Dwingeloo Radiotelescoop - C.A. Muller Radioastronomie Station - PI9CAM
Dwingeloo Radio Telescope - C.A. Muller Radio Astronomy Station - PI9CAM

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Kick-off ‘COGITO in Space’ videos

Author(s): Daniela De Paulis (IU0IDY)

Videos: Sandro Bocci

The kick-off ‘COGITO in Space’ on November 5, 2018, marked the first public performance of the interdisciplinary ‘COGITO in Space’ project in ASTRON and at the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope. Speakers at the symposium in ASTRON’s Van de Hulst Auditorium were Frank White (The Overview Effect), Fred Spier (Big History and the Future of Humanity) and Nicole Stott (interview with the retired NASA astronaut). The symposium was moderated by Josephine Bosma. The symposium was continued in the radio telescope by sending brain activity from a visitor into the cosmos. In ASTRON’s Minaert Room Daniela interviewed Frank White and Fred Spier.

The interview, the symposium and the radio telescope-part of the COGITO project were filmed by Sandro Bocci. Special thanks to ASTRON (www.astron.nl) and CAMRAS. ‘COGITO in Space’ is a project by media artist and artist in residence at the Dwingeloo Radio telescope Daniela de Paulis (www.cogitoinspace.org).

In the fold menus below, you can choose a video of the COGITO in Space project. Once a fold menu topic is opened you can click on the picture to open the film registration of that topic.

‘COGITO in Space’ Symposium PART 1

Speakers: Frank White (The Overview Effect) and Fred Spier (Big History and the Future of Humanity).

‘COGITO in Space’ symposium PART 2

Speaker: Nicole Stott (interview with the retired NASA astronaut).

‘COGITO in Space’ at the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope

The ‘COGITO in Space’ project is staged at the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope in The Netherlands. A visitor in the cabin of the radio telescope sends her or his brain activity into the cosmos while viewing an immersive video of an experimental interpretation of the Earth as seen from Space. The visitor is fitted with a sophisticated encephalogram (EEG) system and a virtual reality headset; the preparation is carried by three neuroscientists Guillaume Dumas, Robert Oostenveld and Stephen Whitmarshand and takes approximately fifteen minutes. Once the preparation is completed, in real time the brain activity is converted into sound and transmitted into space by the artist Daniela De Paulis, using the antenna of the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope pointing in standstill. The brain activity is thus transmitted across a large portion of the sky, without a specific target, highlighting the Earth’s rotation and our place in the cosmos while the experience takes place. Before entering the cabin and transmitting their brain waves into space, visitors are guided by a planetary scientist to explore the area surrounding the scientific facilities. The naturalistic visit is based on principles of Big History and aims at inspiring in the visitors a stronger sense of connection with the Earth’s habitat, before symbolically leaving the planet.

‘COGITO in Space’ Conversation with Frank White and Fred Spier in the Minnaert Room

Daniela De Paulis in conversation with space philosopher Frank White (The Overview Effect) and cultural anthropologist Fred Spier (Big History and the Future of Humanity).

Kick-off ‘COGITO in Space’

Author(s): CAMRAS-PR, Frans de Jong, Roy Smits; Translation: Ilse Harmers

Photo(s): Sandro Bocci. Animation: Guillaume Dumas. Audio: CAMRAS (Michael Sanders).

On Monday November 5, the latest art project of Daniela De Paulis (artist in residence at the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope) ‘COGITO in Space’ was launched in the Van der Hulst auditorium of ASTRON and the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope. There were about fifty guests, consisting of interested parties, acquaintances, artists and funding bodies. With the project COGITO ‘in space’, thoughts are spread in space like radio waves.

COGITO is an interdisciplinary, collaborative project and the result of several years of research at the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope and ASTRON. COGITO is a conceptually complex art project inspired by the Overview Effect. The main idea behind COGITO is to create a connection between the observer’s mind and his or her idea of the universe, while watching a fascinating video of the Earth as seen from space.

– Morning program

With a warm welcome, Frans de Jong (CAMRAS chairman) opened the morning program in the auditorium: a mini-conference with The Overview Effect as the main theme. The Overview Effect concerns the shift in self-awareness that astronauts experience as a result of seeing the Earth from space. Josephine Bosma (art critic) moderated the four parts of the program.

