Spaceport Norway ready for a second launch!
Dear steemit friends. Since I mentioned it in my introduction post, I have not written a whole lot about Spaceport Norway, a space technology conference and exhibition in my hometown of Stavanger, Norway that I've worked hard to help bring to life together with an amazing group of visionary and ambitious people.
Before I joined the European Space Agency last year, I was very active in a local community that organised Space-related events to educate and inform people about new business opportunities in the Space-sector. In a region often referred to as the "oil and gas capital of Norway", high-tech companies and related research groups were plentiful. But with a decrease in oil and gas investments as a result of falling prices, what else could be done with this existing expertise? We wanted to find out if the growing commercial space sector could be one example of a new area for growth. Interestingly, the idea that the city which had always been a port-city either to fisheries and later to oil and gas and other shipping industries, could perhaps also become a spaceport, caught on quickly.
To me, this was a very interesting challenge and opportunity to be invited to help plan and initiate what Spaceport Norway would be from the very first meetings. It was quite special, seeing as this was my first time truly starting up something new from scratch. Will it succeed or will it flop? Will it live up to the expectations I set and the workload I put into it?
Well, time will tell, but at least one thing is now certain: We're now ready for another launch!
Spaceport Norway 2018 will take place in Stavanger, Norway May 2018
Image from the Spaceport Norway Facebook page
So to me, this week deserves some celebration! Seeing that what I spent a lot of my time and experience in helping bring to life is catching on and building to become stronger. I will certainly do more posts to share some of the work that I've been doing related to Spaceport Norway, and what we are hoping to achieve with it, but for now, I just wanted to share my joy and excitement!
Many of you who have followed me on steemit will have seen many such examples in my series on Cool things we do with satellites. Spaceport Norway will be all about showcasing different use-cases of satellite data and technologies originating from the Space sector can have here on earth and how it can both benefit existing business and also create new industries.
So if there are any techies out there, space or science enthusiasts, developers or entrepreneurs looking for new sources of data that can be used to create new services, or supplement analytical models, then Spaceport Norway could be a place to get some inspiration and learn what new satellites have to offer.
Or if any of my new traveller and photography friends want an opportunity to visit the fjords and see the Pulpit rock, give me a message and perhaps I could arrange a trip from the city during the weekend before the conference when I am likely to be home.
The pulpit rock in "Lysefjorden", one of the most famous tourist attractions in Norway close to Stavanger
image source FJORD Norway
If you're interested in following the progress on Spaceport Norway, you might want to follow it on different social media channels:
On Facebook
On Twitter
Or stay tuned to more updates coming from my steemit blog here of course :)
Me at the first edition of Spaceport Norway in June earlier this year
Thank you all for reading my posts, I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have!
Steem on :)
@fredrikaa
Cool! Maybe you have mentioned it in some posts before I started following you, but why are you that into the space space? According to my understanding you are an economist by education. Just curious:)
You got that right, I went to business school and specialized in Economic Analysis, so what's up with this space stuff? Well, I guess the whole story would require a post of it's own. But long story short: I want to work building the future and help push the boundaries of what is possible to do. And I see space as a natural arena to push technologies and our scientific understanding of the world to obtain new tools necessary to build things better, faster and stronger also here on earth.
But yeah, if I had gotten my interest in space 2 years earlier than when I did, I probably would have studied physics or engineering.
vote my bogle
vote my bogle
Congratulations, Fredik!
From what I got during our conversations at Steemfest², you're a quite intelligent and determined person. I cross my fingers for you and your project and hope that your efforts will pay off in the end. Mostly life is like that: we get what we give - and also what we deserve :-)
Also I'd love to be one of these 'new traveller and photography friends'. Since I spent big part of my childhood in Norway, I should refresh my memory one day :-)
Keeping in touch.
Cheers, Marly -
Hey Marly! Great hearing from you :)
Indeed that's how life is (most of the time anyways), but then after giving, giving and giving, it's always nice to then see that you also get something ;)
You certainly are "one of those" ^^, would be cool to show you my place someday! Stavanger is also one of the best places to surf in Norway, so it has that as a way to attract you as well I suppose ;)
See you around!
Fredrik
Sounds perfect to me :-)
Safe trip home and we'll keep in touch!
Marly -
I have never been to Norway. If I ever go there, I hope you will organize a tour for me. I am not directly working on space, but I am totally interested in this ;)
And in turn, you organize a tour for ME at the LHC =D
I already promised that I will try to organize a steemstem meeting there in 2019 :)
You would be very welcome @lemouth ;) and you too @mobbs !
You can get to see much of the good stuff simply by coming to Stavanger: The fjords, free and open mountains to hike wherever you want, as well as the seas and the beaches. However if you were to truly vist Norway, you would have to give both the west coast (driving from Stavanger to Bergen), northern Norway (Tromsø and Lofoten) and also eastern Norway (Oslo) a visit.
But with your busy life, I assume getting most of the goods in one place, i.e Stavanger, would be the most practical :P
I always vote for the easiest. It really depends whether I am there for vacation or work ^^
I hope to visit the Pulpit Rock in the spring when I’ve made it to Europe. Finishing up S.E. Asia this month, then headed to Nepal for two weeks to do A Nurse Volunteer trek into villages. The spaceport sounds awesome. I especially like that it’s called a spaceport. Makes me think of the promise of jumping on a spaceship and taking a weekend trip to the moon.
So it seems to me that the main area will be satelite services and launching satelites for companies. But here is my question then; Isnt there some inumerable satelites both active and inactive floating up there that makes it hard to do launches at some times? not to mention debre from rocket launches of all kinds thats orbiting earth. Is there any action being taken to clean this stuff up ? Is that something that is being looked at? Or am i totally missinformed about that issue?
Awesome ! Let me power down to buy the plane tickets ! I'll probably be here.
It is not that expensive if you book early ;)
We're also building bridges with a lot of IT companies who could benefit from the data. So perhaps an opportunity also to meet with them and see if there's an opportunity for you in Norway? The Norwegian Calculating Central is working on some cool projects to use machine learning to get better and better at recognizing cars and learning traffic patterns which are again measured up against data on air quality in different areas of the cities etc. A lot of cool stuff being done :)
Why not makin ICO from this?
Thank you for sharing useful information over Steemit. I hope you are even more successful by making more successful and useful writings.
Thanks and Best Regards
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