Stephan Ulamec

Stephan Ulamec (born 1966) is an Austrian geophysicist who participated in several space missions. He is working at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, DLR) in Cologne. He is regularly giving lectures about his publications in aerospace engineering at the University of Applied Sciences: Fachhochschule FH-Aachen. Main aspects of his work are related to the exploration of small bodies in the Solar System (asteroids and comets).

Early life and education Ulamex was born in Salzburg on January 27, 1966.

Ulamec studied geophysics at the Karl-Franzens University in Graz (Austria) as student of Prof. Siegfried J. Bauer. He finished his PhD on "Acoustic and Electrical Methods for the Exploration of Atmospheres and Surfaces, with Application to Saturn's Moon Titan" in 1991.

Career From 1991 till 1993 he worked as a research fellow at the European Space Agency (ESA), specifically at European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, in The Netherlands. Since 1994, he is at the Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC) which is part of the DLR Space Operations and Astronaut Training (SOAT). He has made several presentations at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC).

Involvement in space missions Mission to 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

alt="Philae will land on a comet in 2014. Preparations for this are already in full swing," says Stephan Ulamec in September 2013. "Philae will land on a comet in 2014. Preparations for this are already in full swing," says Stephan Ulamec in September 2013. Stephan Ulamec has been the project manager of the Rosetta lander Philae, which successfully landed on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014.

Mission to (162173) Ryugu

He has also been Payload Manager of MASCOT, a lander made in common by the French space agency (CNES) and the DLR, that has been delivered by the JAXA Hayabusa2 spacecraft to asteroid (162173) Ryugu in 2018.

Mission to Phobos (MMX, IDEFIX)

Stephan Ulamec and Patrick Michel on 21 June 2023 in Flagstaff, Arizona (USA) during a break at the Asteroid, Comet, Meteor (ACM) Conference, celebrating the naming of IDEFIX©, the JAXA's MMX mission DLR CNES rover, as its two Co Principal Investigators. He is one of two lead scientists (Co Principal Investigator) of the French-German MMX rover called Idefix, together with Dr Patrick Michel. This rover is to be launched in 2026 by the Japanese Mars Moons eXploration (MMX), a JAXA (Japan Aerospace eXploration Agency) mission to the Mars natural satellite Phobos.

Mission to (65803) Didymos

Ulamec is also part of the Science Management Board for the ESA Hera mission, launched in 2024 with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, aimed at operating a rendezvous and characterising in details the asteroid (65803) Didymos and its natural satellite Dimorphos, and also analysing the artificial impact created by the American space agency NASA probe DART in September 2022.

Involvement in other projects and working groups NEO-MAPP He is involved in NEO-MAPP, a European Union Horizon 2020 project to study mitigation and characterisation techniques for potentially hazardous asteroids.

SSEWG and SSAC From January 2020 till December 2023, he is chairing the ESA Solar System and Exploration Working Group (SSEWG) and is a member of the Space Science Advisory Committee (SSAC).

Writings alt=Stephan Ulamec with Klim Churyumov, during COSPAR, in 2014. Stephan Ulamec with Klim Churyumov, during COSPAR, in 2014.Raumsonde Rosetta . Handbuch der Raumfahrttechnik, chapter on Weltraumastronomie und Planetenmissionen . Spacecraft Operations, chapter on Lander Operations .

Awards and honours Member of International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). Member of European Geosciences Union (EGU). Asteroid (11818) Ulamec was named in his honour by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Sir Arthur Clark Award, 2014. Wernher von Braun Ehrung (in German, honour) by the German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics (DGLR), 2015.

Selected publications