- Three of the main participating space agencies will have female representatives: the Spanish Space Agency with Eva Villaver, the Japanese JAXA, with Chiharu Hoshino, and the European Agency ESA, with Lucía F. de la Bella.
- In addition, the legendary president of the International Space University, Pascale Ehrenfreund, and the president of the foundation “Space for a better world”, the American Christina Korp, also participate in SUTUS 23, which from September 26 to 28 takes place in Les Roches Marbella.
- The “Indiana Jones of the Seas”, Lola Higueras, the first underwater archaeologist in Spain and winner of the Madblue 5 Oceans award, will talk about her “life adventure immersed in the Ocean”.
Marbella, September 18th, 2023.
The agenda of the fourth edition of SUTUS by les Roches, to be held in Marbella from September 26 to 28, makes it clear that women have a relevant role in these new challenges of Humanity and that they will be even more protagonists with the arrival of the first woman on the Moon, planned by NASA for 2025.
Several of the main space agencies and entities have chosen women to represent them at the main international event on space and underwater tourism.
Eva Villaver (Spanish Space Agency), Lucía F. de la Bella (ESA), Pascale Ehrenfreund (International Space University), Chiharu Hoshino (JAXA), Sara González de la Torre (University of Cadiz), Christina Korp (Space for a Better World) and Lola Higueras, known as the “Indiana Jones of the Seas”, will talk about tourist trips to the Moon, Mars or the bottom of the oceans.
Stars in space: the role of women in the cosmos
SUTUS (Space & Underwater Tourism Universal Summit) is the main international event that addresses each year and simultaneously the two great frontiers of Man: Space and the Oceans.
The recently created Spanish Space Agency (AEE) will be represented by its Space Director, Eva Villaver. Her journey within the space sector began when she joined NASA as a postdoctoral researcher at the prestigious Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute in 2001. During her stay in the United States she also excelled in the study of the hottest stars that populate the Magellanic Clouds.
Lucía F. de la Bella will be the speaker for the European Space Agency (ESA) in her capacity as ESA Ambassador to the United Kingdom. “My main objective is to break down barriers to advance our technological knowledge and achieve social advances for all mankind (…) My motivation is to serve as a bridge between the UK and the Spanish space sector,” she says.
Chiharu Hoshino, Deputy Director Paris Office of JAXA, will share at SUTUS 2023 the latest space exploration projects of the Japanese agency. He will present its focus on lunar and Martian exploration, highlighting its ‘SLIM’ project for precise lunar landings; as well as its plans to bring back samples from the surface of Phobos, the largest satellite of the ‘Red Planet’.
“We are collaborating with non-space-related private companies to establish sustainable human activities on the lunar surface,” Hoshino emphasizes.
Legendary Austrian scientist Pascale Ehrenfreund, president of the International Space University (ISU), will talk about the opportunities for young people to work in the space industry. “The space industry will need quite a lot of highly qualified manpower by 2030. And not just engineers,” he says.
Christina Korp, CEO of the Space for a Better World Foundation is a strong advocate for inclusion and diversity in space. “We create space programs and projects with the intention to inspire, educate and raise awareness about the usefulness of space for the well-being of humanity,” she says.
Sara González de la Torre is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cadiz. In her lecture she will address topics such as resilience, diversity and high performance in space exploration. González maintains that humans are social beings and, therefore, human relationships are very important in space missions.
“We study how people adapt and interact in extreme environments and simulations that prepare humans to return to the moon, Mars and beyond,” Gonzalez says.
The prominent role of women in underwater tourism
Lola Higueras, known as the “Indiana Jones of the Seas”, is the first underwater archaeologist in Spain. For many years she has been combining her great passions: diving, research, teaching and travel. Her contribution has been extensive and includes the documentation of more than 2,000 Spanish shipwrecks from the National Board of Archaeology and the Center for Underwater Naval Historical Studies of the Naval Museum.
“Spain lacks the marketing that the Titanic had. On our coasts there are ships that are worth telling their story and that have an international projection,” says this historian, who a few months ago received the Madblue 5 Oceans award.
SUTUS 2023 by Les Roches
All SUTUS by Les Roches conferences can be followed through its virtual platform, powered by ‘The Observatory’ of Medina Media Events. Attendees will be able to schedule video meetings with other participants and speakers, as well as visit exclusive online demos.
SUTUS 2023 by Les Roches, under the slogan “Beyond natural borders”, is supported by the Ministry of Tourism of the Andalusian Government, Tourism and Planning of the Costa del Sol, Marbella Town Hall, Acosol, HALO Space, Marchica Med, ABOVE SPACE, Karlos Simón Viajes y Expediciones and Hotel 5* Alanda Marbella.
As a subscriber, you will get a 20% discount. Enter the code SUTUS23 and click on Validate in the registration form.