Barcelona Moon Team

Barcelona Moon Team is a multidisciplinary joint venture bringing together Spanish entrepreneurial, industrial and academic capabilities. Headquartered in Barcelona, we are the first Spain-based team to enter the competition and through our official participation in the GLXP, we want to promote collaboration between the Spanish Aerospace industry, academia and the whole of society, for the GLXP is an amazing project that poses new challenges and fosters enthusiasm in a growing industry such as the Catalan and Spanish aerospace sector.

The price must be considered a stimulus, for the budget can be even higher than those $30M, but the real goal, for us, is to develop steps and synergies for longer term plans for an appropriate exploitation of space.

“Our team wants to promote, in accordance with the reality of the sector, a widening involvement of private initiative in the development of space technology and industry, also including sectors such as exploration and tourism,” says Xavier Claramunt, President of Galactic Suite Moonrace and team leader.

TEAM COMPOSITION

Galactic Suite Moonrace

Galactic Suite Moonrace s.l. is a daughter company of Galactic Suite Design s.l., created to undertake the technical implementation of this mission.

Galactic Suite Design s.l. develops and promotes concepts and designs for aerospace habitats and vehicles. The company has developed a strategic plan for the development of a complete series of aerospace experiences in different altitudes relative to the surface of the Earth, up to the Stratosphere, to LEO and beyond. The main project the company has undertaken is the Galactic Suite Spaceresort, the first space hotel, which intends to provide a complete experience of space tourism by combining several elements in Earth and in orbit.

Xavier Claramunt. Team Leader

Xavier Claramunt is an ever-surprising entrepreneur in the fields of space tourism and architecture, formerly famous as a jewellery designer. Born in Igualada, Barcelona, took off as aeronautical engineer but ended landing as unpredictable architect.

He is best known for his way of working without prejudices, his unconventional way of dealing with commissions with no fear of entering unknown fields. He defines his attitude as the one of being prepared to do things with enthusiasm while completely rejecting the ridiculous.

Xavier Claramunt was visionary speaker on the Privatizing Space Exploration sessions at the 2008 Seoul Digital Forum (IMAGINATION. TIME, space and beyond). He was a proactive participant at the 2008 Space Odyssey Institute (International Space Universtity). His work is constantly on the Spanish and international media.

Marc Zaballa-Camprubí. Associate Team Leader

Marc is a professional architect from the Technical University of Catalonia where he is currently developing his Ph.D. He attended the International Space University Space Studies Program in 2008 and he is a member of the ISU alumni group in Barcelona.

Marc’s professional background includes architecture companies based in Poland, Paris and Barcelona. In 2006 Marc entered the space tourism company Galactic Suite as Head of Architecture for the space hotel project, coordinating the team that designed the architecture of both the Earth and Space segments.

Marc is currently Head of Projects of Galactic Suite Design (GSD) in Barcelona, where he also participates in the Executive Board and coordinates the team responsible for new concepts and tourism/experience projects for the aeronautics and space sector.

CTAE. Centre for Aerospace Technology

CTAE is a not-for-profit private foundation that provides technology services to local industry, while also participating in national level and European research programs. It comprises a multidisciplinary group of specialists who work directly for private clients, or as members of integrated project teams with clients including the European Space Agency, the Galileo Supervisory Authority, the regional government of Catalonia, the national government of Spain, and the European Commission, in addition to many industrial customers.

Juan de Dalmau. Team Technical Advisor

Juan is a staff member of the European Space Agency (ESA) since 1985, and is currently seconded to CTAE to serve as the centre’s director. He also serves as general delegate of the Community of Ariane Cities (CVA), a non-profit association of cities and industries involved in the Ariane launcher programme.

Juan graduated in mechanical engineering in 1981 at the Technical University of Catalonia, Spain, and followed with master courses in business administration at the Philadelphia College of Textile and Science, USA.

Juan entered the space sector in 1985 and has worked for ESA, the French Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and ISU in personnel management, project and programme management, finance, strategy, international relations and communication. Juan has cumulated ten years of experience at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, where he was the first non-French Range Operations Director (DDO), in charge of Ariane-4 launch campaigns. While in Kourou, he also worked as ground facilities engineer for the construction and qualification of the Ariane-5 manufacturing, integration and launch facilities.

