As far back as the Golden Age (the seventeenth century with scientists such as Christiaan Huygens), Dutch astronomers have enjoyed world renown. The start of the Space Age with the launch of Sputnik in 1957, opened up a wealth of new possibilities for astronomers. Since the 1960s, the Netherlands has successfully contributed to national, international and ESA scientific astrophysics missions such as ANS, IRAS, BEPPOSAX, Chandra, ISO, XMM-Newton and Herschel. SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research is a world leader in the field of developing and exploiting scientific space instruments.
Preparations for the cold vibration test of the HIFI instrument SRON is developing for the Herschel Space Telescope. (image: SRON)
Also in other areas such as atmospheric research, Dutch institutes have played a key role. Instruments such as SCIAMACHY, GOME and OMI were developed and built by Dutch institutes and companies in close cooperation with our partners in Germany, Belgium, Finland, ESA and NASA.
Courtesy Dutch Space: OMI Optical Bench
In the area of microgravity research more than 30 institutes and companies are active in fields such as life sciences and fluid sciences. Dutch universities have performed biological experiments in rocket missions and on Spacelab, and now on ISS. For example, the Dutch astronaut André Kuipers performed experiments on a new type of innovative lamp on behalf of Philips and Eindhoven University of Technology. The field of planetary research is developing fast in the Netherlands. Closely collaborating institutes, universities and companies are preparing scientific contributions for the new ESA mission to Mars: ExoMars.
