Nicolas André

 About

My research focuses on planetary space plasmas and comparative magnetospheric physics, with particular emphasis on plasma sources, transport, and losses in planetary environments.

I obtained my PhD in 2003 on the theoretical modeling of astrophysical instabilities in collisionless, multispecies plasmas, with application to the fast rotating magnetospheres of giant planets. During my early career he contributed to the analysis of the first data obtained by the Cassini-Huygens mission at Saturn, with an emphasis on multi-instrument and pluri-disciplinary approaches, and was a core proposer of the LAPLACE mission to Jupiter (now Juice).

Since my recruitment at IRAP, the Institute for Research in Astrophysics and Planetology, as a CNRS Research Staff Scientist in 2008, I am deeply involved in the preparation and data analysis of current and future planetary missions (MAVEN, Juno, Juice, BepiColombo, Comet Interceptor, M-MATISSE) and space plasma instruments (electrostatic analyzers, faraday cups, charged particle detectors) in order to explore in situ planetary environments. In support of IRAP’s participations in space missions I led the full development of a new, modern, space instrumentation platform, CALIPSO, which is used for developing new instrumentation, new technologies (CNES R&D), testing of prototypes and of sub-units, testing of flight instruments in a fully representative space environment, as well as for the calibration of space instruments with ion and electron beams in the 100s eV-10s keV energy range.

I was leading planetary space weather activities for the Europlanet Research Infrastructures funded by the European Commission since 2015. I was in charge of planetology aspects for the french space plasma data center (CDPP, https://cdpp.eu) since 2008 and I am currently the Project Scientist and Executive Director of CDPP since 2020 where I promote and coordinate the development of the Virtual Observatory in Solar and Planetary Sciences and Added-Values services and tools for the scientific community.

At ISAE-SUPAERO since March 2024 I will tackle new challenges related to the exploration of the Moon, Mars, and Venus in particular, focusing on the space weathering of planetary surfaces and atmospheres.

 News

I am applying for becoming a member of Section 19 Astrophysics of CNRS, elections in June !

On Thursday-Friday 26-27 June I will be at Pic du Midi to discuss future telescopic observations of the Io torus, together with students from the Astronomy Club of ISAE-SUPAERO.

On Saturay-Sunday 21-22 June I will be at Le Bourget for the Aeronautics and Space Show ! I will present formation and research at ISAE-SUPAERO.

On Wednesday 8 January 2025 BepiColombo will fly past planet Mercury for the sixth and last time before Mercury Orbit Insertion in November 2026 ! MEA was turned ON.

On Sunday 1 December 2024, BepiColombo flew past planet Mercury for the fifth time ! MEA was not turned ON since this flyby was a distant one.