Planetary scientist Sebastiaan de Vet of the Planetary Exploration group at TU Delft has received a Comenius Teaching Fellowship for his proposal to start developing a ‘Planetary Analogue Rock Collection’ (PARC) for use in courses of the Planetary Exploration MSc profile.
By allowing students to work with terrestrial rocks and minerals that also occur on other planetary bodies, as well as with their ‘digital twins’ (interactive 3D models), De Vet aims to make the learning process more compatible with current insights from research into the interior properties and surface materials of the rocky planets in the solar system. After all, some basic knowledge of geological materials is necessary for designing space missions and their instrumentation, but also for conducting planetary research using those missions and instruments. Together with Bart Root from the section Planetary exploration and Sophie Guerrero-Harpe and Mahsa Sajedi from the Educational department of Aerospace Engineering, De Vet will explore the best approach and added value of ‘the materials perspective’ in several courses.
The Comenius grant was awarded from the Comenius Teaching Fellows 2024 programme by the Netherlands Initiative for Education Research (NRO). Meanwhile, the new round for the 2025 programme has been opened for applications by interested lecturers. NRO’s Comenius programme began in 2017 and focuses on educational renewal and innovation and gives education professionals the opportunity to further develop their careers.