My first chance to be a test pilot! at European Space Agency Noordwijk

Never thought that such a big chance was coming up for me! While I was visiting my Niece (on the left) in ESA, who gave me an exclusive, and amazing tour through her career environment at ESTEC in Noordwijk.

The first moment when I stepped into ESA/ESTEC official area, made me feel like an astronaut, but also home between engineers and great technology. while enjoying a lunch break with my niece, a colleague of her asked me if I was interested in helping out with a project (with the minimum requirement to passed the VCT-1 test of the dutch airforce), which I did. I enthousiastically said:"YES! That would be really cool!" and participated on her space program called T.H.R.U.S.T. (more to find about in the document in the appendix), but in short I had to test a 1:1 ROVER (mooncar) and follow certain tasks to measure the relation between men and machine.

On the picture above, you can see where the test area is being held.

Later that week I got a mail for the planning! I was so nervous and happy to be one of the few selected people (i thought around 20) from the whole Netherlands to participate at the project.

Sharhzad asked me if I knew people who also wanted to join with an pass on the requirements, and I knew immediately who I wanted to invite: a good friend called John Paul. I knew his passion for becoming a pilot as well, so I knew he must join with me!

Below you can download the official task and purpose of the project at ESTES/ESA!

Deelname mens-machine onderzoek bedekt.p

Download P • 65KB

Best Regards,

Juda Tjoa