ASGARD @SpacePole explained
How to participate?
FAQ
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ASGARD @SpacePole explained

ASGARD @SpacePole (age 15-18)

  • Send your self invented and selfmade experiment to the edge of space with a stratospheric balloon.
  • Participating in ASGARD is very similar to a real science mission in space, performed by a team during one school year.
  • ASGARD is no competition. The personal ambition of each team is to produce and test a well designed and well working experiment on the day of the flight, and to analyse the results after the flight.
  • Schools from anywhere in the world can also apply and participate, although the project doesn’t provide a travelling budget. All schools are supposed to be present in Brussels for the 3 days of the launch campaign.

1 September: Start of project

11 November: Last day to propose your experiment

December: Jury selects participants

Jan-April: Build and test your experiment

14-15-16 May: LAUNCH days

30 May: Last day to send your poster/article about your experiment

This calendar will be completed later with the dates of: Progress report and Delivery of the payload

  • Age group 15-18 years old (secondary education, all study fields)
  • +/- 20 teams are accepted.
  • Minimum 2 students, maximum 5 students per team (more students can participate at school, but max 5 team members can come to the launch days)
  • Every team can apply as ‘beginner‘ or ‘advanced‘.
  • Most teams are from Belgium (all language communities). Foreign schools from anywhere in the world are welcome to join at their own cost.

  • Skills: teamwork, planning, scientific method, communicating about your work, working in English
  • Learning content: Atmospheric science, physics, Earth science, ICT, programming, space sciences
  • STEM challenge: designing by trial and error, testing, problem solving

  • A unique opportunity to fly your experiment to the edge of space, where the conditions are extreme, and in many ways similar to the surface of Mars
  • Work together with other motivated teams from different language communities and other countries (ASGARD is not competitive)
  • Enjoy the unforgettable experience to be at the Belgian Space Pole institutes during launch days and meet professional scientists and their programmes

How to participate?

ASGARD @SpacePole is a school project organised by Sint-Pieterscollege Jette (teacher and organisor Erik de Schrijver) together with the Belgian Space Pole institutes ROB, RMI, BIRA and STCE. ESERO Belgium promotes and supports the project together with several other school projects that bring space exploration into schools. We offer direct support to Belgian teachers who are interested to participate or who are already participating. Teachers can contact us daily with any question.

ASGARD @SpacePole is no competition. Once your team is accepted to participate, you try to have a well working and positively tested experiment on the day of the launch. All particpants together form an ASGARD @SpacePole community that can help each other in this mission. Exchange of experiences and working together is not structurally provided in the project, but is still rewarding for all teams.

English is the common language for all communications, because partcipants come from all Belgian regions and every year we have teams aboard from several other countries. The whole ASGARD @SpacePole community – students, teachers, project organizers – communicate in English, during the preparations and during the launch days in Brussels. Students will give their presentations in English too.

  1. Download the application form .
  2. Send us your proposal by filling in the application form. Describe your experiment proposal and your team, and send the completed form to organiser Erik de Schrijver (email mentioned on the form). In previous years, most of the incoming proposals were accepted to participate (except when they are not realistic at all or very badly described).
  3. The ASGARD @SpacePole jury will make a selection of participating teams in december. Once accepted by the jury, your participation will start. (We usually receive a bit more proposals then can be accepted on the flight. The ASGARD @SpacePole jury always tries to have a maximum of experiments on board, but we are restricted by the maximum weight that can be lifted by the stratospheric balloon. However, in all previous years, the majority of the proposals could be accepted to participate. Sometimes the jury will accept an experiment proposal, but with a more limited maximum weight or other additional conditions).
  4. Make sure your team has a good planning and will be available on the launch days in Brussels/Ukkel.
  5. You will get the necessary instructions during your participation.
  6. Never hesitate to contact the organiser Erik or ESERO Belgium whenever you need help.

Participating in ASGARD @SpacePole is FREE , but the organisation will not be able to cover all the additionals costs per team

  • Included, for free:
    • The balloon flight and the workshops/tours at the Space Pole institutes
    • Sandwich lunch during launch days
    • Some hardware like shared battery power and safety fuses (ask Erik)
  • Not included (at your own cost):
    Transport expenses
    Hardware for your own experiment
    Night accomodation, breakfast, evening dinners

Part of the program runs in the Planetarium of the Royal Observatory of Belgium (Brussels, Heizel), and part of it runs at the Earth- and Space Science plateau in Ukkel, where the KMI-IRM is located among other science institutes. Many student teams stay overnight in a hostel in Brussels (Meininger City Center), where they can sometimes work together and exchange experiences with other teams.

