Sending Spare Parts to Mars is a Bad Business Case

What can industry learn from designing and managing systems that must continue to operate reliably millions of kilometres from Earth?

In space, a traditional maintenance strategy is not an option. You cannot simply send a technician when something fails. Spare parts are scarce, human intervention may be severely delayed or even impossible, and a failure can jeopardise an entire mission.

During the evening keynote of Asset Performance 2026, Dr. Stefaan De Mey, Head of the Strategy Team for Human and Robotic Exploration at the European Space Agency (ESA), takes you into a world where reliability, autonomy and lifecycle performance are pushed to the extreme. gedreven.

Using striking visuals and examples from human and robotic space exploration, Stefaan De Mey explains how ESA approaches missions in low Earth orbit, on the Moon and towards Mars.

Space exploration forces engineers to fundamentally rethink reliability, risk, maintainability, autonomy and lifecycle performance.

How do you design systems that must remain reliable over very long periods? How do you make decisions when human intervention is limited or delayed? And what role can autonomous and robotic systems play?

The keynote translates these extreme challenges into familiar questions for asset-intensive organisations on Earth and offers a fresh perspective on industrial resilience and long-term asset strategies.

You do not need to attend the full Asset Performance Conference to join this keynote.

With the separate evening ticket, you can join from 18:00 for the reception and networking. At 18:50, Dr. Stefaan De Mey takes the stage for his keynote. Afterwards, the evening continues with the Asset Performance Walking Dinner, where you can network in an informal setting with participants, speakers and professionals from maintenance, reliability and asset management.

18:00 – Reception & Networking
18:50 – Evening Keynote: Sending Spare Parts to Mars is a Bad Business Case
19:45 – Asset Performance Walking Dinner
21:45 – End

This evening is particularly relevant for maintenance and reliability managers, asset managers, plant and technical managers, engineering managers, operations leaders, CTOs, COOs and other technical decision-makers who want to look beyond day-to-day maintenance practice.

The keynote combines technology and engineering with strategic topics such as resilience, autonomy, risk management and lifecycle performance.

Date: Wednesday 18 November 2026
Start evening programme: 18:00
Keynote: 18:50
Walking Dinner: 19:45
Location: Flanders Meeting & Convention Center Antwerp (FMCCA)
Carnotstraat 4, 2018 Antwerp
Language: English

Separate Evening Ticket

Would you only like to attend the evening programme? You can.

The separate Keynote & Walking Dinner ticket is available during the Early Bird period until 30 September at:

• BEMAS members: €125
• Non-members: €135

Prices exclude 21% VAT.

Participants attending Asset Performance 2026 on Wednesday or holding a full conference pass do not need a separate evening ticket: the complete evening programme is already included.