Workshop "System Engineering and Technology" - ESTEC 2008

The last week of August 2008 was for many undergraduate students from ESA member and participating states a great opportunity to learn very interesting information about the European Space Agency, the space missions which are being prepared on its ground and also about the technologies which make these missions possible.

More than 60 students from the whole Europe took part in the student workshop entitled “System Engineering and Technology for Space Missions“ which was organized by the ESA Education Office in the biggest European space research facility ESTEC located on the shore of Netherlands near the small town Noordwijk.

Main purpose of the workshop was to encourage young people to work in the space industry and to give them an overview of the ESA activities and possibilities of participation in the ESA projects.

Five days were filled with the very interesting lectures led by ESA specialists and with the excursions to laboratories and research centers. Students had a chance to visit for example the Concurrent Design Facility, Satellite Test Centre, Robotics Laboratory, Propulsion Systems Laboratory, Navigation Laboratory and many others.

The variety of the lecture topics was very wide. To the most interesting belonged lectures about the space environment and its effects on manmade objects, about the process of mission analysis and planning, about sophisticated materials and electronics used in spacecrafts, about propulsion units, launchers and problems connected with the transporting satellites into the space. Also some of the ESA space missions like GOCE or Galileo were presented during the workshop as well as training and employment opportunities at ESA.

The workshop wasn’t only the unique chance to get in close touch with the European space programme, but also to meet many other students from different countries, make new friends and have a lot of fun.

Other very nice thing was that ESA sponsored basically all costs directly connected with the workshop like journey, accommodation and meal three times a day.

If you feel interested in participating in such a workshop, don’t be sad that this one is gone. Due to big interest from students ESA Education Office decided to host more events like this. The next is going to take place probably in April 2009, so watch the ESA Education website or news on the Czech Space Office website.