The government's vision and the activities of the project to support education and young scientists were presented on 2 September at the Brno Observatory and Planetarium not only by Prime Minister Petr Fiala, but also by Transport Minister Martin Kupka, Minister of Education, Youth and Sports Mikuláš Bek, Minister of Science, Research and Innovation Marek Ženíšek, astronaut Aleš Svoboda and other guests.

In addition to the economic benefits of supporting Czech science and industry, the long-term project Czech Journey to Space aims to highlight the need for technical and natural science fields and thus inspire the youngest generation to study them. "Our science and industry are already experiencing a shortage of educated professionals, who are crucial for the development of the economy and the Restart of the Czech Republic. That is why we need to encourage young people to take an interest in technical fields. Just as in the past space flights have inspired the technological leaders of the last decades, the Czech space project can stimulate interest in science and modern technologies in the youngest Czech generation. Our astronaut Aleš Svoboda can be a great inspiration and a positive role model," said Prime Minister Petr Fiala.

For the Czech science and economy, the Czech Journey to Space project will provide an opportunity to carry out a number of experiments and observations in the field of medicine, technology and new materials that cannot be implemented on Earth. Scientists from VSB-TUO want to take part in it. "A number of events aimed at education, science, research or industry were presented. Important for us was the information about the call for proposals, in which Czech academic, industrial and other entities can propose activities to be implemented on the International Space Station (ISS)," said Radek Martinek, university coordinator for space research, vice-dean for science and research at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and member of the CAERPIN (Czech Aerospace Research Institute) consortium.

The call for projects will be announced on 16 September, and next week an Information Day will be held at the Ministry of Transport, where participants will be informed about the purpose and content of the call. They will also have the opportunity to consult with European Space Agency (ESA) staff. 
Representatives of VSB-TUO will also be present with two space research projects. "Both projects, which could be operated on the ISS and similar platforms, are already in the pipeline and we are ready to submit them. This is a project to analyse the properties of nanorobots under microgravity conditions. The second project is the mapping and analysis of astronauts' stress through voice and sensor data on the ISS," Radek Martinek explained the projects.

Members of the CAERPIN consortium have also agreed to join forces and submit some projects in collaboration between universities or private companies.The presentation of the Czech Space Journey project also served for informal meetings between members of the government and guests. "I took advantage of the meeting to talk to Transport Minister Martin Kupka and invited him to visit the university to present our activities not only in the field of space research, but also the Mobility Lab and other projects. I am very happy that he accepted the offer," Martinek added.