4 minute read

6 Communicating and inspiring

Space is high tech, innovative, commercially promising and a source of inspiration for young and old. No wonder then that the Dutch government invests in space. How is our tax money being spent? What benefits does space offer our society? How can we train the next generation of space engineers and space researchers? NSO communicates about and inspires with space technology at trade shows, in the media and with educational projects at schools throughout the country.

Highlights

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→ NL Space at Space Tech Expo in Bremen

Nederland was in 2021 goed vertegenwoordigd op de Space Tech Expo in The Netherlands had a large presence at the 2021 Space Tech Expo in Bremen. The NL Space pavilion attracted a large crowd of both German and Dutch visitors. Ronald van Roeden, the Dutch ambassador in Germany, also visited the pavilion. Coinciding with the Space Tech Expo, NSO organised an “innovation mission” to Bremen and the surrounding area as a pilot. This mission was specifically designed for businesses that are developing satellite applications and utilising space technology on Earth. Participants say the innovation mission was a big success and certainly worth repeating in the future.

→ Video series for the Weekend of Science

For the second year in a row, the open day at ESA ESTEC in Noordwijk had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus. This meant there was no white and orange NL Space tent where the Dutch space sector could present itself to the general public. In order to inform as many people as possible about all the good that space technology does for our society, NSO came up with a clever trick. It produced a series of ten videos to tell the highly diverse stories of the men and women who work in the industry and in science. Stories told with the help of items from our everyday lives. Together, the videos present a good overview of what the Netherlands is capable of in terms of space technology and why the Dutch government invests in the space sector.

→ Record number of participants in the Mission X project for schools

Space is a wonderfully rich topic for elementary schools. The question is: how can you present the material in a meaningful way? Enter Mission X. In this project for schools, students get to discover everything they want to know about space and what it is like to be an astronaut. Instead of reading a book or browsing a website, they get hands-on experience inspired by astronaut André Kuipers and astronomy journalist Govert Schilling. This year, Mission X was organised for the first time by the Space Expo space museum and immediately attracted a record-breaking number of participating groups of schoolchildren.

→ CanSat competition successful despite setbacks

The CanSat competition has been a fixture in NSO's educational policy for years. Building your own miniature satellite and then launching it into the air with a real rocket; that is about as close to actual space technology as secondary school students can hope to get. Even though the test day had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus and the official launch day was postponed, the participating teams remained as enthusiastic as ever. They soldered, programmed and communicated to their hearts’ content, cheered on by their school and local media. Who knows; we may hear from some of the participants again in the future as they embark on their careers as engineers or scientists in the Dutch space sector.

→ ERA media briefing with André Kuipers

For years, the Dutch space sector had been eagerly awaiting the launch of ERA, the European Robot Arm that was bound for the international space station ISS. In 2021, it was finally time. In order to inform the media as well as possible - and the general public through them - NSO collaborated with ESA to organise a media briefing. Prominent participants in the project talked about their work with ERA and used real hardware to demonstrate how the robot arm moves. State secretary Mona Keijzer attended the briefing. She was proud of and impressed by the possibilities that ERA offers to European astronauts on board of and outside the ISS. The briefing resulted in myriad stories in the media. Soon after, “our” robot arm was successfully launched into space.

→ NL Space webcast for the media

Media are essential for the communication about space technology. More often than not, reporters’ focus is on space-related news from abroad, although there is plenty happening in the Netherlands as well. In order to inform the media about Dutch space activities, NSO collaborated with SpaceNed to host a webcast entitled “NL Space, a new orbit around the sun.” In it, representatives from the space sector talked about the noteworthy projects they were working on in 2021. A panel of prominent figures from the space sector, including scientist Pieternel Levelt and astronaut André Kuipers, was there to provide clarification and context. The webcast was well received by the media and resulted in various items in newspapers and magazines, on the radio and TV and online.

→ Minister Van Engelshoven inspects the SPEXone instrument

The Netherlands has built SPEXone, an earth-observation instrument that will go to space on board the American PACE satellite. The delivery of this instrument to NASA was a milestone for the Dutch space sector. Unfortunately, this milestone could only be celebrated online due to the corona measures that were in effect at the time. As a result, Minister of Education, Culture and Science Ingrid van Engelshoven was present in the SRON cleanroom via a video call to watch as proud engineers inspected SPEXone one final time, before the instrument was shipped to the United States. All in all, it was a memorable farewell to another groundbreaking Dutch earth observation instrument.

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