European Space Camp 2024 gathered 20 participants from 9 different countries for a week filled with hands-on rocket work, inspiring lectures from top scientists and engineers, and lots of other fun activities.
“After all the lessons learnt, it can only be concluded that the real journey that we had undergone was the friends we had made along the way.”
The first day of Space Camp was full of activities and getting to know each other. We got to ride the “Wideroe” which was the propeller plane that took us to Andenes Airport. The team greeted us at the airport and gave us a ride to the Space Center. Something noticeable, even from the plane views, was the beautiful Norwegian mountains that we are now surrounded by. When we got to the Space Station, we got to know the other participants and played cards before we ate dinner. While waiting for the last participants to arrive we went outside to enjoy the sun almost setting. When everyone was gathered we played games to learn each other’s names. At the end of the night, we each got our own Andoya Space Center zip-up jacket! After that, we packed up for the night and went to bed. We are full of hope and excitement for this week, as we think this will be a great learning opportunity:-)
//Arin and Linnea
The day started with a run that challenged us physically. We then attended an opening ceremony that opened our eyes to the wonders of space, led by a charismatic politcian who owned a ruined suit and blamed his two-year-old for it. We then attended a spectacular tour, where we got to see the launch sites of the old rockets.
We also got to see the first rocket launcher, a historically important object, that launched the first rocket in 1962. It was lying abandoned and rusted in the grass, which was incredibly sad :(. We also learned that the rocket had had a unexpectedly powerful flame, that had melted the frame. The Principal Investigator was old and had been up all night, and told his team that he was going to bed and that they had to fix it somehow. The team, that had also been up all night, assigned a local smith the task. Considering the current state, you can imagine yourself, what the result was…
Inspired by that majestic story, we all decided what are we going to work on for the rest of the week. We split into groups and were exposed to a lot of new knowledge, mostly theoretical and practical physics. This was an interesting experience because great insight into the real scientific fields that most of us would enter. The fine people of Telemetry learnt a lot of useful things, while all the others got burnt soldering.
After some time of learning, we went for a hiking trip, where we tested different berries. As no one got sick afterwards, we managed to go back to base. After exhausting hike we have entered the coldness of the arctic ocean. The water was freezing and so was the jellyfish that Figaro put on his head. We look forward to the rest of the week and hope that it is as exciting and educational as our first day.
// Bobby, Laura, Zofia
To wake us up this morning the team forced us to play against our fellow participants. After experiencing bitter losses we joined together for a much needed breakfast.
The working day started with a lecture about the possibilities that balloons and radiosondes give us. The most important thing we learned is that balloons are more than just a party decoration. Weather balloons are actually bigger, better and cheaper than a rocket. However the launch is not as exciting, because we are missing the BOOM!
Today the student rocket work was in full motion. We have been able to finish many sensors, and learned that the temperature array is the coolest sensor. Its been a big succes and we are about to put the rocket together. Still we are missing some important things, like the rocket’s name. It will be interesting to see what the creativity of our participants will bring forward. Even if the workday was exhausting, the outcome was very rewarding.
After taking pictures in some strange poses, we were surprised by a dance competition that brought up some hidden talents. Within 20 minutes we had to prepare a performance in our group, and we were assigned a song. The dances were performed infront of everyone, creating a very hyped atmosphere. If there is one thing we have learned from this, is that our hips don’t lie.
After the second dinner the day was not yet over. We were summoned to the living room, to be introduced to a new challenge: THE MURDER GAME!
(To be continued…)
// Emma, Louisa, Flurin
Our day started lively with a narrative-driven space-yoga depicting the trials and tribulations of Laser Ben. Then we had a lecture with Christina Aas from Kongsberg about the use of satellites and her own journey through aerospace engineering. After this, the last stretch of the rocket work began.
From the payload manager’s point of view, this day was quite stressful since all the sensors had to be integrated in a cramped time frame. The payload was fully assembled by 17:45, while the actual deadline was set two hours prior.
*gulp* – Olle, Payload Manager.
Since many of the people on the Sensor Team were done with their sensors, we helped the Payload Team out by stripping and crimping all the wires they needed before sorting and making connectors.
After finishing the rocket we signed it and named it “SARRDINE” (Supersonic Awesome Rocket Ready for DisINtegration by Esc 2024).
For the evening activity we made paper rockets that we launched with pressurized air. Some flew very far, some exploded disastrously on the launchpad. (hopefully the real rocket will fare better…)
In the evening we danced a polish folk dance – belgijka!, and caught lots of crabs in the low tide.
By the way, many people have died :/
In conclusion: a nice day!
// Eliot, Olle, Tiril
T minus three minutes.
….suddenly, the countdown stops.
You may be wondering how we ended up in this situation. Meet us, the PI Team ;)
The first thing on the agenda today was the pre-flight meeting. This consisted of a very thrilling safety brief and being handed the countdown procedure booklet, which we went through together with the Andoya space team.Then our lovely colleagues Alicia and Linnea presented the weather balloon data which had travelled to 30km in altitude! (before the battery ran out).
After a hurried lunch, the mountaineers bravely faced the arduous hike up to admire the so-called ‘best view’ of the rocket launch. We, on the other hand, chilled in the coolest of all places – the science room.
Some people headed to the bunkers to admire the walls while others stared at graphs in telemetry readout. Finally, the countdown began….
Our very professional range control officer Tea led the operations with the impeccable confidence of a seasoned NASA flight director.
