Detlef Koschny

    Planetary Scientist

     

    Main Research Fields

    NOTE: As I will retire at the end of 2022, I will *not* be able to mentor/tutor/supervise any Research Fellows at ESA any more!

    Anyway: My main scientific interest is cosmic dust, meteors, fireballs, and other minor bodies in the solar system, in particular asteroids. I am focussing on the analysis of observational data and the usage of optical cameras.

    I am currently sharing my time between working as 'Instrument Coordinator' for the Close-Up Imager (CLUPI) on the ExoMars 2022 mission, and supporting the head of the Planetary Defence Office of ESA's Space Safety programme. In addition, I have a teaching position at the Lehrstuhl für Raumfahrttechnik of the Technical University Munich, teaching a course 'Near-Earth objects for engineers and physicists'. Which I will keep also after my retirement.

    The following bullets focus on my research activities.


    Keywords

    • Instrument coordinator for the Close-Up Imager CLUPI for the ExoMars 2022 rover
    • Supporting the Head of the Planetary Defence Office
    • ground-based observations of meteors using image-intensified video systems
    • prepare for obtaining meteor observations from space
    • follow-up observations of asteroids and testing survey strategies
    • impact experiments in ice and regolith targets
    • testing cameras for ground- and space-based applications
    • Scientific instrument involvements: Co-I on CLUPI, Co-I on the scientific camera OSIRIS on Rosetta
    • Involved in ground-based fireball cameras, operating FRIPON and AllSky7 cameras

    Ongoing collaborations

    • Data analysis of meteor and fireball data with Univ. Oldenburg, Germany
    • Near-Earth object research with the Lehrstuhl für Raumfahrttechnik, Technische Universität München
    • Part of the NELIOTA science team observing lunar impact flashes

    Publications

    Link to my publications in ADS.

    Project/mission at ESA

    These are missions I have been/am involved in (not only from a scientific point of view):

    Missions in development: ExoMars 2022+

    Missions which are/have been in operation: Rosetta, Smart-1, Venus Express, Chandrayaan-1 (ISRO), ExoMars 2016, BepiColombo

    Before joining ESA, I was working on: Spacelab D2, Cassini-Huygens, Mars Pathfinder, Mars Polar Lander.

    Mission studies: MoonNEXT, Marco Polo, MarcoPolo-R, Phootprint, Asteroid Impact Monitoring mission (AIM), Martian Moon Sample Return, Phobos Sample Return (several) - plus several internal studies done in our so-called Concurrent Design Facility.

    For the work we do on meteors, see http://cosmos.esa.int/meteor.

    For the technical web portal of our Planetary Defence Office, see http://neo.ssa.esa.int.