several boards including Combient AB, Lindholmen Science Park, Combitech AB as well as British Swedish Chamber of Commerce.

Christian was born in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1969. Christian holds a Master of Science degree from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden and a Master of Business Administration from School of Economics and Commercial Law from Gothenburg University.

Michail Magkos is a researcher specializing in Space Architecture and Ergonomics, examining these fields through the lenses of cognitive science, psychology, physiology, and engineering. He holds an integrated MSc in Architectural Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, where his thesis proposed new modules for the expansion of the upcoming Gateway station. Magkos furthered his expertise with an MSc in Technology, Work, and Health focusing his thesis on measuring the effects of architectural environments on analog astronauts’ cognitive performance and stress levels. His thesis acted as a pilot study for the Orbital Architecture (Architectural Properties’ Impact on Stress and Cognition, APISC) study, for which he is the Principal Investigator, collecting the first in-space data during Marcus Wandt’s mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Currently, he is continuing data collection with student-led analog teams and planning new missions to advance the orbital architecture study. Additionally, Magkos is investigating the potential development of analog mission teams and bases in Sweden, the development of sensors, software and methodologies for evaluating human performance, and tools for evaluating the interactions between humans and their environment.

Climate change observed by four decades of meteorological satellites over Europe: Lessons learned and future directions

Abhay Devasthale is docent in atmospheric sciences at the Stockholm university and a research leader at SMHI. He is responsible for the research area on “climate monitoring and research using remote sensing”. His research currently focuses on using satellite data for climate adaptation, in particular in the agriculture and energy sectors.

After receiving his Master’s degree in Remote Sensing from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai India in 2002, he moved to Hamburg (Germany) to pursue his doctoral and post-doctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology and the University of Hamburg. Since 2008, he is working at the research and development department of SMHI in Norrköping, Sweden. He has over 20 years of experience in using satellite data for various climate applications and research. 

Remote Sensing in the Deep Learning Era: Challenges and Opportunities

Yonghao Xu is an ELLIIT Assistant Professor at the Computer Vision Laboratory (CVL), Linköping University, Sweden.

He received his Ph.D. degrees in photogrammetry and remote sensing from Wuhan University, China, in 2021. From 2021 to 2023, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher with the Institute of Advanced Research in Artificial Intelligence (IARAI), Austria. He was a recipient of the First Place award in the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) Data Fusion Contest in 2018. Since 2022, he has been working as the co-lead of the Benchmarking Working Group in the IEEE GRSS Image Analysis and Data Fusion Technical Committee. His research interests include remote sensing, computer vision, and machine learning.

Former student at Linköping University

Albert Jonsson is a newly graduated Mechanical Engineer from Linköping University where he has been studying for the past five years. During his studies, he focused on advanced, often automated, design principles and engineering solutions. His master’s thesis at Toyota Material Handling focused on transitioning to recycled plastics in forklift trucks. Albert is looking forward to becoming a trainee at Capgemini Engineering from September 2024.