T minus three minutes. Everyone froze when the word “HOLD” plastered itself across all our screens. Range control swooped to action, clearing the roads and swiftly resuming launch. A minute before launch, our PAD supervisor, principal investigator with his shaky hands (who was on the verge of being overthrown by the co-PIs) and payload manager with an equally shaky voice, gave their go`s for launch.
The rocket went WOOOOOSSHHHHH, breaking the sound barrier and in the blink of an eye it was over.
We found ourselves rushing to analyse the live data, which surprisingly was there (payload team did not screw it up afterall). Bravely facing the endless lines of code, we began casework. Some moments of lightness could be found in the lectures given by our beloved Sofia on the James Webb telescope and the future of human spaceflight (including live demos of marshmallow people torture). BUT, the sky is not the limit, it’s where the fun begins. In that spirit, we examined the mystical rocks, which were claimed to be from the Moon and Mars.
By the end of the day, Wes Anderson-esque video filming was in full swing. We closed this unforgettable, memorable and longest day of space camp with a tasty snack exchange with food from all our home countries and cultures. POLSKA GUROM
// Surabhi, Kuba and Siddham
We woke up in the morning, satisfied with the launch the day before. Of course the weather had finally become more Norwegian. It was raining extremely hard, so we had our morning space yoga in Saturn.
After the cloud shower, we had two very inspiring lectures by Daniel about engineering at ESA and… we got some amazing merchandising!
Just when we thought we were going to have some time to work on the scientific cases to prepare for the presentations later, we were challenged with an engineering task. Our mission was to fertilize an alien egg from a distance of one Marcus (just about the long jump record). While no one succeeded, Captain Sci-PI’s team got the closest (using psychological strategy).
After lunch, we finally got to finish our presentations after a very stressful couple hours. We then presented our findings thanks to the data we got from the rocket. After that we had a quick sum-up of the rocket campaign, and as an overall and very professional conclusion: it was REALLY COOL.
Sadly, the last lecture arrived, but we got to learn about the Norwegian space industry and future space missions going to the Moon and Mars.
Last thing on the schedule was a long night outside to watch the sunset and sunrise. In the meantime we tried out Norwegian pinnebrø, also known as stickbread. In the time it took to cook just one of them, we could have made a whole new rocket campaign… Some of us played volleyball on the beach, and some had to get into the ocean to prevent the ball from getting to the North Pole. Other late night activities were playing the mafia game (all praise the sausage man), doing acrobatics (and push ups with human weight) and taking crabs from the beach (they apparently don’t eat chips).
The “night” (it has never been night the whole week) was coming to an end and the sun was about to rise when we were sent to rest in our rooms.
So sadly we never got to see the sunrise and then stayed up for no reason (after a long 20 hour packed-with-activities day).
// Alicia, Lukas, Max
The last day of the campaign started by sleeping especially long. Nicely rested, we enjoyed the morning activities during which we chanted our love and passion towards each other and space camp. After the nice breakfast we went back outside to participate in a GPS hunt. We encountered aliens from different planets, wrote articles about exoplanets, launched rockets and finally decrypted a secret message to find a great treasure, hidden at the entrance of the space center. It also revealed something we knew all along: that the Space Team members will do anything to cover themselves in more tin foil.
Next, we returned to the classroom to get to know more about the sponsors of this camp, who made all the amazing and exciting experiences our fellow participants wrote about possible. Afterwards, we went to the canteen, happy to find out that this lunch consisted of pizza. Saturated by this feast, we went back to the classroom to evaluate the Space Camp by giving feedback to the team and reflecting on the time we spent together. Statistical data collected also showed that people viewed Scandinavian people very positively, and trusted them with things like survival, cooking and parenting. It also showed that given the chance, 50% of the camp would push Figaro into the lake over any of the other team members.
After this, we went back outside and took pictures with a lookalike of SARRDINE.
The next thing on our agenda was sadly the official closing of our campaign. We talked about all the nice events and several people got awarded: Surabhi made the most social media posts and Tiril surprisingly won the murder games in a beautiful twist that even Olle himself praised. This consisted of a murder that had been hidden for almost 24 hours, a resurrected murder victim and a betrayal between a Swedish alliance.
Next, we got to eat waffles with brown cheese and jam or sour cream. There were many great options, but for some reason, some people chose controversial options such as brown cheese with jam and sour cream. There was also an incredibly frustrating debate about the exact origins of the cheese slicer, which resulted in many sour Swedes. Some even complained about it ruining their entire meal…
Between this and the farewell dinner we got to prepare the amazing ESC Show of 2024.
The different groups made spectacular shows. Incredibly, they all reflected the journey that we underwent during our time here. The groups used four types of media: a play with narration about SARRDINE’s beautiful journey and the power of friendship (the real launching power), a silent play about the week, a beautiful song that they had written themselves and played on a variety of instruments that brought many to tears, and a gymnastics routine that had been practiced primarily at three in the morning the same day. There were many touching moments but they all had certain elements in common, such as the rocket launch, Bobby’s lost suitcase and airpods, Arin’s many attacks by bugs, and Laserben’s fascinating journey to outer space. The Space Team members also put on a fascinating show including a lightsaber fight. After all the lessons learnt, it can only be concluded that the real journey that we had undergone was the friends we had made along the way.
We ended this with a final ESC activity – writing compliments on plates that hung behind people’s backs, allowing us to keep a final memento and some sentimental parting words from the people we had built a beautiful community with. Hopefully these would be people that we would keep in touch with for the rest of our lives and the memories would be some we would treasure forever.
// Pandora, Eliot, Tea, Laura