Future Space
‘We’re really excited to be able to offer Powerhouse Future Space as the inaugural program for the Lang Walker Family Academy. We will welcome over 10,000 students from Western Sydney and Regional NSW, delivering dynamic education programs, and develop these experiments that go beyond their classroom walls.’
Pilot Program
Powerhouse: Future Space, since 2022, has been connecting Stage 5 students from six Western Sydney local government areas to the International Space Station and a global network of learners through the ExoLab-10 mission.
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Powerhouse: Future Space connects Stage 5 students from six Western Sydney local government areas to the International Space Station and a global network of learners through the ExoLab-10 mission.
The 2022 mission ‘Carbon Farmer’ uses scientific enquiry to teach students about the importance of the carbon cycle on Earth and in space. Students will become climate change solutionaries by experimenting with growing alfalfa in the classroom. By conducting their own ground trials in line with an active experiment on board the International Space Station they can compare data on effective methods for growing crops in microgravity to sustain future space missions and help filter carbon dioxide from the air for astronauts on long space flights.
‘I don't know what country the first person to step foot on Mars is going to come from. It could be Australia. It could be one of you sitting right here. It'll happen probably in about 20 years. That will go to Mars. You're all the right age. So I'm asking you, when you go to Mars and you get footage of that very first mission. When you step foot on Mars, will you invite me so I can sit in your audience and I can watch your video and hear your stories?’
Lunar module model of NASA's Apollo 9 spacecraft
The Powerhouse: Future Space schools include Arthur Phillip High School, Casula High School, East Hills Girls Technology High School, Hurlstone Agricultural High School, Jamison High School and Seven Hills High School with additional schools Murrumbidgee Regional High School and Maitland Grossmann High School.
This program will be delivered in tandem with the Powerhouse: Design For Space Challenge as part of the newly developed department approved elective iSTEM. Maitland Grossmann High School and Murrumbidgee Regional High School will be involved in a virtual pilot of the program.
Powerhouse: Future Space is developed in partnership by Powerhouse, Magnitude.io and the NSW Department of Education, with support from Fizzics Education and presented as part of the Lang Walker Family Academy In-Schools Program.
Exolab 10 Mission
‘Exolab-10 is a series of experiments all around the world to discover how different factors effect plant growth in space, specifically alfalfa.’
‘Working with the Powerhouse, the Lang Walker Academy, the Department of Education and your school, as well as five other schools is Western Sydney, we are connecting you with schools around the world on this mission to the international space station. Students will be conducting ground trials and connected to this live experiment as you look at these plants growing, you’ll compare them, and look at how an organism might grow in a micro gravity environment.’
