SPECIAL LECTURES & PARALLEL CONFERENCES

João Lousada

João Lousada works as a Flight Director of Columbus, the European module of the International Space Station. At the Columbus Control Centre, in Munich, Germany, João is responsible for the planning and operations of the module, as well as for the safety of the astronauts on board. He is himself also an analog astronaut and commander of Mars analog missions for the Austrian Space Forum (OeWF). The most recent of these missions took place in the Negev desert, where he spent four weeks isolated with a small team simulating a future mission to Mars. João graduated from Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal, with a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, which included studies at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya in Spain and at the University of Victoria in Canada.