VIRAC director Dr.sc.ing A.Klokovs will participate and moderate the online event "Icebreakers'20" on December 16th

December 7, 2020

Today we know that the Universe is far bigger and stranger than anyone suspected. But thanks to many ingenious minds it is getting a little bit more imaginable, visible, and understandable – day by day people around the world work for new pieces of this mysterious puzzle and Latvia is no exception.

In this online discussion, we will meet great and experienced minds who will share their experience and insight into the space industry in Latvia. The focus of this discussion will be the future of the space industry in Latvia, how far it has already developed, and what we can expect in near future.


Greatest industry professionals will join together – 


The panel will take place on Facebook (Icebreakers page) LIVE, join us - December 16th 17:00!



EVENT PARTICIPANTS AND PROGRAM


Dr.sc.ing. Aleksejs Klokovs, Space center in Latvia and development of the space industry

Theses:

  • The new Latvian Space Research center in Irbene
  • Research directions (more about space communication and
  • satellite technologies)
  • Commercialization of space innovations and technologies
  • Education programs in space and attraction of young people
  • Development of the Latvian space industry


Aleksejs Klokovs is the director of Engineering Research Institute “Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Centre” (VIRAC) of Ventspils University of Applied Sciences (VUAS).

Aleksejs is a strong engineering professional with a PhD focused in Engineering

Technology, Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering from Riga Technical University.

Aleksejs is a member of the board of the International Low Frequency Array (LOFAR)

Telescope (ILT) and a member of JIVE-ERIC council, the Joint Institute for VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium). In Europe, VLBI is organized through the European VLBI Network (EVN). He is a member of the EVN Consortium Board of Directors as

well. This network of radio telescopes located primarily in Europe and Asia, with additional antennas in South Africa and Puerto Rico, which performs very high angular resolution observations of cosmic radio sources. The EVN is the most sensitive VLBI array in the world, and the only one capable of real-time observations.

Aleksejs is developing the first Latvian Space Research Center that can provide high quality research and education services in the fields of space technology and science.

Dr. Amara Graps, In-Space Resource Utilization: Current Trends & Opportunities for All

Theses:

  • The ISRU Future is Nearly Here
  • The Distraction of Returning Metals to Earth
  • Five Milestones
  • Space Mining Lessons Learned up to 2018
  • What can I do to Start?

Amara Lynn Graps / Amara Linna Grapa is an American - Latvian, with nearly 40 years

working on (15) international space projects and missions, with data from nearly every

planet in the solar system.


During the late 1990s, charging and dynamics of the smallest particles: cosmic dust, became her focus for her PhD and postdoc in Germany and Italy and Colorado. Then her professional universe expanded considerably in the mid2010s, with sustainable space growth as her Baltic niche, for developing and integrating multi-institute, inclusive-society international space projects. Amara's current niches are small body planetary science, citizen climate science, CubeSat education, asteroid mining. She is an advocate for Eastern European planetary scientists, girls in STEM, and Baltic space workers.

Pauls Irbins, Space Education Centre in Cesis

Theses:

  • Municipality of Cesis is building a Space Education Centre
  • (SEC) to be opened in 2023.
  • The SEC will provide interactive exhibition, educational
  • workshops and missions for schools and families.
  • During the development process the project team will organize space-related
  • competitions for schools, participation of students from Latvia at European Space Camp
  • in Norway and teacher education.

Pauls Irbins is a president of Latvian Space Industry Association and a head of the Space Education Centre project under development in the city of Cesis. Pauls is also leading a student rocket project at Riga Technical University and a team of engineers building the first Latvian space rocket. With academic background in self-organisation of social systems, Pauls has consulted companies and startups for process improvements, product innovations and sales management.
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