Registration opening tomorrow for ESA Open Day 2020
Registration opens tomorrow for the virtual ESA Open Day at ESTEC 2020, which takes place on Sunday 4 October from 1300 to 1530 CEST. Look out this Tuesday; an announcement will give full details.
To participate in the ninth annual ESA Open Day at ESTEC 2020 requires registration, with one registration required per household. For people interested in following along without actively participating – including ESA personnel – there will also be a live video feed via ESA Web TV.
Continuing COVID-19 restrictions make it impossible to let people on site in person, but participants will still enjoy virtual tours of the extensive establishment, get unique close-up views of space hardware and interact directly with astronauts and space experts.
Participants will sign in to a virtual auditorium, then be free to choose which ‘rooms’ they attend. Many of the most popular highlights of previous years will be on offer, including space careers talks from ESA Human Resources, details of ESA Education’s work with school and university students and a session from Space Rocks, celebrating space exploration and the art and culture it inspires.
![ESA Open day ESTEC 2020](/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2020/08/esa_open_day_estec_2020/22180657-1-eng-GB/ESA_Open_day_ESTEC_2020_article.jpg)
The Netherlands Space Office will present the work done by Dutch companies and researchers in the space sector. Participants can also go on a virtual backstage tour of the ESTEC Test Centre, which is specially equipped to check space missions are ready to fly into orbit.
Confirmed speakers include Dutch ESA astronaut André Kuipers and space YouTuber Scott Manley – both of whose talks were standing room only last year. Scott Manley will be demonstrating the latest version of the popular Kerbal Space Program game.
The ESA Open Day at ESTEC 2020 will have the theme of ‘ESA and the Environment’. Space professionals knows the importance of sustainability: the finite resources of a space mission must be managed carefully to keep it running. The same is true down here on spaceship Earth.