Register: Open Day for visitors with disabilities
Registration has begun for the ESA Open Day at ESTEC on Saturday 1 October, open to people with disabilities. ESA’s ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, will be open from 10:00 to 14:00, giving visitors with disabilities the opportunity to tour this leading European space establishment at their own pace. The event will conclude with a talk by ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer.
To attend the ESA Open Day at ESTEC for people with disabilities, please register for a ticket here. Visitors can register themselves and a single carer to accompany them, if needed. No larger group registrations are possible.
The visitor route has been designed to include rest areas with refreshments available approximately every 150 m or so, and visitors will be able to choose whether to venture along the entire route or just part of it. The route’s door widths are standard for wheelchair accessibility.
Parking will be available on site at ESTEC for visitors during the Saturday 1 October event.
Saturday’s Open Day in the ESTEC main building will include stands from ESA’s Earth Observation Navigation and Space Transportation Directorates – including a scale model Ariane rocket that can be touched by visitors, as well as seen – as well representatives from ESA’s Human Resources explaining how to make space your career. An exhibit by ESA’s Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory will detail the work done to test all the key technologies and materials used to manufacture satellites and spacecraft.
Visitors can then visit the Erasmus building, which is ESTEC’s centre for human spaceflight, to see attractions including a replica of ESA’s Columbus orbital laboratory, attached to the International Space Station, a support facility for the European Robotic Arm now serving aboard the ISS and the Planetary Robotics Laboratory, evaluating rovers built for Mars and other worlds of the Solar System.
Finally, at 13:30 visitors are invited to attend a talk by ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, who recently spent 176 days in space aboard the ISS. The day concludes at 14:00.