Public outreach
European Researchers' Night
27 September 2024 - The European Researchers’ Night is the largest science outreach event in Europe. The 2024 edition took place on 27 September. Universities and research institutes across Europe opened their doors and shared their work through presentations, experiments, games, discussions and other interactive formats.
Also Rosario Sanz Mesa from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-CSIC took part.
DUSTER: Dusting the moon to discover its secrets
28 May 2024 - Ever asked yourself one of these questions?
- What secrets does the moon hold, waiting to be uncovered by future exploratory missions?
- Why should we care about the moon? What role will the moon play in the future of space exploration?
- What is the value of investigating lunar dust?
Karolien Lefever tried to respond to all the curious questions of three very interested students, and published it in a news article on the BIRA-IASB website (available in English, Dutch, and French).
The hidden secrets of the moon
27 May 2024 - Did you ever wonder what hidden secrets are lying on the surface of the moon, waiting to be discovered by astronauts?
So did Bryce Bettens, Paulina Morales Ruiz, and Jan-Willem Burssens, three students at the KU Leuven. In the framework of their Science Communication and Outreach course, taught by prof. Katrien Kolenberg, these three students were challenged to create an immersive video for youngsters between 12 and 18 years old, as visual support to the latest issue of Belspo's magazine Science Connection, in which an article on DUSTER was published.
They came to Uccle to interview Karolien Lefever, lead of the work package on impact, outreach and dissemination of the DUSTER project.
The interview was done in English, but the video has subtitles in 4 different languages: English, French, Dutch, and German.
Carmen Pastor talks about DUSTER in a video on IAA by the online newspaper Granada Digital
10 May 2024 - The online newspaper Granada Digital just published a video on the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía. The IAA has participated in important discoveries in recent years and has been awarded the Severo Ochoa seal of excellence. Its researchers cover multiple disciplines, an important aspect for the enrichment of its work and the possibility of collaborating with large international projects.
Carmen Pastor, software engineer at IAA, grabs her chance to highlight briefly our European funded DUSTER project :-)
Europlanet Magazine Issue 6 talks about DUSTER
2 May 2024 - We are delighted to share with you our contribution to the sixth issue of the Europlanet Magazine, the official magazine of Europlanet, the European community for planetary science. The e-magazine is published twice a year and aims to highlight the range of activities by Europlanet, their partners, and the wider planetary community.
Dusting the Moon
Karolien Lefever and Sylvain Ranvier (BIRA-IASB, Belgium) report on DUSTER, a project that gets to grips with lunar dust in preparation for future exploration missions:
Students enjoy a Meet & Greet with Sylvain Ranvier on the topic of lunar dust
25 April 2024 - Today was the 13th edition of the ASGARD at the Space Pole in Uccle! More than 100 high school students, both from Belgium and internationally, came on site to launch their scientific experiments aboard one of two stratospheric balloon in the framework of the ASGARD balloon project, led by the Belgian space teacher Erik de Schrijver.
"Dusting the moon" in Science Connection n° 70
22 March 2024 - Studying lunar dust in preparation of future exploratory space missions. Read all about the challenge of mitigating charged dust-like particles on the Moon in our freshly published article in the federal science policy's free magazine Science Connection n° 70 of February - March - April 2024 (in Dutch and French).
Video presentation of DUSTER in 4 languages
13 March 2024 - We are happy to announce that a video presenting DUSTER in 4 different languages is now available for you! Choose your language and enjoy!
DUSTER makes the frontpage of the IAA outreach magazine
11 March 2024 - "El proyecto DUSTER - Estudiando el comportamiento del polvo lunar para preparar futuras misiones de exploración"
DUSTER makes it to the frontpage of the public outreach magazine of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía: IAA revista n° 72 of February 2024.
Read the full article in Spanish by clicking on the image.
DUSTER on Spanish international radio
8 February 2024 - Rosario Sanz speaks about the danger of lunar dust on the Spanish international radio channel Radio Television Española (RTVE) of the Radio Nacional (RNE):
*** as of around minute -13:05 ***
International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2024
7 February 2024 - In the framework of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, IAA-CSIC electronic engineer Rosario Sanz presented the DUSTER project to small groups of first-year
high school students from I.E.S. Pedro Soto De Rojas. The students could ask her questions both about her engineering and scientific work, but also about her personal and professional careers.
DUSTER video on YouTube (Spanish) - presentation by IAA
16 January 2024 - While space agencies prepare to return to the Moon, teams of scientists and engineers face the challenge of mitigating a major environmental hazard: dust.
The DUSTER project will study charged dust particles that pose a serious health risk to human explorers and space instruments.
This is in brief the content of this short You Tube video in Spanish, created by the team at IAA: "Proyecto DUSTER: un estudio del polvo lunar en preparación de futuras misiones de exploración".
DUSTER highlighted on the IAA website on the occasion of the first Review Meeting in Granada
15 January 2024 - One year after the start of the of Horizon Europe DUSTER project, the first Review Meeting took place in Granada. The entire team of engineers, scientists as well as science communicators came together on the premises of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucia (IAA) on 17 and 18 January 2024.
It was a very fruitful meeting, discussing the advances made in the different work packages, but also plans and opportunities for the next year ahead. Despite some difficulties, the results presented at our Review Meeting were very much appreciated by all the stakeholders: the EC project Officer, the External Expert and the Advisory Board members. This is very encouraging and important for the successful continuation of the project.
In order to highlight our venue on the IAA premises, IAA published on their website a news presenting the DUSTER project.
Open days at the Space Pole in Uccle 2022
24-25 September 2022 - During the last weekend of September 2022, the Space Pole in Uccle opened its doors to the public. BIRA-IASB staff welcomed around 8500 visitors of all ages, sharing their knowledge and motivation for Earth and Space sciences.
One of them was Sylvain Ranvier, lead of the DUSTER project, who enthusiastically talked about the study of lunar dust charging and movement to the visiting families and kids.