The program in detail will be communicated to the teams shortly before the start of the launch days. You will stay in Brussels for 3 days. Schools can choose to follow the day programs with or without staying overnight in Brussels (there is no evening program offered by the organisation). The main activities are:

  • An inspiring presentation from a professional space scientist.
  • Every team gives a presentation about their work to the other teams.
  • Final integration and check of all experiments into the gondola just before launch.
  • Launch, monitoring and recovery of the student experiments with the ASGARD balloon.
  • The teams enjoy a wide offer of parallel workshops, guided tours or infosession given by professionals from the science institutes.
  • Every team gives a presentation at the end about their results to the other teams.

  • With a stratospheric balloon of the RMI/KMI/IRM
  • To a height of +/- 30 km:
  • More than 99% of the air is below you, and the sky above looks completely black.
  • If you point the camera to the horizon, you can see the curve of the Earthball and a tiny vulnerable layer of blue air (the troposphere).
  • We pass the main part of the ozon layer
  • We arrive in a near-vacuum, and the experiments come into an environment with almost the same physical condition as the surface of Mars.


ASGARD Balloons for Science

FAQ

Usually around 20 proposals are selected to participate. In the last years, this was about half of the proposals we received. The beginners/advanced ratio is usually between 1/3 and 2/3.


Yes, one school can submit more than one proposal, but the jury will usually select one proposal per school, to keep as many schools on board as possible.

We offer:

  • Free participation at the program in the scientific institutes and Planetarium during 3 launch days.
  • Free access to the balloon flight for your experiment.
  • Free sandwich lunch during the 3 launch days.

You provide at your own cost:

  • Your experiment hardware, testing, software, …
  • Evening dinners and breakfast during launch days in Brussels.
  • All transport you need with your team.
  • If your team stays in Brussels at night, the night accomodation is not offered by the project organisation. There is a hostel where most ASGARD teams stay for the nights (Meininger City Center), and where you can meet other teams in the evenings and work together on the recovered experiment after the flight.

In general you have to provide your own testing facility. But if your team really has difficulties to find things like a vacuum pump or freezing devices, contact Erik de Schrijver. He will try to help you. Such help can also be provided by other ASGARD teams, they often have the same needs as you. It is strongly recommended to ask other teams if they can help you.

We need to know basic properties of your experiment to assure it can be integrated in the gondola together with all other hardware:

  • What is the final mass of your experiment? Please never exceed this mass!
  • Deliver pictures of your hardware or components, so we can estimate if the volume it takes will fit into the gondola. Let us know what components need to be inside or outside the gondola and how these component need to be connected.
  • If you use electronics: give us the average and peak power consumption, so we can make sure the batteries will be sufficient for the whole flight.

The finished flight hardware should be delivered to the Planetarium of Brussels (Boechoutlaan 10
1020 Brussel) or Sint-Pieterscollege Jette (Leon Theodorstraat 167, 1090 Jette), always clearly labeled “for Erik de Schrijver, ASGARD”. You can deliver it personally during opening hours or send it in a closed box by mail.

ASGARD @SpacePole Partners

The founder and organiser of the ASGARD @SpacePole project is Physics teacher Erik de Schrijver from Sint-Pieterscollege Jette. The Planetarium (Heysel, Brussels) and the Space Pole institutes (Uccle) host the ASGARD project.

Traditionally, during launch day, the students have the opportunity to participate in several workshops and visit some of the facilities of the 3 institutes at the Space Pole, all guided by professional scientists. Some of these workshops and visits include: spectroscopy and other space research techniques and current space missions at BISA (also know as BIRA), the big telescope at the ROB, the weather bureau at RMI, the solar walk along PROBA-2, the space weather forecasting center, presentations on the solar telescopes and the sunspor number. The students meet with scientists and can do Q&A.

ESERO Belgium is hosting the communication of ASGARD on www.esero.be on dedicated ASGARD @SpacePole pages. The ASGARD @SpacePole project is also widely promoted by ESERO Belgium as one of the space education projects for schools. ESERO Belgium offers direct support to any teacher who is participating or interested to participate. We give trainings and answer any question on a daily base. Each year, ESERO is trying to find some additional budget to support ASGARD @SpacePole (logistics, hardware, problem solving).