Dr. Mihkel Pajusalu is the head of the Space Technology Department in Tartu Observatory, University of Tartu and an Associate Professor in Space Technology. In addtion, he is the Director of Science and Development at Crystal Space OÜ. He entered into the space field through the ESTCube-1 student satellite project and worked at MIT as a Postdoctoral Associate after it. He returned to Estonia in 2019 and his main interest is expanding human activity into space and onto other planets. He is currently involved in several ESA and private sector projects, which are developing technologies for humanity’s expansion. Among other things, he is the PI of Estonia’s first deep space instrument OPIC (onboard ESA’s Comet Interceptor mission) and is developing robotics and autonomy technologies for terrestrial and Lunar applications with Milrem Robotics. LinkedIn profile