From December 3rd to 5th, Space Iceland will join forces with the Exploration Museum in Húsavik to host its annual Explorers Festival.
The Húsavík Explorers Festival
Friday, December 3rd
15:00 Visit to the GeoSea geothermal baths
17:30 History of the Space Race with Tira Shubart
18:00 How Iceland Changed the World: The Big History of a Small Island with Egill Bjarnason
20:00 Live music at Jaja Ding Dong
Saturday, December 4th
Geospace field trip to Lake Mývatn and Námaskarð: Departure from Cape Hotel at 7:30
Space Iceland 2021 Conference Day 1
10:30 A Space Policy for Iceland with Thor Fanndal
11:15 Space activities in Iceland: Opportunities, challenges and next steps with Alan, Thor and Helgi
13:15 Analog Astronaut Training in Iceland with Marc Heemskerk
14:00 Space debris and Earth Satellites with Tira Shubart
14:45 The 50th anniversary of Prospero an opportunity for sustainability in Space with Alan Thompson
15.30. Ice-land in Space with Björn Erlingsson
16:00 How to stay alive in Space with Bailey Burns
16:45 Harmonia: Mars Analog at Sea with Zahra-Marie Ronizi
17.20 Cooperation! A Space Strategy for Iceland with Thor Fanndal and Juan Jose Colorado Valencia
18:30 Departure for Adventure Trip and Dinner
23:00 Film screening: Cosmic Birth: We went to the Moon but discovered the Earth
Sunday, December 5th
Space Iceland 2021 Conference Day 2
09:00 How to Time Travel: The James Webb Space Telescope with Tira Shubart
10.00 Surgeries on Mars Zahra Ronizi
11:00 Wanna launch from Iceland? Creative ways to get a permit with Thor Fanndal
Geospace field trip to Hallbjarnarstaðarkambur fossil site: Departure from Cape Hotel at 12:00
The Explorers Festival takes place now for the 7th time. The festival consists of a series of talks by explorers and scientists, exhibitions, concerts and film screenings that deal with the theme of exploration. Participants will also take part in workshops and the other participants would have the opportunity to observe the GeoSpace space field training. This year, the festival will have a special focus on Iceland’s past, present and future in space exploration.
The first Exploration Festival was held in Húsavík in 2016 as an off-shoot of the Leif Ericsson Award. The festival originally focused on the exploration of land, sea and space but since 2018 the focus has moved more toward space and the developing space sector in Iceland and globally. In 2018 a plan to set up Space Iceland was announced at the festival (Then temporarily called The preparation committee for an Icelandic Space innovation Cluster ) after a round table discussion at the festival a year before where Thor Fanndal and his firm Moral Sentiment was hired to prepare a strategic plan for the sector.
In 2018 the festival hosted an astronaut simulation via invitation for young individuals of the mars generation. Five girls were selected; Alyssa Carson (US), Amelia Rose Earhart (US), Claudia Antolini (IT, Gunnhildur Fríða Hallgrímsdóttir (IS) og Linda Raimondo (IT)
A round table on Iceland’s opportunity for greater participation in space was hosted with Foreign Minister Gudlaugur Thor Thordarson, Ministry of Fishery and Agriculture Kristján Þór Júlíusson, Thor Fanndal chair of PCISIC, Amelia Rose Earhart. Priorities were set for the PCISIC and a statement was signed that PCISIC (SPACE ICELAND) would host a day at the festival from now on.
In 2020 the festival was hosted online due to COVID. In 2021 the festival will be hosted on December 3 – 5.
Guests have over the years included the Armstrong Family on a few occasions, NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski, Mike Dunn (4th Planet Logistics), Harrison Schmitt, Jessica Watson, Huw Lewis-Jones, Tashi and Nungshi Malik, Draken Harald Hårfagre, Chris Burkard, Edurne Passban, Alex Bellini, Clive Oppenheimer, Jade Maestre, Carolyn Porco, Barbara Zangerl, Bein Feist, George Kourounis, Ulyana Horodyskyj.
Stream from the event can be found here:
Free Film screening: Cosmic Birth: We went to the Moon but discovered the Earth
7th Explorers Festival 2021 – Sunday
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