Hetty Helsmoortel // Mission 2026

In 2026, Hetty turned 40. According to the average life expectancy, she is now statistically somewhere in the middle. Urgently time to take stock. Because ever since the day she could read, her existence has been filled with science and curiosity: collecting stones, drawing robots, or building the most stable sandcastles on the beach of Ostend. But does science remain a faithful ally in the second half of her life? What if she gets a diagnosis in a few years at 75 for which there is no treatment yet? Won't she be angry then, because maybe there was too much dawdling somewhere in 2026? Or just grateful for the things that did move forward in that year? Will that newest laundry-folding robot, for which the basis may have been laid in 2026, be a blessing by then? Or just an extra device that we have to descale? Because have we actually really gained more time since the invention of the dishwasher and the dryer? And does her childlike enthusiasm about the new and ever-further exploration of space - with the moon at the forefront in 2026 - remain standing? Even if that moon might have become a place by then where we have gone to look for as many dreams as raw materials? In Missie 2026 Hetty's hope, humor, and wonder come together again. She looks in her own way at the most striking scientific events of 2026. For the sixth time in a row, she wants to send everyone back into the world after the show with appetite and a head full of new insights. Hetty Helsmoortel proves that science can not only inform and wonder, but also entertain. (Senne Starckx, De Standaard, 16/11/2025) About the makers Wetenschapswatcher Hetty Helsmoortel is a woman with a mission. She wants to inspire everyone with her passion for science and technology, in the most diverse ways. There is gradually little by which you cannot know Hetty Helsmoortel. She is part of the intergalactically popular Nerdland Podcast. Met de Nerdland Scheurkalender she also hangs in many a Flemish toilet together with Lieven Scheire and she wrote several bestsellers in the Nerdland book series. As a science watcher, she is a welcome guest on radio and television. Since 2021, she has been listing the most striking science news of the year in her witty theater tour Missie. Finally, she is artistic director of Nerdland Festival: the largest science festival in the Benelux, where science is served in an entertaining way and which has easily drawn thirty thousand visitors in recent years.