Following his graduation from the ISU Summer Session (SSP) in 1989 in Strasbourg, Juan became a visiting lecturer and, in 1991, he initiated the involvement of the Barcelona Universities, who eventually became the host of the 1994 Summer Session as well as an Affiliate Campus to ISU. He has served as director of the ISU Summer Session Program from 2002 to 2005, on secondment from ESA. Juan is a member of the ISU Faculty and, since January 2009, Chairman of the Academic Council.

Ed Chester. Team Technical Advisor

Ed's professional background includes ground segment systems architect and integration and test engineer at ESA-ESOC (Germany), flight operations team member at ESA-ESOC (Germany), flight operations and system management for the Beagle-2 Mars lander (UK), I.T. management (UK) and instrumentation/embedded system design (UK). He is interested in data systems, payload operations, system design, design methods, and operational research. He has participated in a number of space missions in all phases except C.

He holds a Bachelor degree in Physics, a Masters degree in Electronics, and a Ph.D. related to computer architecture and signal processing. His thesis concerns the theory and applications of nonlinear number systems in the context of high-performance and/or low-power computing for any digital signal processing application. He attended the International Space University Space Studies Program in 2002, was a lecturer in 2003, Teaching Associate in 2006, Project Chair in 2008, and has been Faculty of ISU since the start of 2009. He is Professor of Space Systems Design at the School of Aeronautics and Industrial Engineering at UPC.

Ed is currently Head of R&D at the Aerospace Research and Technology Centre (CTAE) in Barcelona, where he coordinates the team responsible for all technical projects, supervises new staff and intern students, and works in the management team in the general operation of the centre. He is a Member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (UK), and Associate Member of the Royal Society of Aeronautics (UK).

Ignasi Casanova. Team Scientific Advisor

Ignasi is professor of Materials Chemistry at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC, Barcelona Tech). B.S. Geology (University of Barcelona, Spain), M.Sc. Nuclear Engineering and Ph.D. in Geochemistry (University of New Mexico, USA). He has worked as a researcher in Los Alamos National Labs, NASA's Johnson Space Centre and the University of Chicago.

His research interests have evolved from Planetary Chemistry, to engineering design of space science instruments. He’s been co-investigator in some missions of the European Space Agency (SMART-1, Mars Express), has served as a member of the Exploration Science and Technology Advisory Group of the European Space Agency.

Ignasi’s current research activities include nanotechnology for space exploration and in situ resource utilization, and together with Andrea Jaime Albalat will develop the Team scientific payload to demonstrate in situ the feasibility of extraction fo oxygen from regolith, based on current technology and recent developments on the measuring techniques of the oxygen release from minerals.

Rafael Harillo Gómez –Pastrana. Team Legal adviser

Rafael is a professional lawyer, specialized in business law and space law. He lives and works in Barcelona, where he founded both his own Legal Firm and a Space Consulting Company. Rafael is member of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL) and the European Centre For Space Law (ECSL) from ESA.

Rafael is alumnus of the International Space University, Strasbourg and currently studies Planetary Science and Search for Life in the Open University, London. He is an aeronautics and aerospace passionate, and he holds a Private Pilot license.

Simultaneously to his professional activity as a lawyer, he assists corporations and public institutions as a Space Lawyer Consultant, working in different space businesses, including space tourism.

Jordi Rigual. Team Member. Marketing Advisor

Jordi Rigual is the founder of New Output, a new marketing consultancy and agency delivering fresh marketing solutions. Prior to founding New Output he was the Marketing and Sales Corporate Director and member of the Board at The Eat Out Group (Agrolimen), being responsible for the marketing and sales strategy of all the company's brands, both at national and international level.

Jordi also has a background as Danone Marketing Manager, being responsible of several innovation and communication projects. At Danone he was member of the Sales and Marketing Committee and Innovation Committee. He also is Professor of Marketing at the University of Barcelona.