Bern in Space - celebrating 50 years since the moon landing

At the end of June, the University of Bern is holding a diverse science festival to mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing: a multimedia show on Bundesplatz will display milestones in Bernese space exploration, high-ranking representatives from the big space agencies will discuss the future of space exploration, there will be a chance to look up at the night sky from the Grosse Schanze - and rockets will be built. When the second man, Buzz Aldrin, stepped out of the lunar module on July 21, 1969, the first thing he did was to unfurl the Bernese solar wind sail and plant it into the ground on the moon, even before the American flag. This Solar Wind Composition experiment (SWC), which was planned and evaluated by Prof. Johannes Geiss from the Physics Institute of the University of Bern, was the first great highlight in the history of Bernese space research. Today, researchers from Bern are looking for signs of life in deep space, sending high-precision cameras to Mars and observing space debris. Plenty of reason for the city of Bern to take this summer as an opportunity to celebrate space research and the first moon landing. Top-class symposium at the start. The anniversary celebrations start on Friday, June 28, 2019 with the symposium "Perspectives of Space Research", which will run from 10 am to 4:30 pm in the University of Bern's Main Building.