European Space Camp

European Space Camp
European Space Campers in front of the Andøya Space Center with the flags of some participant's countries displayed.
European Space Camp
Location	Andøya Space Center, Andøya, Norway
Coordinates	69°17′39.84″N 16°01′11.28″E / 69.2944000°N 16.0198000°E / 69.2944000; 16.0198000
Operated by	European Space Camp and Andøya Space Education
Established	1996 (1996)
Slogan	The sky is not the limit, it's where the fun begins![1]
Website	http://www.spacecamp.no/

European Space Camp (ESC) is a summer camp for youths aged 17–20, which focuses on giving a hands-on experience into the field of aerospace engineering and space sciences. Participants from all over Europe and the world stay at the Andøya Space Center in Northern Norway for one week, learning from professionals and becoming amateur rocket scientists. Ultimately the goal of the camp is to launch a student sounding rocket, capable of carrying several sensors and reaching a height of 10 000m and Mach 3.^[1] Participants are divided into groups ordered with respect to their interests and work together as a team for the week-long project of launching a student rocket. The students are involved in every aspect of the rocket campaign, ranging from internal circuitry and scientific case work to creating the payload of weather balloons for monitoring wind conditions prior to launch.^[2] Through the European Space Camp experience the young people are motivated to redirect their studies or renew their interest in the direction of science and technology.

The scientific part of the camp is divided between lectures and group work. Some of the best lecturers from across Europe lecture on topics as diverse as Rocket Physics, the work of CERN and the Northern Lights.^[3] Group work enables participants to spend a week in the life of a scientist and tackle problems as part of a self-proposed scientific study relating to the rocket launch at the end of the week. The participants are divided into the following groups during the rocket campaign: Payload, Sensor Experiments (this group is also in charge of the balloon payload), Science Experiments, and Telemetry.^[4] The highlight of the week is the rocket launch, after which there is just enough time to analyse the collected data.

An important part of ESC is connecting with the other participants. Therefore, a number of social activities are organised throughout the week, such as a mountain hike and swimming in the Arctic Ocean.^[1]