For the past 6 months, since our successful application, we have been looking forward to our trip to Bremen with great anticipation. As expected, our time there was filled with excitement. Presentations in front of expert jurors and many cool and unique insights left us with unforgettable memories. I would like to describe a few highlights in more detail here. You can see these and more in the form of pictures, often with our travel buddy and mascot James in the video Emilie created. We were in Bremen from the 11th to the 15th of March 2024. During this week we gained a lot of invaluable insights into the aerospace industry. We were at ZARM (Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity), where we were able to enter the infamous Drop Tower. We also visited a replica of a capsule that might be used in some form for future Mars settlements. We were also able to see a lot of technology of the aerospace sector, for example by looking into the clean rooms of DLR, OHB and Airbus where satellites are being built.
In addition to all the aerospace-specific experiences, we were also given a private tour of MARUM (Centre for Marine Environmental Sciences) where we were able to see several diving robots. We also explored Bremen’s old town on one free evening. Bremen is definitely full of nooks and crannies with adorable little shops, so we couldn’t miss out on souvenirs from the “Bremer Bonbon Manufaktur” (a candy shop). We were also able to marvel at landmarks such as the Bremen Cathedral and the Statue of the Town Musicians of Bremen in particular. Especially noteworthy is that we were able to successfully carry out our secondary mission and present our results. We could confirm that the Rotenburg airfield (where all CanSats were shot up) is free of volcanic activity. 😎 We were awarded fourth place in the final.
To summarise, the 5 days in Bremen were definitely worthwhile and perhaps we will visit Bremen again privately at some point, as the city has so much to offer that we could not see everything in such a short time. We hope you will watch the lovingly edited video, as a kind of farewell as this is our last blog post on CanSat 2023/2024. Goodbye!
(author: Neele)