The Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) welcomed Dr. Aidan Cowley, Scientific Advisor at the European Space Agency (ESA), for a special discussion on space exploration and his work at the Agency’s Spaceship European Astronaut Centre (EAC) initiative.

Titled “Human Spaceflight Endeavors: Developments from the Spaceship Innovation Team at the ESA,” Dr. Cowley’s seminar covered the rich history of human spaceflight and underlined the significance of several of its most prominent milestones.

Dr. Cowley also took the opportunity to detail ongoing work at the ESA’s Spaceship initiative, a program dedicated to uniting students and young professionals from across Europe to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing the future of human and robotic exploration. He explained the team’s focus on developing low technology readiness level concepts and idea generation with a focus on supporting human spaceflight.

“Although QEERI’s mandate does not include space sciences, space exploration remains at the cutting-edge of technological development, and particularly inspirational for QEERI’s teams, with energy, water and environment research being particularly vital to human spaceflight initiatives such as the ESA. From this perspective, QEERI remains committed to actively leveraging common interests through partnerships and collaborations with top-tier local and international partners, building expertise and research capacity in Qatar,” said Dr. Marc Vermeersch, Executive Director at QEERI.