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 ---
-permalink: /
-title: "Academic Pages is a ready-to-fork GitHub Pages template for academic personal websites"
+permalink: /about/
+title: "About the S.O.B.E.R. Project"
 author_profile: true
 redirect_from: 
   - /about/
   - /about.html
 ---
 
-This is the front page of a website that is powered by the [Academic Pages template](https://github.com/academicpages/academicpages.github.io) and hosted on GitHub pages. [GitHub pages](https://pages.github.com) is a free service in which websites are built and hosted from code and data stored in a GitHub repository, automatically updating when a new commit is made to the repository. This template was forked from the [Minimal Mistakes Jekyll Theme](https://mmistakes.github.io/minimal-mistakes/) created by Michael Rose, and then extended to support the kinds of content that academics have: publications, talks, teaching, a portfolio, blog posts, and a dynamically-generated CV. You can fork [this template](https://github.com/academicpages/academicpages.github.io) right now, modify the configuration and markdown files, add your own PDFs and other content, and have your own site for free, with no ads!
+## Overview
 
-A data-driven personal website
-======
-Like many other Jekyll-based GitHub Pages templates, Academic Pages makes you separate the website's content from its form. The content & metadata of your website are in structured markdown files, while various other files constitute the theme, specifying how to transform that content & metadata into HTML pages. You keep these various markdown (.md), YAML (.yml), HTML, and CSS files in a public GitHub repository. Each time you commit and push an update to the repository, the [GitHub pages](https://pages.github.com/) service creates static HTML pages based on these files, which are hosted on GitHub's servers free of charge.
+The **Space Object Brightness Evaluation and Reference (S.O.B.E.R.)** project is a stratospheric balloon mission designed to measure the brightness and thermal emissions of Resident Space Objects (RSOs). The mission aims to evaluate the impact of these objects on dark skies, aligning with the European Space Agency's (ESA) debris mitigation policies to promote space sustainability. By utilising high-altitude conditions to minimise atmospheric distortion, the S.O.B.E.R. project seeks to improve the quality and accuracy of space debris observations.
 
-Many of the features of dynamic content management systems (like Wordpress) can be achieved in this fashion, using a fraction of the computational resources and with far less vulnerability to hacking and DDoSing. You can also modify the theme to your heart's content without touching the content of your site. If you get to a point where you've broken something in Jekyll/HTML/CSS beyond repair, your markdown files describing your talks, publications, etc. are safe. You can rollback the changes or even delete the repository and start over - just be sure to save the markdown files! Finally, you can also write scripts that process the structured data on the site, such as [this one](https://github.com/academicpages/academicpages.github.io/blob/master/talkmap.ipynb) that analyzes metadata in pages about talks to display [a map of every location you've given a talk](https://academicpages.github.io/talkmap.html).
+## Mission Objectives
 
-Getting started
-======
-1. Register a GitHub account if you don't have one and confirm your e-mail (required!)
-1. Fork [this template](https://github.com/academicpages/academicpages.github.io) by clicking the "Use this template" button in the top right. 
-1. Go to the repository's settings (rightmost item in the tabs that start with "Code", should be below "Unwatch"). Rename the repository "[your GitHub username].github.io", which will also be your website's URL.
-1. Set site-wide configuration and create content & metadata (see below -- also see [this set of diffs](http://archive.is/3TPas) showing what files were changed to set up [an example site](https://getorg-testacct.github.io) for a user with the username "getorg-testacct")
-1. Upload any files (like PDFs, .zip files, etc.) to the files/ directory. They will appear at https://[your GitHub username].github.io/files/example.pdf.  
-1. Check status by going to the repository settings, in the "GitHub pages" section
+### Primary Objectives:
+- **Measure RSO Brightness**: Capture photometric data of space debris and satellites to quantify their impact on dark skies.
+- **Space Situational Awareness (SSA)**: Provide observational data to enhance SSA cataloguing and contribute to ESA’s space sustainability framework.
 
