Calling all space fans: Design a family home on the Moon
BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – What does it take to live on the Moon? What might a “lunar home” look like? That’s the question Aldrin Family Foundation (AFF) poses to families with the Home on the Moon project. The interactive, summer education initiative challenges children and adults to apply their skills and knowledge in science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) to design a family habitat at one of the six Apollo landing sites on the Moon.
“Education has taken a drastic turn in the last few months, with kitchen tables, bedrooms and dens becoming the new classroom,” said Jim Christensen, executive director of ShareSpace Education, the K-12 arm of AFF. “Families are hungry for new ways to engage their kids that also help stimulate their minds. At the Aldrin Family Foundation, we know that the way to get students passionate about a subject is to make it come alive. Home on the Moon does just that.”
From now through the end of August, families are encouraged to create a proposal for the design and construction of a Family Home Outpost (FHO) to be built at a location of their choosing on the Moon. Successful proposals will address such things as:
- Research on the environment of the chosen location on the Moon
- Information on anticipated consumables and waste products (i.e., food, energy, oxygen, etc.)
- Ways the family will recycle resources
- Use of robotics, software and technology to contribute to operations and quality of life
- An architectural model, pictorial or video description of the FHO, along with floorplan
“Designing a home on the Moon gives kids a chance to understand that the systems within their house can be improved or even designed in new ways to work in space,” Christensen said. “The project can be done as a small team, a family or even as a team connected through technology. We are open to children and adults over a wide range of age and abilities.”
AFF provides all participants a series of “design assumptions,” including available infrastructure and support, as well as research resources to help spark ideas during the FHO design process.
AFF will share select submitted concepts on its social media platforms and website. In addition, AFF partner AstroReality (AR) will give away 10 of its LUNAR globes and 30 of its LUNAR AR Notebooks to teams that most clearly capture the vision of the project. AFF and AR will jointly review all submissions and determine prize winners. In order to qualify to win one of these prizes, participants should submit their proposals no later than Aug. 15, 2020. However, AFF will continue to make the Home on the Moon project available to teachers, students and families to access beyond this deadline.
For a full list of program details, click here. To register to participate, click here.
About the Aldrin Family Foundation
The Aldrin Family Foundation (AFF) strives to cultivate the next generation of space leaders, entrepreneurs, and explorers who will extend human habitation beyond the Earth to the Moon and Mars. AFF’s STEAM-based educational tools, curriculum, and programs span from a child’s first classroom experience through graduate school and professional programs. This vertical pathway unites explorers at all levels to learn from each other’s vision for space, ultimately creating the first generation of Martians.
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