Strasbourg

I arrived in Strasbourg at about 6:30pm on Monday evening, walked to hotel and checked in – everything went really smoothly!

I was planning to have a Valentine’s dinner on my own at some little French restaurant. I walked all over Strasbourg, and tried to go to three different restaurants that had been recommended to me, but they were all full. I eventually ended up at Les brasseurs, which is the place with tarte flambée and home-brewed beer. It wasn’t quite the quiet dinner I had expected, but it was fun. I ordered the 3 fromage tarte flambee – it really had a lot of cheese, so it’s probably a good thing I had that long walk!

I chatted with the guys sitting next to me who were archeologists from Luxembourg. Did you know that they speak Luxembourgish in Luxembourg? (When they told me that, half of me was sure that they were kidding, and the other half was guilty for not already knowing the language existed.) We started chatting because they were trying to think of a name and couldn’t think of it – they said it was a “famous crime writer… mystery writer… she’s old… she also wrote Miss Marple or something…” I did eventually come up with the name (answer at the end of this post).

After that it was just back to the hotel to relax.

Tuesday was the first day of the conference. It was a really early morning for me – I was having breakfast in the lobby by 7:15am. I met up with Colleen Hartman – one of the professors from the Space Policy Institute in DC, and we also ran into Gale Allen, who works at NASA HQ and was my boss’s boss the first time I interned at NASA. I told them about the idea for my presentation, and they seemed to think it was really interesting, so that’s encouraging. (Gale even asked me to send her the slides, since she wouldn’t be there the day I present.)

The presentations at the conference were pretty interesting. There were quite a few about the type of research that’s currently being done on the Space Station, and about what’s possible for the future. There was a really interesting presentation by Lockheed Martin about the Orion crew capsule that they’re building – it’s been the source of a fair amount of political discussion in the context of the NASA budget, so it was interesting to hear their perspective. There was also a really good presentation about the possibility of putting a human centrifuge on the ISS. A human centrifuge allows you to create artificial gravity, and could be used to allow astronauts to do exercises and things and possibly prevent the bone and muscle loss which occurs when in space.

After the main program of presentations was over, there was a poster session and reception. The receptions at ISU are always very nice – fun hors d’ourves and champagne. I read through some of the posters, and chatted with Megan, who is also from DC. I also chatted with a VP from Lockheed Martin, and with a Canadian and German astronaut – so it was an interesting evening.

From the reception, Megan and I went downtown with her friend. We went to a houseboat that had been turned into a bar and had a few beers. It was a fun night!

On Wednesday, I did a bit of work in the morning, and also went on a little walk around Strasbourg. It’s a really cute town, so there is a lot of pretty architecture to see.

We also stopped in at a really cute little café called La Epicerie and had coffee and tea and a tartine au brie (bread with brie and honey and nuts).

Then it was back to the conference for another set of presentations. After the presentations there was a concert and dinner planned. Megan, who was the main person I knew, wasn’t going, so I was a bit on my own. But then I ran into Romain – he’s a French guy studying to be a space lawyer. He had actually worked at the Space Policy Institute in DC for five weeks this past summer – I only met him once, about three days before he went back to France. It is pretty crazy sometimes what a small world it is – especially within the global space community.

The concert was at the Eglise Saint Thomas – a very old church in the Petit France area of Strasbourg. It has an organ that is famous because Mozart played it and said it was the best in the city. The music was really good, and lasted about 45 minutes. (I wish I had learned an instrument, because I think I would appreciate classical music more, but instead it always reminds me of music you turn on in the background while you’re doing other things.)

From there the whole group walked to restaurant a l’Ancienne Douane for a dinner of traditional Alsatian cuisine. We started with tarte flambee, then had smoked salmon. The main course was fish and cabbage, and dessert was cinnamon icecream and pears. (At least the someone told me it was pears – but they were small and in red sauce, so I’m still a bit skeptical.)

Dinner was fun – I sat next to Romain and across from a guy from the Netherlands Space Office that had done the ISU Executive MBA with one of my co-workers. I was also sitting by a guy named Pedro that had gotten his undergraduate degree in engineering, focusing on propulsion, and was now getting a masters at ISU. I’m really interested in space propulsion, so I asked him if he could explain to me how the various engines work (basically), and we had an awesome conversation about all the different forms of in-space propulsion (electric/VASMIR, ion, nuclear, chemical).

So to explain a bit – there are two reasons I think the conversation about propulsion technologies was awesome. First, new propulsion technologies could really change everything about space exploration. If we could all-of-sudden get to Mars in three days instead of two years, that would completely change the equation. The options for what we could do and the timelines of when we could do them would be radically different.