1. The mini-conference started with a strong opening and an inspiring lecture by Frank White (sociologist and political scientist), author of the book The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution. Frank considers himself a space philosopher. He highlighted various angles with keen headscratchers like: ‘Are we going to space or are we already there and just going a little bit further? What do we get out of space and what do we leave behind? Are we leaving the Earth in the distant future or are we just looking for expansion?’

2. Fred Spier (cultural anthropologist and social historian), author of the book Big History and the future of Humanity, addressed in his lecture his personal experiences during the flight of Apollo 8. ‘During that mission, the famous photo ‘Earth rise’ was taken, which shows planet Earth from above the lunar surface. This evoked a great deal of sentiment from the audience in the United States, with a strong awareness that we are looking at ourselves. In Europe, it was hardly mentioned in the news and the publication was dismissed as a nice picture. How did this difference arise?’

3. Then, Nicole Stott (aquanaut, astronaut and aquarellist in space) took the stage, speaking through a Skype-connection. Now retired, she has actually experienced the overview effect with an impact that she still carries with her. What follows is an interesting interview between her, Josephine and Daniela.

4. The mini-conference was concluded with a forum consisting of Daniela and the three neuroscientists Guillaume Dumas, Robert Oostenveld and Stephen Whitmarsh, who are involved in the development of COGITO.

The many questions and answers were informally continued in animated conversations during the lunch.

– Afternoon program

For the afternoon program, the guests were split into two groups.

a. In the auditorium one group participated in a lecture by Frans about the history and restoration of the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope and the current use by the CAMRAS foundation. Images and sound of the brain waves transmitted from the radio telescope were also streamed to the auditorium.

b. The group of guests with the parallel program first walked across the heath of the Dwingelderveld under the guidance of Maarten Roos (planetary scientist and filmmaker), while he told a story based on the book by Fred Spier. ‘For the walkers, the free field of view over the heathland symbolizes the emptiness in space and the 25-meter dish represents the Earth.’

After they arrived at the telescope, Roy Smits (astronomer and CAMRAS volunteer) told them about the origin of radio astronomy and the Dwingeloo Telescope. Afterwards, the guests climbed the metal stairs to the observation room and the big moment was finally there.

Daniela, the three neuroscientists and the telescope operators Jan van Muijlwijk and Michael Sanders (both CAMRAS volunteers) welcomed them wholeheartedly.

‘The cabin, converted into the art project ‘COGITO in Space’, is full of computers, a beamer and transmitting equipment. The remaining space is filled with stairs arranged around the ‘zero gravity chair’, which seems to give you weightlessness. A participant is already ready on this deckchair. She wears an EEG cap that measures her brain waves. Through a virtual reality headset, she gets to see a special film that can induce the overview effect. The space is darkened and the brain activity from the participant, while she is watching the movie in the gravity chair, is recorded and sent into space by Daniela, also a licensed radio amateur.’

‘Guillaume projects a mix of the live EEG-signals (the first two channels) on the Stellarium-view of the sky with the star Antares as starting point of the radio transmission and the spectrum of the transmission recorded with a small USB-antenna. The voice (the vowels) with call sign PI9CAM becomes visible in the jagged band, while the EEG transmission becomes visible as a dense continuous band. Meanwhile, the guests hear the transmission.’

 

After the two groups alternated for a comparable experience, the art project COGITO ‘in space’ was closed with a lively reception.

– More info about COGITO

By Daniela De Paulis:

By Stephen Whitmarsh (also photos and technical):

Videos:

– Update February 13, 2019

Symposium videos are now available in blog Kick-off ‘COGITO in Space’ videos.

Radio Telescope Dwingeloo commemorates Apollo 11

Author(s): CAMRAS-PR, Jan van Muijlwijk (PA3FXB); Translation: Ilse Harmers

Audio: CAMRAS Jan van Muijlwijk; Video: RTV Drenthe

In ‘Echoes of Apollo’, (http://echoesofapollo.com/ the URL refers to the web archive of the no longer existing website) – a worldwide commemoration of the Apollo 11 Moon landing forty years ago – radio amateurs in the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope sent a radio speech to the Moon on June 27, 2009.

During the Moon landing of the Apollo 11 forty years ago, radio telescopes played a crucial role in the communication between the astronauts and the home base. During the commemoration, communication specialists and radio amateurs exchanged messages via the Moon with large parabolic antennas.

