A Mars simulation game and a science communication project
September 2022 – October 2025
The project is part of the „Sparkling Science 2.0“ funding line. With this programme, the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) funds citizen science projects where children, young people and civil society are actively involved in the research process.
Initiated by the Vienna Museum of Science and Technology (TMW), LIQUIFER and ten other research partners are creating a platform to reflect on developments in space science that will affect our future both in space and on Earth.
During the project, children and young people take on the role of Citizen Scientists, exploring their own interests and formulating their aspirations, needs, and visions in order to become experts and co-designers of their own future. A youth advisory board acts as Mission Control, steering the radically participatory research process. The project addresses the following topics: “NEW SPACE – thinking ahead,” “Moon Village or Mars Colony?,” “Women in Space,” and “Space Junk or World Heritage?”
The cooperation between schools and institutions involves children and young people of all ages (from 3 to 18 years) and from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, as well as partners working in space science in Austria. The LIQUIFER team shares its expertise in collaborative project work and its insider knowledge on designing for life on the Moon or Mars.
Together with the TMW partners, LIQUIFER developed a Mars Mission Simulation role-play game, described below.
Events
Fieldtrip to Mars >>>
Workshop for school students
How can we cross frontiers and explore the highly dangerous unknown — in space and beyond? By simulating every possible scenario, acquiring knowledge, skills, and competence, and exploring ways to respond to the unforeseen.
Children and youths aged 10 to 18 form their own exploration teams and act independently within a set of guidelines — including emergency scenarios — to successfully carry out their mission in search of life on Mars. In the future, the role play will be offered to schools to foster team-building skills and collaborative problem-solving in a playful setting.
LIQUIFER also provided advice and materials for primary school workshops focused on building models of a Mars habitat from recycled packaging materials, as described below.
Workshop for children
The collaboration with primary school children aged 6 to 10 emphasized resource awareness as a critical factor for life both in outer space and on Earth. A wide variety of packaging materials served as building components for Mars Habitat Models that reflected the pupils’ personal visions. Teams of two to four children impressively demonstrated their creativity, integrating multiple personal ideas and complex building functions under significant time pressure.
Consortium partners Technisches Museum Wien – Austria / LIQUIFER Systems Group – Austria / TU Space Team – Austria / Viennese Schools and Kindergartens – Austria
LIQUIFER team Barbara Imhof, Waltraut Hoheneder, René Waclavicek
image credits Mars simulation game: Bruno Stubenrauch
image credits school workshop: LIQUIFER