The other reason it was a really cool conversation is because it was one of the times that I really felt like my engineering background was really useful even though I’m doing space policy. I think space propulsion is one of those things that people always voice an opinion on, but I’m always really wary of whether they know what they’re talking about. And so it’s really helpful to actually understand basically how each of the types of technology is supposed to work, to better understand what’s possible and which arguments for and against developing the technology make the most sense. Even though I felt a bit bad that some of the other people at the table weren’t very interested in the conversation, it was really fun to talk about the science behind the engines – it’s been a while since I was discussing atoms and electrons, magnetic fields, ionization, and all of that.

On Thursday morning I was the first person to present (after the invited speaker and the moderator of our panel). I think it went really well! Presenting at the ISU conference can be a little intimidating, because many of the experts in the field come – people who work on the International Space Station every day and know everything about it. But I thought my presentation was pretty unique – I made the argument that ever since the ISS program was announced in1984, there had been many political debates and milestones, and each time the same seven arguments were given. I showed quotes from primary documents – political reports, newspaper articles, etc. to back up this claim. I felt really comfortable during my talk, so I didn’t talk too quickly, which is my main problem when I’m nervous. I took a few questions afterwards, and that went really well also – nothing too difficult, and I had answers to give. Afterwards a bunch of people said that I did a good job, that it was very engaging, and that they had never seen that data presented before. I had representatives from program partners ask me about specific slides and data. So I felt really good afterwards!

After all the talks in the session were given, they bring up all the speakers and have a forty minute panel session to ask questions to the speakers. That went well, too, and I answered a few more questions, though they were more general than the ones immediately after my paper. It’s pretty cool to be on a panel and asked to give your personal impression on various ideas and events – Part of me feels surprised that a whole room full of people really wants to know what I think about the budget or the current policy situation, or things like that, though I guess I do learn about and discuss these things every day for work.

We had a nice lunch of Alsatian food and then an afternoon of presentations. I had been planning to stay in Strasbourg on Thursday night, but I decided that it made more sense to go to Frankfurt right away, rather than waiting for the morning. Most people from the conference weren’t staying in town, and why explore Strasbourg on my own instead of hanging out with a good friend I almost never get to see? It actually worked out really well, because Megan and her boyfriend were staying the night in Strasbourg, but hadn’t been able to find a hotel in the city – so they just took over my room.

I got to the train station, bought a ticket, and made my way to Frankfurt – I’m feeling very happy with my ability to get around Europe on my own.

…
Oh, and that famous mystery writer from the first night? Agatha Christie.

Last Day in Strasbourg

Friday was the last day of the conference, the day I presented, and our last full day in Strasbourg.

The morning session of the conference went well. There were a lot of presentations on Space Situational Awareness, given from different perspectives. Lunch was very nice again, though this time I was a bit distracted, running through my presentation in my head.

I was the third presenter after lunch. I think it went well – I didn’t rush through my slides, and I remembered to say the things I meant to. It seemed to go quickly, especially because the presenters before me had taken more than their allotted 15 minutes, and I had taken slightly less. However, on Friday afternoon, I don’t think people are too upset if you take a bit less than the time allowed. People asked me questions afterward and asked for my slides, so it did seem like there was interest in the presentation. I was very happy to finally be done and able to relax a bit.

After a long day at the conference and the stress of presenting, I decided to take a much needed nap in the evening. I woke up in time to eat some of Halit’s awesome dinner and head over to Pol, Raycho, and James’ apartment to visit with friends. Later in the evening we met up with all the ISU students at “The Living Room” and spent the last night partying together in France.

The Conference Continues

On Thursday, Jeff and I spent a couple hours in the morning walking around Strasbourg. It was a bit chilly, but I wanted to make sure I saw the city. It has lots of pedestrian walk-ways, so it’s perfect for wandering around. The architecture mostly looks like the traditional German style – with the large wood beams visible on the outside. This area has changed ownership from French to German multiple times.
We visited the cathedral, which is famous because it has one spire instead of two. I heard a story that this was basically due to a lack of funding, rather than unique architectural planning, but I suppose it must be a mix.

After our quick walk around the city, I headed back to the conference to learn more about space security. The afternoon presentations were mostly about military use of space. There was a talk about Space Weaponization - the original presenter couldn't make it, so a person from the United States National Security Space Office talked instead, and made the news (well, Space News) for some of his comments. There was also a talk about Operationally Responsive Space - the idea by the U.S. DoD of making smaller, simpler satellites that can be built and launched really quickly when needed.

