We catch up with our Space Trucker Rosita after a busy week touring Denmark and Sweden.
Outside Steno Museum. Image courtesy J. Makinen.
Our Denmark tour started with two days in Aarhus. Ole J Knudsen from Steno Museum, together with three students, were on hand to give lectures and cook comets. In addition, Kasper and Hans joined us from Terma, supporting me in the truck and adding to the presentation with a lecture about the journey of our Rosetta, how a mission like this works and the challenges it has faced on its way to the comet.
The truck was open to visiting students and anyone passing by. We had all kinds of public: gardeners, hobby astronomers, kids, pensioners. At the end of the day, Terma had invited their own people – staff from Steno Museet, people from the municipality and the University. It was a very long but good day.
The following day was similar and we had about 800 people visiting us, in addition media showed up – both written press and TV.
Then we were off to Copenhagen, and Cecilie Tornoe from the Danish Ministry joined us on our way; it’s always nice with an additional passenger. A few hours later we arrived at DTU, the Danish Technical University, where Carol Oxborne was waiting for us in pouring rain. The dedication from people who have organised this tour with us has been absolutely amazing!
The next day we were joined again by Kasper and Hans from Terma, to give lectures for students and other interested people at the university library. It was a beautiful location, and even a webstream was provided for those who didn’t have the time to come along in person. People continue to be fascinated about the mission – as an example, while talking about Rosetta with our taxi driver on our way to DTU, he got so fascinated that he forgot to drive when the light changed to green!
Young space enthusiasts sitting on the model comet with ESA Kids mascot Paxi in Copenhagen. Image courtesy: J. Makinen.
After three days in Denmark we crossed the border to Sweden again. Travelling with the ferry from Helsingör to Helsingborg, we had quite a drive before reaching our next destination: Linköping. Arriving at around midnight, in a deserted schoolyard (a little spooky!), we were grateful that the staff at Folkunga skolan had marked where we should park our truck. The next day was somewhat of a marathon with 14 school classes from Folkunga and Berzelius, but it was a great day of course. It is something special when you give a presentation to young people and realise how fascinating they find our mission, asking lots and lots of questions, and also doing well in our quiz.
The next two days we again received school groups and as soon as we opened the truck we were overwhelmed by little children all wanting to visit us.
It was the last part of the Rosetta tour for me. All in, a great 9 days even if it is tough to spend so much time on the road. You get a different perspective for the guys who spend longer doing this. But the tour continues…Finland get ready it is your time again to meet and greet Rosetta!
The tour has just two days left. Find it in Jyväskylä, Are Square today and Seinäjoki, Kauppatori tomorrow. Follow on Twitter using the hashtag #RosettaTour .
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