Great Space Day of the SuomiAreena was a huge success

SuomiAreena is an annual public debate and festival event held in Pori. This year, too, politicians, decision-makers, experts, and others filled the stages spread across central Pori with many interesting topics.

Space was discussed in several sessions during the week, but the entire event culminated on Friday with the Great Space Day on the main stage. And it happened that the audience record set earlier this summer by the main performer, Canada’s former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, was broken by the Great Space Day: the audience filled Raatihuoneenpuisto park.

At the beginning of the three-hour event, Pori Space Lab, was officially launched – a joint platform for space technology collaboration between the University of Turku and Satakunta University of Applied Sciences (SAMK).

Kimmo Nieminen, who works in Houston training NASA astronauts and consulting space companies, suggested a couple of years ago to Pori’s Mayor Lauri Inna that space education should be started in Pori. Inna then got the wheels turning together with SAMK. The official agreement for Pori Space Lab was signed last week, just before Space Day, where it was presented to the general public.

Professor Rami Vainio from the University of Turku (left), SAMK Vice Rector Heikki Haaparanta, and Mayor of Pori Lauri Inna (right) presented the Pori Space Lab study programme. The goal is to develop the offering from upper secondary vocational education all the way to university postgraduate level. 

Also on stage were, among others, University of Turku Professor Petteri Alho, Senior Researcher Tomas Kohout, and SAMK’s Pekka Suominen.

The University of Turku, which is responsible for the academic background of Pori Space Lab, is also a partner in the SpacEconomy project. The emerging space ecosystem in Pori interests the project more broadly.

SpacEconomy also acted as one of the organisers of the Great Space Day. The project was presented in the exhibition area and featured in several speeches, especially in presentations by our project lead Heidi Kuusniemi.

Finnish space research and industry, as well as the opportunities offered by the space sector for both Pori and Finland, were discussed in numerous presentations and panel discussions.

Participants included, among others: Topi Räty (Aalto University satellite team member, now working at Sensofusion), Jarkko Antila (CEO of Kuva Space), Timo Latvala (head of Gofore’s space business unit), Professor Petri Välisuo from the University of Vaasa, and Kaisa Ahonen from ESA BIC Finland business accelerator.

The main presentation was given by Heli Greus, Quality Manager of the RAMSES probe mission at the European Space Agency (ESA). She spoke not only about the exciting journey of the probe to study the Apophis asteroid, but also about the European Space Agency and the opportunities it offers. She also shed light on her own career path and gave advice to those wanting to enter the field.

In the photo: part of the speakers on stage at the end of the event. Speaking at the moment is Ursa’s communications officer Anne Liljeström. On the left, the host (and the writer of this text) Jari Mäkinen.

The literal highlight of the daywas the launch of the KitSat educational satellite on a stratospheric flight with a helium balloon. The mission control table was on the stage, from where the flight was monitored. Although the image connection to the satellite was not quite as hoped, the balloon’s ascent to high altitudes, the decrease in pressure, and the expected entry of the satellite into the jet stream were clearly visible in the telemetry data. In some images, it was also possible to see clearly how the balloon passed through the cloud layer.

SAMK students had modified the satellite, prepared it for flight, developed their own mission control software for it, and built several different antennas. The student group was inspired and guided by lecturer Kimmo Viitala.

The balloon flight ended in Forssa.

In the photo: Kimmo Viitala (right) and those who participated in launching the balloon on site: Aleksi Kangasjärvi (left), Mikko Lahtinen (second from left), and Nuutti Pikkarainen (second from right). Ahmed Ismael was at mission control on stage. Other project participants, including those in the radio group along the flight path, were Janne Anttila, Kaisu Nisula, Joonas Keskinen, Tapio Lielahti, Danil Kuydunen, Olli Porkka, and Atte Lindholm.