Over the past 30 years, Luxembourg has become home to a dynamic and expansive space sector, spearheaded by satellite giant SES. After launching the SpaceResources.lu initiative in 2016, the country has also attracted a growing number of “new space” companies engaged in the exploitation and use of space resources. The Space Master programme, which has been set up by the University of Luxembourg in collaboration with the Luxembourg Space Agency, will contribute to developing the specific skills needed to pioneer a new and sustainable space industry in Luxembourg.
“The Interdisciplinary Space Master further reinforces the dynamism of the national sector driven by the SpaceResources.lu initiative and the appeal of space and its potential,” said Luxembourg’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy Étienne Schneider when presenting the programme on 15 February. “By training skilled and business-minded space experts, the Master programme blends in with the Luxembourg government’s objective to become Europe’s hub for NewSpace activities, in particular in the field of exploration and use of resources in space.”
A unique mix
This unique Master programme aims to give participants who already have an engineering or scientific background additional technical expertise in areas needed to support Luxembourg’s space industry. The programme will offer an innovative mix of business and technology teaching and span from rocket science to the management of space businesses.
“We will give the students tools in robotics, data science and signal processing to really understand what is important about the space environment,” said University Rector Professor Stephan Pallange. “We will add a series of classes in business, law and entrepreneurship so that they can start their own business if they feel like it.”
Industry input
To ensure that the programme meets business requirements, it has been developed with input from important national and international public and industry players in the space sector. Some of these companies endorse the programme by offering internships to students. “We have had very good feedback about the way the programme is designed,” Professor Pallange confirmed, and underlined that “we are confident that we will have a very nice cohort of students starting in September”.
Photo credit: University of Luxembourg