Francesca Esposito

I am currently researcher at INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy.  My passion for space and astronomy in general began very, very early when I was eight-ten years old because I was very fascinated by the idea that other worlds exist in the universe. This passion grew over the years and when I was at secondary school I started to study astronomy and I also bought a little telescope to study the structure of the universe such as galaxies and nebula, the moon and sunspots and so on. And so I definitely decided to study physics and astrophysics at university. 

My research is focused on the development of instrumentation for space missions with special interest on characterizing dust particles in the Solar System. I am currently working on the ExoMars project . The ExoMars project is a project led by the European Space Agency and the Russian Space agency that is aimed at the exploration of Mars. The scientific aims of this mission are to find extant or extinct signs of life, to search for water, to understand the environment on Mars during particular periods, such as dust storms, to prepare for human exploration on Mars. I am the Principal Investigator for DREAMS. DREAMS is a small meteorological station that will measure local weather conditions at the landing site, such as temperature, humidity, pressure, dust opacity, wind speed and wind direction. It will also perform measurements of the electrical properties of the Martian atmosphere, the first time this has ever been done.