Eurisy was at the Summer Space Festival in Lille!
Cosmic Chloe; François Decoster; Dominique Tilmans ; Anke Sielker
What a fantastic opportunity to engage with such a diverse network of space enthusiasts!
From young students and experts to curious minds, the event provided a unique platform to engage with a diverse audience and showcase Eurisy’s activities.
Eurisy played a pivotal role during the panel “How Space Solutions Can Assist During Flood Events.” Our President, Dominique Tilmans, facilitated a meaningful conversation between François Decoster, Mayor of Saint-Omer, a city in northeast France at high risk of floods, and Anke Sielker from ICEYE, a Finnish company that provides satellite services to anticipate and respond to flood events and other disasters.
We gained valuable insights into the challenges faced by Saint-Omer and the needs of its community, while also discovering the innovative services ICEYE offers for disaster and risk management. Mr Decoster especially highlighted the lack of data in times of crisis, with inhabitants sometimes recurring to artisanal means to measure the amplitude of the disaster, such as the stairs levels for instance. He also emphasized the difficulty in sharing the data collected among the different collectivities, which is most of the times linked to the differences in crisis management ways. He also recognized that “space technologies should be at the core of crisis response”.
Space Murales at the SSF24
The Eurisy booth served as our central hub at the festival, attracting many curious minds eager to learn about our activities and to meet the team all along the day. The younger participants were particularly captivated by the Space Service Hub VR experience, while parents – not daring to throw themselves into Space – were eager to discover more about Eurisy’s mission, and on the Success Story database, more than often surprised about the many satellite applications that change our daily lives. Transforming into astronauts, the young visitors could explore Earth from a distance and then dive into various scenarios, discovering the benefits of satellite solutions, for example for monitoring crops in rural areas.
Explore the Space Service Hub
This experience brightened their spirits and sparked their interest, and many participated in our interactive workshop ” Did you know? Satellites are everywhere!” with Eurisy Project Officer Anaïs Guy. This interactive session allowed our young public to learn the many uses and benefits of satellite solutions, for cultural heritage protection, or for climate resilient cities.
At the same time, we also learned their perspectives on the topic, and explored what a satellite means for them.
When asking: “What comes to your mind when saying satellite?” we received the most different replies: “space”, “telephone”, “google”, “GPS”, but also “solar panel”, “moon”, and “fuse”.
We also conducted a tailored survey, which revealed some interesting insights: with 50% of the respondents being younger than 18 years old, the question “Can you give me 3 to 5 examples of how satellite technology is being used in our daily lives? And how do you use them?” elicited many curious responses.
The top three entries were:
1) GPS
2) Internet/telephone connection
3) Meteorological forecasts
Other notable mentions included “study of the sea,” general “observation,” and even “playing the online game Brawl Stars on the internet,” another perfectly valid example.
With over 2,000 visitors and curious minds attending the event, featuring conferences, interactive booths, exhibitions, and engaging activities for participants of all ages, the Summer Space Festival provided Eurisy with an excellent opportunity to connect with a broad public. The event allowed us to hear their stories and perspectives, sparking new interest and curiosity, while providing a remarkable occasion to share knowledge and passion, especially inspiring the younger generation.
Many thanks to the entire Summer Space Festival team. We look forward to seeing you all next year!
