Cypriot Athena Vourgos, was selected as one of the four winners in an international space competition organized by the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) entitled SEPG-AAE Dream Mission Call 2023.
The 18-year-old told CNA that at the SEPG-AAE Dream Mission Call 2023 international competition the jury selected four winners internationally to present their research paper/projects on the international conference for Space Exploration that will take place in May 2023, in Turin Italy.
They chose two persons within the subject of technology, and two in regards to law related projects. Vourgos was chosen as one of the two winners under the topic regarding law and organisation.
In statements to CNA, she said that her paper encompassed topics ranging from space law, general technical aspects of space exploration (e.g drones, international space station), to space sociopolitical aspects of international relations.
“In simple words: I created an international organisation for space cooperation; collaboration in order to maintain order, structure and fairness in regards to the space industry, whilst also providing feasible solutions for current space issues (e.g political tensions, reducing space debris etc.)” she told CNA.
Vourgos said that she has already met with the Co-Lead of the space exploration project group of SGAC to discuss feedback and future steps towards the conference and that they will meet again around next month, and with the rest of the winners, so they can go over their presentation structure in order to be fully prepared for the conference, which will take place in Turin Italy, May 10-12.
“For me, right now, the next step is to finalise my presentation structure and prepare for the conference in totality! I am extremely excited to meet the rest of the winners and the experts, professionals and the organizing team at the conference. It is an opportunity that I am truly very grateful I have achieved,” she concluded.
The winners will attend the Turin conference where they will do a 20-minute presentation on their winning presentation. Moreover, they will have a one-to-one session with an expert at the conference, of their choice.
The Space Generation Advisory Council in Support of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications is a global non-governmental, non-profit (US 501(c)3) organisation and network which aims to represent university students and young space professionals ages 18-35 to the United Nations, space agencies, industry, and academia. The SGAC network of members, volunteers and alumni has grown to more than 21,000 members representing more than 165 countries.
For the SEPG-AAE Dream Mission Call 2023, the SGAC Space Exploration Project Group (SEPG) and the Académie de l’Air et de l’Espace (AAE) joined forces to seek innovative ideas from students and young professionals for their “dream mission”. The winners will be sponsored to attend the AAE Space Exploration Conference 2023 in Turin, Italy, where they will give a presentation on their mission concept.
The other winners are Charles Horikami, a second-year law student at Regent University School of Law who will be graduating in December 2023, Luca Kiewiet, PhD student at the German Aerospace Center at the Institute of Space Systems in Bremen and Gueorguy Serafimov flight dynamic engineer.
Source: Cyprus News Agency