As a pre-programme of the EMC7 conference we offer the chance to see the work at ESA's ESTEC in Noordwijk really up-close and personal.

ESTEC at Noordwijk

It is also at ESTEC that the 500 day Mars-simulation in cooperation with the Russian Space organisation is coordinated. (see the EMC7 programme for the talks of Judith Lapierre and Jennifer Ngo-Anh).

Michel van Pelt and his colleague Alessandro Atzei, both employees of ESTEC for a good many years already, will show you the places on the vast terrain of the ESTEC facilities that are otherwise closed to the general public. Your visit will include the ESTEC test centre, the Erasmus Centre (including a 3-D animation flight through the International Space Station and a potential visit of a Mars landscape) and the Concurrent Design Facility. We believe that this tour is a very nice ad-on to our conference.

However, the tour is only available for fully registered EMC7-participants, as the tour admission is limited. ESTEC gave us permission to allow only 25 participants to this inside tour of their research centres. That is why we have to be strict on who is entitled to have this experience. Truly the happy few.

If you have always wanted to see the inside of Space research in progress at ESTEC, with 2000 employees a large ESA establishment for which we Dutch are justifiably proud, this is your chance. See where the Mars Express was assembled, where the Mars and Venus missions were tested, and where much, if not all, of what Europe does in Space is started.

Again: admission is limited so grab this opportunity while it lasts, register at the EMC7 and add your name to the tour-list.

After registration at the EMC7 website send an email to Michel van Pelt and Artemis Westenberg Michel.van.Pelt@esa.int
artemis.westenberg@wanadoo.nl

NOTE Admission to ESTEC is only possible if you bring your IDENTITY PAPERS (for non-Dutch a passport or international identity card).

On 19 October be at the gate of ESTEC in Noordwijk
ESTEC keplerlaan 1, Keplerlaan 3, 2201 AZ Noordwijk

Participants have to arrange their own transport. We will send the participants a list of all the participants of the ESTEC tour to make it possible to travel together.
The tour includes quite a bit of walking as ESTEC is the facilities that will be visited are widely dispersed over the terrain at Noordwijk. Regretfully this means that only those that know themselves to be able to walk for a few hours should register for this tour.

• The tour of ESTEC starts at 13.00 hour some walking distance of the gate and ends at 16.30.
• This should give you enough time to get to the EMC7 at the Technical University in Delft-Zuid.
• From ESTEC take a bus (# 32, leaves the bus stop at 17.04)
• to Leiden CS railway station (arrival of bus# 32 at 17.31)
• to catch a train to Delft at Leiden CS from railwaytrack 9, the train leaves at 17.48.
• Costs of railway ticket € 4.30.
• The train arrives in Delft at 18.08 on railway track 2.
• The train for Delft-Zuid (Delft South) leaves the same track 2 at 18.15 and arrives at Delft-Zuid at 18.18.
• There are several trains per hour especially since this is rush hour.