Oriol Gásquez Garcia

STEAMakers aims to nspire youth around the world to pursue careers that embrace STEAM.

We achieve this by harnessing the arts along with traditional STEM to create uniquely branded and bespoke STEAM Kits that weave companies' brands into beautiful and engaging journeys leaving lasting impressions.

Contribution: proposal preparation (planning and writing), contract management and financial tracking, project management, communication flow with the European Space Agency, technical tasks related to space systems engineering.

Project Summary: In the framework of the MELiSSA project, this contract with ESA aims to advance the field of packaging of food and human waste in space, one of the steps required to achieve a closed-loop Life Support System for enable long-term human space… Show more

Contribution: proposal preparation (planning and writing), contract management and financial tracking, project management, communication flow with the European Space Agency, technical tasks related to space systems engineering.

Project Summary: In the framework of the MELiSSA project, this contract with ESA aims to advance the field of packaging of food and human waste in space, one of the steps required to achieve a closed-loop Life Support System for enable long-term human space exploration.

The objectives of this project are:
- To establish preliminary requirements for biodegradable packaging materials for both metabolic waste and food containment;
- To review, study and select biodegradable materials, usable for both metabolic waste and food containment;
- To asses biodegradability of selected materials, identify biodegradation products and assess their toxicity towards processes used within MELiSSA;
- To conclude on the best suited materials for both metabolic waste and food containment. Show less

Contribution: project management, financial tracking, technical tasks related to aerospace requirements definition.

Project Summary: the SMARTERSHIELD project aims to eliminate the hazards associated with the existence of ice on a lifting or stabilizing surface. The ice accretion increases the aircraft weight, which combined with the reduction of lift, can imply an important increase of the necessary energy to lift the aircraft. SMARTERSHIELD is considering all the possible innovative… Show more

Contribution: project management, financial tracking, technical tasks related to aerospace requirements definition.

Project Summary: the SMARTERSHIELD project aims to eliminate the hazards associated with the existence of ice on a lifting or stabilizing surface. The ice accretion increases the aircraft weight, which combined with the reduction of lift, can imply an important increase of the necessary energy to lift the aircraft. SMARTERSHIELD is considering all the possible innovative technologies and concepts that could be useful to accomplish a high efficient new smart erosion shield. Show less

Contribution: project management, financial tracking, organization of a workshop together with the national law enforcement body of Catalonia to gather feedback from experts at EU level.

Project Summary: The concept of the proposed project lies in the development of lightweight and flexible protective clothing, incorporating smart functionalities and designated for law enforcement authorities. Up to now, research on the protective gear of this group concentrated on the ballistic… Show more

Contribution: project management, financial tracking, organization of a workshop together with the national law enforcement body of Catalonia to gather feedback from experts at EU level.

Project Summary: The concept of the proposed project lies in the development of lightweight and flexible protective clothing, incorporating smart functionalities and designated for law enforcement authorities. Up to now, research on the protective gear of this group concentrated on the ballistic properties of the body armour. However, in spite of the improvements, modern body armours still have some of the same drawbacks as the old ones, as they are mostly heavy, bulky and rigid. Therefore they limit the wearer’s mobility and agility and are impractical for use on joints, arms, legs, etc. Moreover, body armours have traditionally been designed to protect the wearer against ballistic threats and, thus, they provide only a limited level of protection against knives, sharp blades or sharp-tipped weapons. Recent studies, however, reveal that stab and puncture have become a main cause of police officers' injuries. Therefore, there is an obvious need to develop materials that combine stab
and ballistic protection, while retaining their flexibility and low weight.

In this context, SMARTPRO project aims to develop optimized ballistic textiles (both woven and spacer knitted fabrics) and apply innovative surface treatments (e.g. shear thickening fluids, ceramic coatings) to improve their performance on an areal density basis. Thus, fewer fabric layers will be required, which is expected to result in increased flexibility and reduced weight of the armour. Finally, while a main limitation is that existing protective gear is usually limited to the body armour, innovative solutions are herein proposed for the protection of vulnerable body parts other than the torso. Show less

The ESA Moon Challenge was an International Student Contest that focused on human-robotic partnership for lunar exploration as part of the Symposium Moon 2020-2030: A new Era of Human and Robotic Exploration. The Challenge required participants to design mission scenarios for ESA’s HERACLES study. The Pandeia proposal aims to establish the groundwork for permanent human presence and exploration of the Moon through a cost reduction approach, focused on reusability and in situ resource… Show more

