On Wednesday, 30 November, about a hundred guests gathered at the Space Week 2022 Event Brno, organised by the Brno University of Technology. Among them were representatives of domestic universities and foreign guests from universities, companies and ESA. The topic of the discussion was research and education in the field of space and space technologies. The venue for the event was provided by the Brno Observatory and Planetarium, and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering took the lead in organising the whole event.
The event was opened by the Rector of the BUT Ladislav Janíček together with the Mayor of the city Markéta Vaňková, the Dean of the Faculty of Science of Masaryk University Tomáš Kašparovský and the Director of the Department of Intelligent Transport Systems, Space Activities and Research, Development and Innovation of the Ministry of Transport Václav Kobera.
The first keynote speaker of the day was Thu Jennifer Ngo-Anh from the European Space Agency, who spoke about ESA's plans for further human spaceflight. There were also questions for the newest member of the ESA astronaut reserve team, Czech Aleš Svoboda. The second keynote speaker was Norbert Werner from Masaryk University.
The programme also included a panel discussion with representatives of companies from the space industry and a discussion on education and science related to space exploration. Among others, Miloslav Druckmüller, a top expert in solar corona image processing, spoke on behalf of the BUT and was remotely joined by his colleague Shadia Habbal from the University of Hawaiʻi.
"This event, organised at the time of the Czech EU Council Presidency, provides an opportunity to present the concrete results and potential of space research and education carried out at the Brno University of Technology and other Czech partner universities within the Association of Research Universities of the Czech Republic. It not only provides an opportunity for industry and practitioners to learn about everything important that drives the space sector in the Czech Republic, but also to create new business opportunities and business partnerships," said Ladislav Janicek, Rector of the Brno University of Technology, commenting on the event.
You can find a record of a live stream from the event on our YouTube channel.