The space astronomy activities carried out by INSA are divided in.

Dedication to ESA’s Space and Earth Observation Missions

With presence in the scientific and operation teams of the astronomy and planetary missions such as XMM/Newton, Herschel, Beppi Colombo, SMART-1 and SMOS.

INSA personnel tasks cover:

• Pre-launch phase: pointing modes and their calibration, instrument alignment, support to scientists at the preparation of observation proposals and their management, development of the
  automatic data processing tools, use of simulators and design of the various validation tests, etc.
   
• Maintenance and support once the satellite is launched: monitoring and calibration of the platform and payload subsystems, user community support, development of the interactive data processing tools, monitoring and analysis of the data quality, instrument maintenance and telemetry analysis, preparation of non-routinary observations and maneuvers etc.

Moreover, INSA actively participates in the formation and management of the science archives of the different projects, as well as in the Virtual Observatory from the ESA (ESA-VO) and the Spanish side (SVO). 

Topics covered by our staff include:

• Stellar astronomy (last phases of stellar evolution, substellar objects, exoplanets and comets…)
   
• Galactic and extragalactic astrophysics (multiwavelenght studies of active galactic nuclei, Xray binaries, blazars and radiogalaxies).
   
• Studies in fields with cosmological implications (galaxy clusters, gamma ray bursts, gravitational lensing…).
   
• Surface science