Anthea Comellini

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Anthea Comellini
Born1992 (age 31–32)
Italy
Alma materInstitut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace
OccupationEngineer
Scientific career
ThesisVision-based navigation for autonomous rendezvous with non-cooperative targets (2021)
Space career
ESA reserve astronaut
Selection2022 ESA Group

Anthea Comellini (born 1992) is an Italian aerospace engineer and reserve astronaut. Comellini completed a PhD on space rendezvous at the Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace, in France, with aerospace company Thales Alenia Space in 2021. She then worked in space navigation operations for the European Space Agency, and the following year, was hired for research and development at Thales Alenia Space. She was chosen as a reserve astronaut in the European Astronaut Corps in 2022.

Early life and family[edit]

Anthea Comellini was born in Italy in 1992.[1] Her mother is a seamstress and her father is an architect.[2] Her parents named her after a character in a television series played by Andie MacDowell, as they wanted a daughter who had the same curly hair as the character and as themselves.[3]

Comellini grew up in the town Chiari, in the Brescia province of northern Italy.[4][5] She attended liceo scientifico cittadino Calini, a high school in Brescia.[6] She initially desired to become a writer, and in high school, she won third prize for a poetry award, the Premio Montale.[3] A competitive orienteer,[3][7] she participated in the 2011 Junior World Orienteering Championships.[8]

Education and career[edit]

Comellini graduated with a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan in 2014.[1][5] In 2017, she earned a master's degree in space engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan, and a Diplôme d'Ingénieur from the Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO), in Toulouse, France, as part of a double degree programme, and a master's degree from the Paris-Saclay University in signal and image processing and advanced control.[1][5] She completed a PhD at ISAE-SUPAERO in partnership with an industrial partner, aerospace manufacturer Thales Alenia Space, in 2021.[1][9] Her thesis proposed a solution for the "Vision-based navigation for autonomous rendezvous with non-cooperative targets".[10] During the programme, she was a visiting researcher at a laboratory at Polytechnique Montréal, in Canada, for half a year.[1]

After her PhD, and until 2022, Comellini was a flight dynamics engineer in the European Space Agency's mission control centre, European Space Operations Centre, located in Germany where she worked on deep-space navigation for BepiColombo, ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, Gaia, and Mars Express, among other missions.[1] In 2022, she was hired by Thales Alenia Space as an engineer in its research and development department.[1] She was chosen as a reserve in the European Astronaut Corps in the 2022 class of astronauts.[1] As part of the reserve, she will continue to work her full-time job as an engineer and will begin training if found necessary for a future space mission.[2] Comellini's work at Thales Alenia Space entails control, guidance, and navigation systems for satellites.[11]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Anthea Comellini". esa.int. Archived from the original on 27 January 2023. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
  2. ^ a b Chalom, Samuel (25 January 2023). "Ingénieure dans l'industrie spatiale, Anthea Comellini est aussi astronaute réserviste". Les Echos Start (in French). Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  3. ^ a b c Serra, Elvira (1 December 2022). "Comellini, l'astronauta che ama Harry Potter: "La mia maratona a Cannes tra i bambini di 10 anni"". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  4. ^ Landoni, Lucia (23 November 2022). "Anthea Comellini, chi è l'astronauta 30enne scelta come riserva dell'Agenzia spaziale europea". La Repubblica (in Italian). Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  5. ^ a b c ESA Astronaut Class of 2022 – Anthea Comellini. European Space Agency. 23 November 2022. Event occurs at 0:55 – via YouTube. So I grew up in Chiari, a small town in northern Italy, and I enrolled in the Politecnico di Milano for the aerospace engineer programme when I was 19.
  6. ^ Orlando, Nicole (30 November 2022). "Anthea Comellini si racconta: "Io nello spazio? Se ami quello che fai non consideri le rinunce"". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  7. ^ Carini, Alessandro (24 November 2022). "Da Chiari all'Agenzia spaziale europea: Anthea Comellini pronta a volare verso le stelle". Giornale di Brescia (in Italian). Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  8. ^ "I convocati ai JWOC 2011 per metà saranno dei nostri!!!" (in Italian). Unione Sportiva Primiero A.S.D. 30 May 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  9. ^ "An interview with Anthea Comellini a PhD student at ISAE-SUPAERO working on space rendez-vous". Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace. 29 March 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  10. ^ Comellini, Anthea (2021). Vision-based navigation for autonomous rendezvous with non-cooperative targets (PDF) (Thesis). Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  11. ^ Maddalena, Roberta (11 October 2023). ""Il nostro è un settore meritocratico, si eccelle con passione e impegno": lo spazio secondo Anthea Comellini, membro di riserva dell'ESA". Forbes Italia (in Italian). Retrieved 9 February 2024.
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