Aalto in Space

The space-related history of the Otaniemi campus goes back to the 1960's, when the plans for participating the European space programs were drawn. The first satellite TV transmission was received at the university in the 1970's and the first Finnish spacetech constructed in Otaniemi in the 1980's.

But the Aalto in Space exhibition doesn't look back. It paints a big picture of the current space related activities and looks into the future.

Finland is well placed to succeed in the New Space boom, in great part thanks to the Aalto-born nanosatellite boom and the attitude shift that it inspired. Aalto in Space displays the current and planned fleet of the Aalto nanosatellites with real sized models. The instruments are shown and the multiple displays explain the different aspects of the space research at Aalto.

The most exciting part of the exhibition is surely the virtual reality trip to space; originally a research simulation software that will now be used for entertaining and educational purposes.

Although the space technology development is mostly about the CubeSats and remote sensing, the research is focused on Sun, Sun-Earth connection, space weather, plasma in space and black holes. The observations about these are made with space based instruments and at the Metsähovi radio observatory. Naturally science and technology development are interconnected and the new satellites are used for observations for the Aalto research groups.

There is also an artistic touch: Terrella Cubica from Karoliina Paatos is a highly technical video installation of the northern lights simulator.

The exhibition is free and open to everyone.

Dipoli opening hours Mon-Fri 7.45-21.45, Sat 9.30-21.45.

The simularion Mon-Fri 12-13.

Read more on Aalto in Space -website.