ASCenSIon addressed diverse research and training fields within Europe's multidisciplinary space sector. Active involvement from academic institutes and industrial partners like TUD, UniPi, PoliMi, and others ensured comprehensive coverage. The Early Stage Researchers, guided by their individual supervisory teams, focused on three main areas:
-Propulsion technology advancement and reusability: Studies included advanced nozzle concepts, fatigue analysis of rocket engines, and systematic design studies of reusable launchers.
-Development of guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) systems: Research involved exploring sustainable alternatives to toxic upper stages, integration of green propellants, and studying multi-satellite delivery challenges from a GNC perspective, among others.
-Exploration of aero-thermo-dynamics for re-entry and safe disposal: Efforts focused on understanding aerodynamic control surfaces for re-entry control, alongside database construction for predicting aerodynamic coefficients and heat fluxes, as well as the effects of rocket debris and their mitigation.
Additionally, WP5 objectives included organizing joint and local training activities, evaluating their effectiveness, and formulating Career Development Plans for each ESR. Responsibilities encompassed managing training activities, overseeing scientific communication, and supporting language learning to integrate into local research communities. Thus, within ASCenSIon, the 15 researchers gained scientific and transferable skills enhancing their career prospects.
The project led to the publication of more than 80 articles including conference proceedings and articles in high-profile journals such as IEEE, Springer and Acta Astronautica journals. All of the papers are openly accessible. From the project’s point of view, effective dissemination of information about the project was established via the ASCenSIon website (
https://ascension-itn.eu(si apre in una nuova finestra)). This includes open positions, research results, publications, public presentations, press releases and experimental raw data (as appropriate). The website was the core platform for communication and incorporates all features that enable a bi-directional contact. The website takes into consideration the communication with different target audiences and stakeholders like scientific experts or the general public. LinkedIn (
https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascensionitn/(si apre in una nuova finestra)) with 1430 followers in particular deserves a special mention. Active campaigns especially for the outreach of ASCenSIon final conference were run in the social media. The ESRs have been actively contributing to further disseminate the project by posting articles about their various active participation in conferences, workshops and training activities. On the other hand, a promotional video about ASCenSIon was filmed in collaboration with DLR and Story Runner, which can be found in the AScenSIonwebsite, LinkedIn and YouTube (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFHSew0vrJw(si apre in una nuova finestra)) pages.