The broadcast from Dwingeloo was provided by radio amateur Jan van Muijlwijk (PA3FXB), one of the dozens of volunteers who help restore the radio telescope in Dwingeloo. Under the call sign PI9CAM, he honored all the astronauts who have been on the Moon by reading their names.

His speech was broadcast by the radio telescope to the Moon in a radio message. The Moon reflected part of the emitted radio waves back to the Earth. In that part of the world which was turned to the Moon, one could listen to his rebound speech.

Worldwide, youth was also involved in this commemoration. From Switzerland, America, and Australia, they could let their voices travel to the Moon and hear their echoes three seconds later. This delay is caused by the large distance (385,000 km) between the Earth and the Moon. A few days earlier, the New York Times published a short article A Ham Radio Weekend for Talking to the Moon about this.

During this commemoration, it turned out for the first time that with extraordinarily small transmission capacities (of less than a hundredth Watt) worldwide reliable radio connections can be realized by using the Moon as a reflector for radio waves. Herewith, the radio telescopes of Dwingeloo and Mount Pleasant (Tasmania) were used. See the blog post Low-power EME world record.

– Radio message PI9CAM

– Text radio message PI9CAM

The text below was read by Jan van Muijlwijk to Tasmania via the Moon. Recordings were made in Dwingeloo (audio) and in Tasmania (on video).

This is PI9CAM for the ECHOES OF APOLLO PROJECT JUNE 27, 2009

Hello nice people at the Mount Pleasant Observatory in Tasmania! Hello boys and girls “down under”. And a special hello to Rex, who initiated this operation at Mount Pleasant. Congratulations with this fantastic operation and our best wishes to you all from the Dwingeloo dish in the Netherlands.

The signals you hear now have traveled nearly 800.000 kilometers. First nearly 400.000 kilometers from Dwingeloo to the Moon and again 400.000 kilometers from the Moon to your dish at Mount Pleasant. Isn’t it a miracle?

By doing a lot of Moon bouncing today we honor the achievement of mankind 40 years ago. Because this year it is 40 years ago the first man set foot on the Moon.

I myself was only eleven years old at that time, but I have very vivid memories of the event. Our family watched television during the night to witness the famous first steps on the Moon. It was absolutely fabulous!

Some sentences spoken by the astronauts are engraved in the collective memory of mankind. Two of those sentences I would like to bounce off the Moon now:

Tranquility base here. The eagle has landed.

And the most famous of them all:

It’s one small step for man, but a giant leap for mankind!

I was thrilled by the complete Apollo project anyway. Every launch of another huge Saturn V rocket was a big adventure. And as a little boy I dreamt about how it would be like to be in space and walking on the Moon. It was a time of great expectations. I read all about it. I watched every space item on television. And what a joy it was to see the Apollo 11 mission become such a great success. And let’s not forget the other Apollo missions. Apollo 13 was a
scary adventure with a happy end. But all the other Apollo’s until nr 17 were very successful. What a time it was!

I am convinced that the Apollo project played a big role in the choices I and many others made for education and hobbies. And that it is one of the reasons I became a Ham radio operator. And thanks to that I am now involved in the restoration of this big 53 years old Dwingeloo Radio Telescope. And here we are, talking about Apollo and the Moon, via the Moon with this historic Radio Telescope. Full circle!

To conclude, back to the Apollo project. In total 12 brave man walked on the surface of the Moon. To honor their courage and to the memory of this great achievement I now read their names to the Moon to be bounced off to Tasmania:

1. Neil Armstrong
2. Edwin Aldrin
3. Charles Conrad
4. Alan Bean
5. Alan Shepard
6. Edgar Mitchell
7. David Scott
8. James Irwin
9. John Young
10.Charles Duke
11. Eugene Cernan
12. Harrison Schmitt

I hope you had good reception of our signals via the Moon! Thank you for listening and for taking part in this nice Echoes of Apollo project. And thanks to the Moon for being such a nice reflector!

Best regards to Mount Pleasant Tasmania from Dwingeloo The Netherlands. Good luck to you all.
PI9CAM end of transmission. Bye bye.

– Video impression of RTVDrenthe

Together with RTVDrenthe, Jan van Muijlwijk made a video impression of this broadcast combined with images of the moon landing on July 20, 2019.

Since January 2007, the CAMRAS foundation (with its volunteers and donors) has been working on renovating the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope and making it usable again in order to stimulate the interest in science and technology among young people.