On June 21, ESSIC hosted a delegation from the Dutch Space Innovation Mission, a consortium of government, academic, and industry sectors organized by the Netherlands Space Office. The meeting was coordinated by the University of Maryland Office of International Affairs and the Netherlands Embassy. The delegation consists of directors, lead engineers and business developers of the Dutch space sector focusing on new space and upstream high-tech components and equipment, knowledge institutes and representatives of the Netherlands Space Office including the director. For this visit, they sought to meet with technology specialists and high-level representatives in the US space ecosystem.
Ralph Ferraro, ESSIC Associate Director, gave an overview of ESSIC and some examples of satellite based activities that ESSIC is engaged in. The focus was on satellite calibration and its impact on derived products ranging from weather to climate scales. A round table discussion followed, with each member of the consortium briefly describing their research focus and potential interest in collaborating with ESSIC. This included sensor technology development (with an emphasis on CubeSats), innovative data processing solutions, research and development focusing on societal impacts and applications of the remotely sensed data.
Some immediate collaborations were discussed, which included their participation in the ESSIC Seminar Series and ESSIC hosting visits from graduate students from the Netherlands. The Netherlands embassy will coordinate follow-on activities through the UMD Office of International Affairs Office.
