Technical Tours

Registration for the tours will be available on-site at the conference, at a first-come, first-serve basis.

AMTA Technical Tour
Visit to ESA-ESTEC site, including SC antenna test facilities

Tuesday 8 April 14:00-17:00

The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.

ESA is an international organisation with 20 Member States. By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, it can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country.

The European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, is the largest ESA establishment, a test centre and hub for European space activities, responsible for the technical preparation and management of ESA space projects and providing technical support to ESA’s satellite, space exploration and human spaceflight activities.  The ESTEC Test Centre is the largest centre of its kind in Europe, and one of the largest in the world.

Among the various facilities, a Large Space Simulator (LSS) is Europe's single largest vacuum chamber.  It is a cylindrical container with a 15m height and 10m diameter.  The Simulator is used to test full-size spacecraft in representative space conditions.

The Test Centre also includes Antenna measurement facilities a small size Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR) for reduced size object testing and a large hybrid antenna test facility equipped with both a near field system covering 400MHz to 50 GHz and a large Compact Payload Test Range.

The visit will also include a tour of the Erasmus Highbay Hall and Virtual Reality Theatre. 

The Erasmus Centre’s exhibition area hosts a 1/10 scale model of the complete International Space Station and full size models of the European Columbus and the Russian Zvezda modules.  In the High Bay are also located a Russian Foton capsule that has flown in space, a demonstration model of a drop tower, a parabolic flight demonstrator and training modules for practical demonstration, which allow visitors to familiarise themselves with the operational environments of the main Columbus experiment facilities. In the Virtual Reality Theatre visitors can experience a 3-D flight around and through the ISS. 

The number of participants is limited.

This tour is sponsored by AMTA.

Erasmus University Medical Center

Thursday 10 April (time TBC)

During the visit to the Radiation Oncology department of the Cancer Institute of Erasmus University Medical Center you will have the opportunity to see the most advanced equipment used in hyperthermia and radiation oncology. The BSD 2000 system (picture) is being used to induce hyperthermia (heat) to cancer in the pelvic region using phased-array radiofrequency technology. Using this devise, we (and others) showed significant improved therapeutic results of hyperthermia when added to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy. The visit to the Cyberknife (picture) allows to see the robotic equipment which is being exploited for precision radiation to targets in e.g. the brains (static) and lungs (movement by breathing).