{"id":179,"date":"2025-11-06T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/esailors\/?p=179"},"modified":"2025-11-25T14:31:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T12:31:00","slug":"e-sailors-project-launches-at-tartu-observatory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/esailors\/e-sailors-project-launches-at-tartu-observatory\/","title":{"rendered":"E-Sailors Project Launches at Tartu Observatory"},"content":{"rendered":"

(External link<\/a>) \/ 06,11,2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 6\u20137 November, the Tartu Observatory of the University of Tartu hosted the kick-off meeting of the international research collaboration project E-Sailors (The Electric Solar Wind Sail Doctors).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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E-Sailors is an international Doctoral Network that unites universities and space technology companies from Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Sweden, Germany, and Italy. The project aims to develop and test the Electric Solar Wind Sail (E-sail) technology \u2013 an innovative form of spacecraft propulsion that allows space probes to travel without using onboard propellant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The E-sail operates through the interaction between the solar wind and an electric field, using multi-kilometre-long, high-voltage metallic tethers to generate a continuous propulsive force, enabling efficient and long-duration travel through interplanetary space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within the Doctoral Network, researchers will develop new propulsion systems, nanosatellite platforms, mission design methods, and open-source software for E-sail modelling. In total, 15 doctoral candidates will be trained through the programme, gaining expertise not only in scientific and technical disciplines but also in Open Science, research communication, and entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cFor Estonia, this project strengthens the country\u2019s role in the international space community and inspires a new generation of scientists and engineers to contribute to the space sector,\u201d said Aditya Savio Paul, planetary remote sensing researcher at the Tartu Observatory (University of Tartu) and E-Sailors project coordinator.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This marks the first time that the University of Tartu serves as the lead coordinating institution of such a Doctoral Network. The Tartu Observatory\u2019s responsibilities include leading the consortium, organising doctoral training, and guiding research in the development of electric sail propulsion technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partners in the network include the\u00a0University of Tartu (Tartu Observatory)<\/a>, the\u00a0Finnish Meteorological Institute<\/a>,\u00a0Dresden University of Technology<\/a>,\u00a0Aalto University<\/a>,\u00a0University of Pisa<\/a>,\u00a0KTH Royal Institute of Technology<\/a>,\u00a0Riga Technical University<\/a>,\u00a0Ventspils University of Applied Sciences,<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech).<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The participating companies are\u00a0Aurora Propulsion Technologies,<\/a>\u00a0CrystalSpace<\/a>, Spacecraft Anatomy, and\u00a0Nanocraft<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo by Viljo Allik<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(External link) \/ 06,11,2025 On 6\u20137 November, the Tartu Observatory of the University of Tartu hosted the kick-off meeting of the international research collaboration project E-Sailors (The Electric Solar Wind Sail Doctors). E-Sailors is an international Doctoral Network that unites …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":864,"featured_media":182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/esailors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/esailors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/esailors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/esailors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/864"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/esailors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/esailors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":188,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/esailors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions\/188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/esailors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/esailors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/esailors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/esailors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}