Review: Virtual national trip to ESTEC

On Friday the 18th of December the first national trip of this academic year took place. This trip was all about the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) that is located in Noordwijk. ESTEC is the biggest research and technology centre of the European Space Agency (ESA), an organization of 22 European member states, that is dedicated to the exploration of space. For the national trip, Robert Willemsen from ESTEC prepared an interactive, interesting program for the participating students. The program consisted of a talk about ESTEC & ESA, an interactive session in small groups for the students and presentations about some interdisciplinary space-related themes. During the interactive sessions, the students were asked to prepare a set of questions about one of the space-related themes and they were asked to watch some video’s about ESA. Besides that, Robert Willemsen took us on a virtual 3D-tour through the ESTEC-building: it was very fun to see the building as if we were physically there! At the end of the program, there was time for some thoughtful questions from students and there was a moment of reflection on the questions that the students had prepared during the interactive part of the program. It was a very enjoyable trip and we were all learning a lot about ESTEC and ESA at the same time. We are excited for the upcoming events and next national trips!

Tharsiga of the National Trip Committee