english

12th European Space Conference 2020

mathias

New Decade, Global ambitions: Growth, Climate, Security & Defense

Egmont Palace, Brussels. 21-22. Jan 2020.

Those were some cold and foggy winter days in Brussels. I had been successful to get one of the conference tickets as a freelance aerospace party – actually the overwhelming number of participants were executives from the aerospace industry, EU and ESA officials, government bodies from EU countries and journalists.

I felt like little fish – that’s what I was indeed – swimming happily in the sea between the big aerospace tankers. A few month ago, I had resolved to attend this conference in response to my growing interest in the developments of Space 2.0. I wanted to learn from a close distance about the spirit which makes Europe move in this new field – in friendship, but also autonomous from it’s big brothers: US & Russia.

To make it short, those two days by far exceeded my expectations and I returned home very much inspired from this pan-European experience. Within the first minutes of the conference I noticed that the EU had a particular significance to me: My ability to pick up conversations in number of languages other than English – be it German, French or Spanish – helped a great deal to absorb information and interact with the people around me.

I would considering myself a Tech Nerd and of course I was thrilled from the statements of the big industry players with regard to ongoing or upcoming earth exploration missions, the perspective of a lunar or planetary missions or just “physics brought to service“, i.e. orbital platforms for secure quantum-cryptography servicing the EU. The need for environmental monitoring supporting the analysis of ecological damage or the requirement for secured communication are fundamental political questions that reach far beyond the naked interest in technological competition and economic profit.

At the very end of those two days, I very much enjoyed the speech delivered by EU commissioner Thierry Breton (who had to rush back to Brussels from his encounter with US president Trump, just a few hours ago at the Davos WEF). In fact, Breton, who has a long curriculum with technology companies, convincingly presented the European spirit, while cheerfully switching language between French, a few words of German and English.

Pyongyang (DPRK) Intl. Marathon

mathias
Kim Il Sung square, Pyongyang DPRK

Science and technology are a propellant for building a thriving country, and the happiness of the people and the future of the country hinge on their development.

Kim JONG UN

It was in spring 2018 when Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un discovered their mutual friendship and engaged in a surprising – but, as we know, not so long lasting – friendship. It seemed as if the ice was melting on the Korean peninsula ! Just one year after having been invited to a medical/IT conference in Seoul, I was about to draw plans to set foot in the North, Pyongang, capital of the People Democratic Republic of Korea.

Setting foot in North Korea, how about doing this in a sportive way ? For instance, by repeating footsteps just about ten thousand times scaling the half-marathon distance (21.0975km) in the streets of the capital of one of the planets’s most isolated countries. I was able to get a seat on a tour organized by a Chinese agency offering ordinary westerners (with the exception of people holding a US passport) the opportunity to travel to North Korea and participate in the Pyongyang International (Half)Marathon.

Eventually, after a vaction stay with my son in Dubai, I was heading East alone to spend one night in Shanghai before boarding on 06 April 2018 flight JS158, one of Air-Koryo’s Antonow An-148 aircraft. What a change: Dubai – Shanghai – Pyongyang !

Alltogether, I spent 3 exciting days in the city. I traveled to the DMZ to catch a view across the border to see the South Korean flag waiving on the other side of the fence, delimited by the famous lineup of small blue wooden baracks hosting the UN troups. On the morning of the last day, the actual running was a very mixed experience: extremely hard since I had to drag myself along the track due to an upset stomach and shivers (I tried to spare myself any thoughts of requiring medical treatment inside the country), on the other side: The surreal aspect of smiling, cheerful North-Koreans supporting my lost capitalist soul on the race track, having ample room on the empty streets of the capital decorated by big, colorful posters proclaiming the potent destruction of their ennemies.

after a long journey, once I arrived back in Frankfurt, I found a note stuck under the windshield wipers of my car: “You made it !” (merci Sylviane !)