The conference on Thursday was followed by a concert and dinner in town. The concert was held at the church of St. Thomas, where Mozart had played, and praised the organ there.

The dinner was at a nice restaurant nearby and featured traditional food of the area. The appetizer was what I called a ‘fish cake,’ though I’m sure the name is much nicer in France. It was pure of three types of fish arranged into layers and cut like a slice of cake. The main course was chicken royal with some milk dumplings, and the dessert was a very good cake with cream cheese. We also had the chance to try Alsatian wine, made in the area.

ISU Conference: Space for a Safe and Secure World

Wednesday was the first day of the ISU conference that I had come to Europe to attend. I started to learn my way around town, taking the streetcar out to the ISU campus (though I mostly just followed Doha, Halit, and Hugo). The lectures were interesting – the first morning focused on a variety of international perspectives on security. There were talkes by the NASA innovation office, the ESA development office, and from the University of Japan, among others. We had a very nice catered lunch of French food, and then continued on with the presentations in the afternoon.
The aftenoon sessions focused on space for civil security. For example, talking about how satellites can be used to track packages and large shipping containers to ensure security. There was also a presentation looking at how satellites can be used to aid the understanding of diseases and how they spread.

The normal conference precedings ended around 6pm and were followed by a reception and poster session. It was a nice chance to talk to some colleagues and meet some new people. There were a few posters I found interesting, particularly looking at space activities in developing nations, an area in which I have recently become very interested.

We had dinner at home – thanks to Hugo who cooked for Jeff and me. Then we headed out to “Mosquito,” a bar the ISU students go to often. It’s actually a Spanish bar, and lots of visiting students go to it – it even has an Erasmus party on Mondays. (Erasmus is the inter-European student exchange program.) We went from there to the living room, another student hang out. Jeff and I retired a bit early, knowing we still had a busy week.

Toulouse to Strasbourg

Tuesday morning Pol, Jeff, and I said goodbye to Laurent and headed off for the second part of our trip to Strasbourg. This time it was going to be a nine hour drive, but we started pretty early and had time to stop a few times.

Our first stop was in Montpellier, where we had a café and a croissant – a good French start to the day. We didn’t stay long, but you could see that the old part of the city was really beautiful – lots of narrow cobblestone pathways to explore.
Our next stop was in Lyon, and even gray, drizzly weather couldn’t hide what a nice city it is. Two large rivers meet in Lyon, so there are lots of bridges to walk over and views of the city. There are cute pedestrian streets, where we walked around and bought our lunch – baguette sandwiches and a fruit tart for me.
It had a huge basilica up on a cliff above the city. We drove up, and the size of the place up close is amazing. The views of the city, though somewhat shrouded in fog, where still very impressive.

We wanted to stop in Avignon, but the exit from the highway was closed, and without a map, we thought getting off at another exit and trying to find our way on back roads might not be the best idea.

We did make one more stop, in Beaune, a small town with a nice little downtown area. It’s famous for having some kind of beautiful old town square, but it was dark and the map we found was very confusing (possibly because it was in French), so we never actually found that – an adventure left for another day.

We arrived in Strasbourg at about 10:30pm at night, Pol dropped Jeff and I (very happy to get out of the car at this point) at Hugo, Doha, and Halit’s apartment, where we’d be staying the next few days. Pol was staying with James, Raycho, and the other Pol. Lucky for Jeff and I, Hugo and Halit were awake and in the kitchen, so we had a nice chat and a snack of meat, cheese, and tea before bed.

Valentines Day in France (and Germany)

Jeff and I arrived in Europe today. We flew into Frankfurt, bought train tickets for later that day, and then met up with our friend Diana.
We wandered Frankfurt a bit - it was chilly, but also sunny, so everything was very pretty. The three of us went for lunch, and I had an amazing combination of potato soup and mint tea that was perfect for getting warmed up.

In the afternoon we caught a train to Strasbourg, which allowed us to have a quick power-nap.

Our friends met us in the train station in Strasbourg, and helped us find the apartment where we'd be staying (which belongs to some other friends who happen to be out of town at the moment). We hung out, ate candy hearts, and they helped us navigate the French and German languages to figure out how to get to the airport tomorrow. (We fly to Barcelona in the morning.)

Now Jeff and I are hanging out alone in the apartment, eating sandwiches from the grocery store and cooking a frozen pizza. A bit jet lagged, but having a very nice Valentine's Day.