🎓 A 4-year full PhD scholarship

Unlock an incredible opportunity to exploring space and Satellite (CubeSat) with a full PhD scholarship. Embrace your passion for innovation and discovery with a full PhD scholarship, covering tuition fees (at the home student rate) and an impressive stipend of £18,622. per year. This full PhD scholarship is a gateway to joining the £50M research centre (Northeast Space Skills and Technology, NESST) sponsored by UK Space Agency, Lockheed Martin, etc. to shape the future of space exploration.

Brief

In line with the Northumbria University's [Space Interdisciplinary Research Theme (IDRT)](https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/research/idrts/space/) and the recently announced £50M research centre ([Northeast Space Skills and Technology, NESST](https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/news-events/news/north-east-space-skills-and-technology-centre/), this IDRT PhD scholarship is to reuse the existing laser communication link in CubeSats for precise timing and ranging, thus to provide a purely software-based zero-payload solution to the space weather monitoring If you're passionate about pushing boundaries and seeking to contribute to groundbreaking advancements, seize this chance to embark on an exhilarating journey.

You will join the interdisciplinary research team at the department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering (MPEE), featured with blend expertise of space physcial science, laser communication and time sycnhronisation technologies, to provide new solutions to support [the European Space Agency (ESA)](www.esa.int)'s [ROARS (Revealing Orbital and Atmospheric Responses to Solar activity)](https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2023/10/CubeSats_for_improving_space_safety)) mission for success. You will be supervised by [Dr. Xuewu Dai](../../author/xuewu-dai), Dr. Ricahrd Binns and Prof. Eamon Scullion.

Announcement of £50m NESST space skills centre at Northumbria University from Northumbria University on Vimeo.

How to apply

Background: Satellite Laser Communications

NASA sends cat video over 19 million miles using laser

On 19 Dec 2023, NASA declared the successful transmission of a 15-second-long high-definition cat video over 19 million miles (over 30 million km) from the he Psyche spacecraft to the Hale Telescope at Caltech's Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California. The video was transmitted by using an encoded near-infrared laser and tt took 101 seconds for the laser to reach Earth. The maximum bit rate of 267 Mbps, faster than the speed of most home/office broadband to the Internet.

This is a “historic milestone.”, as the spacecraft Psyche continues its journey towards the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, it will send high-data-rate signals back to Earth. Read more at “NASA sends cat video over 19 million miles using laser”