The scientists and engineers of the future are now coming to Transinne to specialise in the space industry. A field that’s jam-packed with benefits for countless practical applications from which we are already benefiting. On 29 March the European Space Agency opened its new permanent training and learning hub on the Galaxia site. Some explanations are in order.
Space, a priority area for Belgian Luxembourg
Since the 1960s, Belgium has been a major contributor to space research – the 5th biggest of the 22 member countries of the ESA in terms of its contribution. In our region, the European Space Agency has been active in Redu for several decades. The expertise built up in different space applications is exceptional. From space medicine to observing the Earth, the impact on our day-to-day lives is always relevant. For Europe, the challenge we are now facing is making sure there is a new generation capable of taking over the reins of the space sector.
After the Baby Boom period, which we are gradually moving out of, we really need to rally round and educate students and teachers about the potential for development associated with space. Just as important is the idea of greater cooperation between universities, businesses and administrations. In order to achieve these, it will not be enough merely to share knowledge. We need to be able to inspire enthusiasm for the space industry among young generations.
This is the challenge that the ESA Education Training Centre team in Transinne has started to tackle. The goal: to supplement training for teachers as well as scientists and engineers so that they will be able to respond to the needs of this flourishing sector.
THE ESA EDUCATION TRAINING CENTRE
The ESA Education Training Centre is now working with both target groups:
- primary and secondary school teachers from 22 member states. They come to learn about technology, how to program robots and small computers, with space as the backdrop to their learning and their future teaching of children;
- universities looking for training to complement the beginning of their academic journey. More than 900 academics and researchers from 234 universities in member states have already been given the opportunity to benefit from a 5-day course in Transinne with the high-flying experts at the ESA, who have come to share their knowledge and passion.
And that’s just the beginning. Underlying this approach is the idea of responding as quickly and effectively as possible to the current socio-economic developments associated, for example, with climate, natural resources, energy, health and safety, including in particular via space solutions.
The cutting-edge facilities opened on 29 March are bound to make an enormous contribution to this: the e-technology lab – an area dedicated to changes in science, technology and ITC lessons; the Training and Learning Facility – a training room and optimised facility for concurrent engineering; the CubeSat Support Facility – an assembly, integration and testing laboratory designed to test satellites. The facilities include a clean room equipped with an electrodynamic shaker, a thermal vacuum chamber and other satellite testing equipment.
IDELUX’s role
To build these unprecedented training areas in the province of Luxembourg, the ESA and IDELUX signed up to a partnership on 24 May 2017. In order to achieve what they have done so far, the experts from IDELUX and the ESA have managed to put together a single project team.
The project has also been able to rely on the unwavering support of the federal and regional authorities. The Municipality of Libin has also wholeheartedly embraced the concept. With this new investment, the Centre Ardenne is increasingly becoming more of a hub for the space industry in Europe. In the short term, local hotels and businesses have already benefited from the project, and the hope is that in the long term, more economic projects will be launched here as well.
