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52 SMT Magazine • June 2015 artICle EMPS-6 workshop was held on April 15–16 at the German Space Operations Centre (DLR), near Munich, Germany. The EMPS workshops are a University of Portsmouth School of En- gineering initiative that started in 2010 with EMPS-1 and are held at least once per year, typi- cally at one of the six ESA-approved skills train- ing schools. The workshops are non-profit and held to develop and promote the materials and manufacturing processes utilised for spacecraft applications. The modern lecture hall was filled by more than 70 enthusiastic engineers, academics and students from 17 countries, and 18 presenta- tions were delivered during this two-day event. Organisers included the ESA skills training school managers Leo Schoeberle, IFE, and Karl Ring, ZVE; Dr. Jussi Hokka, ESA-Estec; Martin Wickham, NPL; Dr. Barrie Dunn and Dr. Misha Filip, UoP. The opening address was given by Professor Dr. Felix Huber, director, Space Operations and Astronaut Training at the DLR site. Professor Huber described the work at DLR which covered space missions and the development of naviga- by Barrie Dunn eMPS EvEnt REviEw: 6th Electronic Materials and Processes for Space workshop (EMPS-6) tion systems such as the European GPS satellite system Galileo. The civilian Galileo programme is expected to include 30 satellites orbiting the earth at an altitude of 24,000 kms. This work has begun, and already Galileo spacecraft are transmitting signals to the DLR Command Cen- ter. An exciting development at DLR involves the successful construction of "robonauts" to support humans in space. Although seemingly science fiction, these robots have been devel- oped and are being considered to be sent into space in order to take on tasks considered far too dangerous for humans. During the workshop, delegates were given a short insight into the DLR Communications and Navigation facility which resembled a mini Houston, with screens showing the location of orbiting European spacecraft as well as a dedi- cated operations room having direct contact