-Site-wide configuration
-------
-The main configuration file for the site is in the base directory in [_config.yml](https://github.com/academicpages/academicpages.github.io/blob/master/_config.yml), which defines the content in the sidebars and other site-wide features. You will need to replace the default variables with ones about yourself and your site's github repository. The configuration file for the top menu is in [_data/navigation.yml](https://github.com/academicpages/academicpages.github.io/blob/master/_data/navigation.yml). For example, if you don't have a portfolio or blog posts, you can remove those items from that navigation.yml file to remove them from the header. 
+### Secondary Objectives:
+- **Multi-Spectral Data**: Use visible and infrared (IR) sensors to characterise materials and thermal emissions of RSOs.
+- **Comparison with Ground Observations**: Validate balloon data against ground-based observations to assess atmospheric effects.
 
-Create content & metadata
-------
-For site content, there is one markdown file for each type of content, which are stored in directories like _publications, _talks, _posts, _teaching, or _pages. For example, each talk is a markdown file in the [_talks directory](https://github.com/academicpages/academicpages.github.io/tree/master/_talks). At the top of each markdown file is structured data in YAML about the talk, which the theme will parse to do lots of cool stuff. The same structured data about a talk is used to generate the list of talks on the [Talks page](https://academicpages.github.io/talks), each [individual page](https://academicpages.github.io/talks/2012-03-01-talk-1) for specific talks, the talks section for the [CV page](https://academicpages.github.io/cv), and the [map of places you've given a talk](https://academicpages.github.io/talkmap.html) (if you run this [python file](https://github.com/academicpages/academicpages.github.io/blob/master/talkmap.py) or [Jupyter notebook](https://github.com/academicpages/academicpages.github.io/blob/master/talkmap.ipynb), which creates the HTML for the map based on the contents of the _talks directory).
+## Background
 
-**Markdown generator**
+The S.O.B.E.R. project team was formed during the ESA Academy Space Debris Training Course held in 2024 in Belgium. The initiative focuses on supporting ESA's objectives to protect "dark skies" by analysing light pollution caused by RSOs. This mission is part of ESA’s broader effort to reduce artificial light pollution, ensuring the long-term sustainability of the orbital environment.
 
-The repository includes [a set of Jupyter notebooks](https://github.com/academicpages/academicpages.github.io/tree/master/markdown_generator
-) that converts a CSV containing structured data about talks or presentations into individual markdown files that will be properly formatted for the Academic Pages template. The sample CSVs in that directory are the ones I used to create my own personal website at stuartgeiger.com. My usual workflow is that I keep a spreadsheet of my publications and talks, then run the code in these notebooks to generate the markdown files, then commit and push them to the GitHub repository.
+Our international collaboration includes academic and industry experts from Canada and Europe, with Telops contributing infrared sensors and engineering support. By gathering high-quality, high-altitude data, we aim to support ESA's goals for sustainable space operations and enhance our understanding of space debris behaviour.
 
-How to edit your site's GitHub repository
-------
-Many people use a git client to create files on their local computer and then push them to GitHub's servers. If you are not familiar with git, you can directly edit these configuration and markdown files directly in the github.com interface. Navigate to a file (like [this one](https://github.com/academicpages/academicpages.github.io/blob/master/_talks/2012-03-01-talk-1.md) and click the pencil icon in the top right of the content preview (to the right of the "Raw | Blame | History" buttons). You can delete a file by clicking the trashcan icon to the right of the pencil icon. You can also create new files or upload files by navigating to a directory and clicking the "Create new file" or "Upload files" buttons. 
-
-Example: editing a markdown file for a talk
-![Editing a markdown file for a talk](/images/editing-talk.png)
-
-For more info
-------
-More info about configuring Academic Pages can be found in [the guide](https://academicpages.github.io/markdown/), the [growing wiki](https://github.com/academicpages/academicpages.github.io/wiki), and you can always [ask a question on GitHub](https://github.com/academicpages/academicpages.github.io/discussions). The [guides for the Minimal Mistakes theme](https://mmistakes.github.io/minimal-mistakes/docs/configuration/) (which this theme was forked from) might also be helpful.
+For more information about the project and our ongoing efforts, feel free to explore the rest of the website.