Rod Boswell
Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, Austria

Title: Plasma Based Small Propulsion Systems for Cubesats

Abstract: Space is the largest laboratory available to physicists. Nano-satellites are becoming the platform of choice for physics experiments, for astrophysics, for Earth observations and for terrestrial communications systems. They can be seen as an extension of laboratory experiments and computer simulations: for example, plasma, the fourth state of matter, has been harnessed in the laboratory and applied to a variety of research fields such as space weather (solar physics and ionospheric physics), materials processing (microelectronics, optoelectronics, fuel cells, focused ion beams and forensic), plasma medicine and electric propulsion (Low Earth Orbit to Deep Space). The `Cubesats’ interdisciplinary platform provides low-cost access to space by universities and promotes innovation and training in space instrumentation testing and calibration, material design and systems miniaturization.

Host: Michael Mauel