Future Moon exploration
Brief description: Though it has been fifty years since humans first stepped on the Moon, we haven’t forgotten about Earth’s natural satellite. Several missions since Apollo have taught us so much about the Moon and have paved the way for humankind to return. ESA Moon scientist James Carpenter gives us an overview of these missions […]
Living on the Moon
Brief description: The Apollo Mission proved humans can work on the lunar surface but the longest lunar spacewalk lasted a total of 22 hours. Could humans spend longer amounts of time on the Moon? How about live there, as they do on the International Space Station? Lunar technology expert Bérengère Houdou describes living on the […]
3D Printing on the Moon
Brief description: We can 3D print just about anything these days, from tools and buildings to cells and even food. But that’s on Earth, where materials are readily available. What about in space or on the Moon? Could we 3D print a lunar base? ESA engineer Advenit Makaya walks us through the process.https://youtu.be/N-FltXDb8dILanguages available:This video […]
Resources on the Moon
Brief description: It’s common knowledge that the Moon is a cratered ball of rock. Stunning as it is in the night sky or in photographs taken from orbit the landscape is barren, grey, dusty and dark. Are there other things to be found than meets the eye? Moon scientist Alexandre Meurisse explains which resources can […]
Extracting Water from Lunar Soil – Learning about filtration and distillation
Brief description: In this resource, students will learn about changes of state of matter using water on the Moon as an example. They will interpret data from a pressure vs. temperature graph for water to enable a discussion about how changes of state are different on the Moon compared to what we are used to […]
Power from Water – How to produce oxygen and hydrogen on the Moon
Brief description: In this set of three activities, students will learn about electrochemistry. In the first activity, they will build a voltaic pile – a simple battery. This invention marked the beginning of electrochemistry. Students will then study electrolysis. Electrolysis uses electric current to split water into its components: hydrogen and oxygen. These products can […]
Landing on the moon – Planning and designing a lunar lander
Brief description: In this set of activities, students will plan, design and build a landing module to secure the survival of the crew (in the form of an egg-naut) landing on the Moon. They will explore which factors should be considered when landing on the Moon, in comparison to landing on Earth. In the design […]
Power from Sunlight – Powering space exploration with solar energy
Brief description: In this set of activities, students will learn about two concepts that influence solar panel design for space missions: the inverse square law and the angle of incidence. Students will perform two simple investigations using a photovoltaic cell (solar cell) and a light source. First, they will measure how the power produced by […]
Space Bears – Lab-experience with Tardigrades
Brief description: In this set of experimental activities, students will investigate the survival abilities of tardigrades, also known as water bears. They will expose conditions and come to a conclusion about which environments they can survive in. The aim of this resource is to test tardigrades’ resilience to extreme environmental conditions and link their survival […]
Could life survive in alien environments? – Defining environments suitable for life
Brief description: In this activity, students will consider whether life found in extreme environments on Earth could survive elsewhere in the Solar System. Students will examine the characteristics of different places in the Solar System and then use fact cards of some example extremophiles to hypothesise which they think might be able to survive in […]
