Founded in Sept. 2020, the Polispace association has been working with the aim to share the passion for space with students and spread it around thanks to the commitment of its executive members, a group of students from different backgrounds who have a passion for aerospace and space.
This year, Polispace celebrated its first year of service, having fulfilled its goal to promote space activities, disseminate information about space technology, develop projects, build an international network, and promote the space sector. Since its foundation, the association has been growing up to connect students, teachers, researchers and entrepreneurs who are interested and engaged in this sector, to create a place where students with a passion for space could meet and share their experiences, and where the ones with interest in space could get in contact with professors and people working in the space sector. This way, students could get in touch with the industry and try to find internships or jobs upon graduation.
“PoliSpace started from a dream. Now the dream is a reality.”
We have established a team of over 132 students, 42 of whom are in the executive board, working together to achieve the association’s goals. The first life circle just concluded, and the current “three musketeers” of PoliSpace, the president Francesco Ventre, the secretary Lorcan Kelleher and the treasurer Imane Marouf, are passing the torch to the next board members Davide Bellicoso (president), Giuseppe De Luca (secretary) and Niccolò Bussi (Treasurer). While our first year was highly intense, it was also highly positive as we are delighted with the results obtained, especially since our main goal was to keep the students motivated, and the board members were extremely busy enlarging the association and focused on several tasks and responsibilities.
While our president was involved in giving guidelines and support to the Team Leaders, representing legally and publicly the association, convoking and leading the Board Meetings/Plenary Assembly and was working on signing partnerships and non-disclosure agreements and keeping the relationship with PoliMi and DAER through its institutional email, the secretary signed the official founding documents for Polispace, managed the minutes of meeting archive and the book of members of the association, helped to organise the www.polispace.it website by posting internship, competition and hiring opportunities for our members using WordPress for launch day, streamlined communications between several departments and interfaces such as the website by creating dedicated documents and protocols, and the treasurer was responsible for overseeing the association’s budget and investments, supervised cash management, supported proper expenditure to promote the growth of our reality and advised on Polispace fundraising strategy and financial planning.
From Francesco’s last speech as official president:
“PoliSpace started from a dream. Now the dream is a reality. We are building a satellite that will orbit the earth. In two years you will see it shining from the ground, with pride and happiness in your hearts. We are sharing our passion for space and spreading it around, giving an amazing opportunity to the next generation of students of Politecnico di Milano. We are the space leaders of tomorrow, the ones that will shape the sector in the next decades.
We are Polispace! A name that will be carved in the history of this university…And you, people. You are making that history!
The new face of PoliSpace
The new board members are already approaching their new roles involving completely new tasks and responsibilities, embarking on new projects and gathering more challenging opportunities, as the current president Davide Bellicoso says:
“Being recently elected president of PoliSpace, it is my pleasure to continue leading the association from where my friend and mentor Francesco Ventre achieved to put it. During this second year of life for the association, we will be able to embark on new projects (with a particular focus on the Project as a Service scheme) and hopefully gather funds for the association’s core mission, which is to develop and build our CubeSat 6S. I will be there to coordinate such activities and enhance the role PoliSpace has in an international network of students’ associations around the world. During this first month of the new management of the association, PoliSpace managed to pull out:
- a successful recruitment campaign. This is important especially considering the fact that people are the greatest asset of the association.
- a successful start of two Project as a Service initiatives, the development of an experimental payload to characterize the launch bay of Sidereus’ launcher and the design of the mechanical case to contain a wide aperture sun sensor from GP Advanced projects.
- a successful business analysis of funding opportunities for the CubeSat project, which has already started being implemented.
- the participation of a team of PoliSpace members to the Hackaton organized by LeanSpace, which will see our students developing the ground system interface for a Space mission.
Given these incredible results obtained over just a month’s time span, I expect many other opportunities to arise in the future in which I will be honoured to work with you all. Alatis grave nihil ”
Space is the final frontier, and it’s never been more accessible to students than it is now. Nowadays, the internet is packed with interactive tools to learn about space and even plan your own rocket launch. The world’s space agencies are also dutifully working to make the programming available to students to make their own space missions. But space is more than just rockets and planets. There are plenty of opportunities for students to get involved in managing satellites, designing ground-stations, or even exploring the science of space weather. Suppose you’re looking for a way to ignite your student’s passion for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); in that case, you’ll want to get inspiration from the stories of our members and take them as examples to pave your way into the space sector.
We are witnessing a whole new generation embracing space. From the inspiring students to the teachers passionate about space, to the space programs growing around the world, to the billionaires behaving like children, to the private companies investing in space, to the passion of the global community, to the innovative solutions for food, water, energy, travel… Space is here to stay, PoliSpace is here to conquer it.
