Taking place in the perfectly matching Institute of Space Systems (IRS) on the Campus of the University of Stuttgart on a sunny Sunday the 17th of July, international participants with diverse backgrounds met to present their space projects or to discuss their opinions about space. For all participants, it was connected by the topic “Students meet Experts” and for 40 of them it was intended to be the introduction to a full week of hard work as participants of the “Space Station Design Workshop (SSDW)”. The IRS is hosting the annual SSDW to train teams of students and young professionals how to work together for a pre-phase0 study about a designing a possible International Space Station successor.
So the SpaceUp Stuttgart unconference was the kick-off event for the SSDW students who came from various places around the globe like South Africa, France, the USA, Denmark and many more countries. By mingling them with further professional and space-enthusiastic participants it created a great community spirit that also led to great talks.