Planetary research
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology
Bringing distant worlds closer – Delft researchers make planetary research tangible and comprehensible. In this way, the general public – especially children and their parents who aren’t readily in touch with the university – are inspired to think about the Earth, the universe, and man and space travel.
The researchers of Delft’s Planetary Exploration Group provide lectures (including for children), exhibitions, and public events. For example, they bring Vening Meinesz’s submarine expeditions to measure gravity at sea to life virtually, and the public are given demonstrations of experiments and the chance to marvel at real meteorites during Asteroid Day. In the Sidewalk Astronomy project, the researcher goes among the public to look at stars using a pop-up observatory.
The grant from the Rewarded! Fund will be used to purchase new materials and equipment to broaden existing activities and make them accessible. To make the activities even more expressive and tangible – and thus lower the threshold for taking part – planetary globes and scale models, demonstration experiments, and meteorites will be used. More researchers, PhD candidates and students will also be involved in Sidewalk Astronomy using a number of new telescopes.
Websites:
Expeditie wikipedia – Vening Meinesz
Stoepsterrenkunde.nl
TU Delft – Actueel: Ruimte voor de zomer
Coordinator:
Sebastiaan de Vet, docent
Other group members:
Stéphanie Cazaux, universitair hoofddocent
Bart Root, universitair docent
Wouter van der Wal, universitair hoofddocent
