In place for more than half a century, the complex ESTEC in Noordwijk is ESA’s single largest establishment, focused on developing technology, planning missions and testing satellites. More than 8700 visitors at the Open Day on 2 October 2016 were able to wander around the sprawling facility at their own pace, meeting astronauts, scientists and mission designers while seeing special exhibits and actual space hardware. <br /> <br />The theme of this year’s Open Day was “Breath of Life” – the ExoMars orbiter, currently nearing Mars, will be searching out methane and associated rare gases in the thin alien atmosphere as evidence of either surviving Mars microbes or a different kind of ‘life’ – subsurface volcanic activity, which would mean the planet remains geologically active.
