Projects in Space Exploration

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Space Horizon

Space Horizon was founded by Arno Wielders, MSc in September 2004 . Space Horizon is a project agency which is focused on technical and educational projects in Space Exploration within the institutional and the commercial markets. Arno Wielders has worked in space projects for Dutch Space, TNO TPD, ESA and NASA.

Arno Wielders (1973) got his masters degree in Physics in 1997 from the Free University of Amsterdam. After graduation he was hired by the Leiden Observatory from the Leiden University to work at Dutch Space in the Very Large Telescope Interferometer Delay Line project. In 2002 he received his TWAIO (two year PhD like research) certificate and started as a research scientist at the Space Department of TNO TPD in Delft. At TNO TPD he was heavily involved in the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) project recently launched by NASA. He was also responsible for doing research in metrology systems for formation flying satellites, which included project proposals related to several missions for ESA:

LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), a joined ESA/NASA mission to detect gravitational waves from binary neutron stars and black holes

DARWIN, an European interferometry mission consisting of several free flying satellites with telescopes to look for other Earths and to do high resolution imaging of extragalactic objects.

SMART-2, a precursor mission for LISA and at that moment (2002) DARWIN, in which a number of critical technologies needed for a successful Darwin and LISA missions are to be tested in space.

In 1998 he co-founded the Mars Society Nederland, part of the international Mars Society with the aim of promoting and supporting a human mission to the Red planet. He was involved in a number of events, such as the symposium "Mars; a living planet" in 2001 in Delft and the Second European Mars Society Convention in 2002 in Rotterdam. After six years he left his chairman position at the Mars Society Nederland, but is still involved in a number of their projects.

One of his main research interests is comparative planetology in which the planets of the Solar System are being studied and compared to gain knowledge in the origin and evolution of planets and planetary systems. Therefore he is involved in a number of initiatives in creating a larger planetary scientific community in the Netherlands.