vrijdag 18 maart 2016

Preliminary Design Review week: Thank you!


The programme was very busy, however we gained a lot of experience during this week. In the first place we gathered all information necessary to proceed to a successful launch campaign. The organisational and technical support by the REXUS/BEXUS organizers was incredible. We all left the PDR week being even more motivated than before. The quality of the education was excellent. The other teams only made the PDR week even more interesting and fun due to the international character and interesting experiments. We are very grateful to be able to participate in the REXUS/BEXUS programme and are determined that the sky is no longer the limit!


Preliminary Design Review week: Part V - END of Training week


Friday 18/02/2016 and Saturday 19/02/2016

The last day of the training week started with sessions on how the prepare for the next phase, the critical design review (CDR).  We were also given the chance to provide feedback on the programme, presentations and workshops of the past days. In the afternoon we headed down to Kiruna to visit the mining facilities and we went 540 meter underground!





At 15:30 we went back to sunlight and headed up to the city center of Kiruna. Due to the mining, part of the city will need to move to another part Kiruna. Including the church shown in the picture below.




Our last stop in Kiruna was the famous ice hotel. It’s even possible to get married in an ice chapel!






No need for ice cubes at the ice hotel, the glass is one complete ice cube!


When we got back from the visit to the city of Kiruna, the staff of ESRANGE setup the farewell dinner! We shared the table with our Polish friends from the DREAM team and Basque friends from the ACORDE team, and ESA expert Paolo!



Dinner was finished, so it was time for the judging of the snow sculpture contest. In the beginning of the week it was announced that there would be a snow sculpture contest only using organic elements. It was not obligatory but team OSCAR also decided to participate. Our sculpture represented the sun as OSCAR involves solar cells. The nose has a diamond shape, referring to the diamond magnetometer, and was donated by the Polish Dream team.


The sculptures of the other teams were very nice to see. Our Czech friends from the PREDATOR team made an airplane with a cat on the wings. They even incorporated reindeer “tic tac” into the sculpture!






On saturday the PDR week was officially finished. Tim left on Saturday as he needed to travel back to Dresden, while the others were allowed to stay until Sunday at ESRANGE. Luckily Jarda did not forget to dig out the magnetometer the evening before leaving!



After a good dinner, prepared by Ilaria, they all enjoyed the fire place.