ESTEC Open Day 2016
In place for more than half a century, the complex ESTEC in Noordwijk is ESA’s single largest establishment, focused on developing technology, planning missions and testing satellites. More than 8700 visitors at the Open Day on 2 October 2016 were able to wander around the sprawling facility at their own pace, meeting astronauts, scientists and mission designers while seeing special exhibits and actual space hardware.
The theme of this year’s Open Day was “Breath of Life” – the ExoMars orbiter, currently nearing Mars, will be searching out methane and associated rare gases in the thin alien atmosphere as evidence of either surviving Mars microbes or a different kind of ‘life’ – subsurface volcanic activity, which would mean the planet remains geologically active.
Fantastic! Well done ESA.
I was there! It's so awesome to be surrounded by so many space enthusiasts and their families, talking to the actual people who work on the missions. So much enthusiasm and curiosity, it's heaven for me. I hope that one day they will make it a biannual event, but I understand how difficult some of the logistics are. Keep up the great work ESA and friends!
I really enjoyed Matt Taylor's talk about rosetta.
I was also there. It was a real galactic day!
Here is my german blogpost also with some own pictures about it:
https://volkerhoff.com/besuch-in-europas-groesstem-weltraumzentrum-in-holland/
er was een heel mooie rij van 600 meter in de regen. lekker naar space expo geweest 😉
Sadly, I was TOO LATE to reserve a ticket… :-/ Maybe next year.
It's cool. I have been there too. It was a great day. I wanted to show my knittings about space, but unfortunately I didn't have the chance to show. Anyway I knitted Paxi. 🙂