Portugal

Since 1998, when Portugal joined as an ESA (European Space Agency) and later as an ESO (European Southern Observatory) member state, space industry and awareness started to grow, though slowly. Most people still see space as being an astronaut, but new generations are looking at it as a source of opportunities for the future. However, most enthusiasts still leave the country at some point of their studies/work to search for better opportunities.

Industry and Academia

There are quite a few small companies working in space sector, but always as subcontractors of other subcontractors. The space opportunities and activities are also monitored in parallel by a governmental entity, whose main role is to ease communication between these companies and the main european space players, like ESA and the European Commission.

Regarding universities, there is one degree in aerospace engineering and a few in astronomy or astrophysics, normally as a study branch of major physics degrees. There are however many other universities that do some research on the space area, more specifically in other engineering areas, like mechanical or electronics engineering.

Student Activities and Projects

There are two main student space associations with representation in Portugal: Euroavia and SSETI. The first one has two local groups, one at IST, Lisboa and another at UBI, Covilhã. SSETI is more recent and growing. There is one team in IST and at least two teams in FEUP, Porto, currently participating in designing and building a student micro-satellite.