Department of Space Engineering at TU Delft visits JIVE

© JIVE

On 4th April JIVE welcomed a group of just over 40 people from the TU Delft Department of Space Engineering to Dwingeloo. The visit was part of the continued collaboration between the TU Delft and JIVE. This collaboration covers a range of exciting space and planetary science missions and projects, specifically those that benefit from ultra-precise tracking of spacecraft. These include several operational missions, like the ESA's Mars Express and Russia-led Space VLBI mission RadioAstron, as well as the ESA's prospective flagship mission JUICE (Jupiter Icy Satellite Explorer) scheduled for launch in 2022.

Together, JIVE and the Astrodynamics and Space Missions group of the TU Delft have developed a wide range of methods based on the so-called near-field VLBI technique. Its applications cover very diverse science topics, from diagnostics of the planetary atmospheres by radio occultation experiments, to studies of planetary bodies' gravitational fields, and fundamental physics experiments with space-borne ultra-stable quantum oscillators.

The group were given a brief introduction to JIVE as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium by Huib Jan van Langevelde, and research and development at ASTRON by Jan Geralt bij de Vaate. Following this the group was divided in to two and guided by Ilse van Bemmel and Giuseppe Cimo around the JIVE correlator (hosted by Bob Campbell), and the venerable 25m Dwingeloo radio telescope (courtesy of CAMRAS: Paul Boven and Tammo Jan Dijkema). The group completed their tour with a trip to Westerbork, led by Leonid Gurvits, to visit the WSRT (courtesy of ASTRON) and the Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork.

Hopefully, the guests have fond memories of the tour, especially the most beautiful Spring weather (which, as we all know, is always the case in Mooi Drenthe).