The ESA Moon Challenge was an International Student Contest that focused on human-robotic partnership for lunar exploration as part of the Symposium Moon 2020-2030: A new Era of Human and Robotic Exploration. The Challenge required participants to design mission scenarios for ESA’s HERACLES study. The Pandeia proposal aims to establish the groundwork for permanent human presence and exploration of the Moon through a cost reduction approach, focused on reusability and in situ resource utilization (ISRU). Show less

Vision 2040 projects the next 25 years of space exploration and analyzes how ISU can remain a leading institution in the rapidly changing industry. Vision 2040 considered five important areas of the space sector: real-time Earth applications, orbital stations, lunar bases, lunar and asteroid mining, and a human presence on Mars. The team identified the signals of disruptive change within these scenarios, including underlying driving forces and potential challenges, and derived a set of skills… Show more

Vision 2040 projects the next 25 years of space exploration and analyzes how ISU can remain a leading institution in the rapidly changing industry. Vision 2040 considered five important areas of the space sector: real-time Earth applications, orbital stations, lunar bases, lunar and asteroid mining, and a human presence on Mars. The team identified the signals of disruptive change within these scenarios, including underlying driving forces and potential challenges, and derived a set of skills that will be required in the future space industry. Using these skills as a starting point, the team proposed strategies in five areas of focus for ISU: the future of the Space Studies Program (SSP), analog missions, outreach, alumni, and startups. The report concludes that ISU could become not just an innovative educational institution, but one that acts as an international organization that drives space commercialization, exploration, innovation, and cooperation. Show less

Final thesis of the aeronautical engineering five-year degree. Awarded the highest mark possible with Honors. The final report can be found in the Education section of this profile.

Keywords: ECLSS, human mission, Mars, ISRU, cost efficient and simulation.

Abstract of the project:
Sending a human mission to Mars is one of the more challenging engineering endeavours to be accomplished during the 21st century. Space agencies worldwide have the red planet as a target for on-going… Show more

Final thesis of the aeronautical engineering five-year degree. Awarded the highest mark possible with Honors. The final report can be found in the Education section of this profile.

Keywords: ECLSS, human mission, Mars, ISRU, cost efficient and simulation.

Abstract of the project:
Sending a human mission to Mars is one of the more challenging engineering endeavours to be accomplished during the 21st century. Space agencies worldwide have the red planet as a target for on-going unmanned missions and for future human missions. However, several technical challenges shall be addressed before sending any human to the Martian surface. The focus of the present work is to analyse the Environment Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS), one of the main drivers of any human space mission. The use of In-Situ Resources Utilization (ISRU), which will be essential to reduce resupply needs, is also taken into account. The first step is to define the mission characteristics, regarding crew, volume and mission duration, to set the ECLSS requirements. Different state of the art technologies are studied and cost efficient configurations are simulated to determine the feasibility of a design for a human Mars mission to provide the best solution. Moreover, the conclusions of this study will establish a preliminary research roadmap to state where technology shall be improved to make a human mission to Mars real before the end of the century. Show less

The NEar Space LABoratory Team (NESLAB) is an aerospace engineering student’s team from Polytechnical University of Catalonia (UPC) which aims to develop low cost near space vehicles for multiple academic purposes such as near space photography, atmospheric analysis, etc.

My contribution to the NESLAB project was first as the coordinator of the electronics department, in charge of a small group of students. There, I learned about:
● Project and team management
● Planning… Show more

The NEar Space LABoratory Team (NESLAB) is an aerospace engineering student’s team from Polytechnical University of Catalonia (UPC) which aims to develop low cost near space vehicles for multiple academic purposes such as near space photography, atmospheric analysis, etc.

My contribution to the NESLAB project was first as the coordinator of the electronics department, in charge of a small group of students. There, I learned about:
● Project and team management
● Planning, organizing and leading meetings
● Meeting tight deadlines
● Detecting problems before they appear and implementing effective solutions
● Commitment and coordination with other team members

Later on I stayed as an active member of the team helping the new coordinator assume the responsibilities. Show less

The aim of this project was to conduct a preliminary design of an aerospace commercial vehicle, capable of performing suborbital space flight for very long range 10-seat passenger transportation in reduced time.

My contribution was mainly in designing the Environment Control and Life Support Systems and collaborating in marketing by making the video that can be seen in the attached URL.