DDK supports STEM challenge

Funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering, designed and run by spacefund.co.uk and supported by Girlguiding Kent East, the STEM Hub SE and DDK, Space Engineers aims to inspire and educate girls with Engineering, Space and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).

Working with a diverse team of volunteer Engineers, 400 Girl Guides from Kent are working towards earning a ‘Space Engineers’ Girlguiding badge on this unforgettable STEM-themed mission. The highlight being an opportunity for the girls to use their problem solving and engineering skills within a Lunar Base – a series of domes that provide an immersive “escape room’ style experience.

Space Engineers is inspired by the “Artemis Programme” where the European Space Agency and its International Partners such as NASA are working towards a sustained presence on the Moon, including landing the first woman on the lunar surface.

The girls have been recruited to work as ‘Space Engineers’ on a new Moon base. Shortly after arriving at “Spaceport Earth” they are dramatically launched into orbit and then on to the Moon. They arrive on the Moon to find that there is an emergency! The Space Engineers must work together to get the Moon base back up and running before the time runs out.

In groups of 10 they explore the 5 different areas of the Moon Base and work together to solve the various problems they encounter.

Water: The Water recycling machine is broken! Create a water filter to recycle the precious water on the Moon. Use the filtered water to make rocket fuel and water the plants in the greenhouse.

Light: The underground greenhouses are not getting enough light. Directing light into the underground greenhouse down a reflective silver tube. Use UV light to “see” in a different way.

CO2: Just like Apollo 13, make a filter to prevent the Co2 levels getting too high.

Robots: The robots have stopped building the Moon base. Reprogramme them to move and communicate.

Power: There’s not enough power to run the Moon base. First, build a solar array and test it to check it works. Next, test which implements would be best to fit on a Moon robot to mine the ice from the bottom of the crater. Secondly, create hydrogen from the ice to store the solar energy and create oxygen.

The girls are also working towards the Space Engineers Girlguiding Badge where they are doing things such as: learning about engineering in the wider world, interviewing a real engineer, designing a space patch, finding out about astronauts who are also engineers, designing a Moon habitat, using google maps to choose the best place to create a moon base, design a menu for astronauts travelling to the Moon, and much more!

Tim Dixon, Director at DDK, says “encouraging young people and girls in particular to take up STEM subjects is really important to develop the next generation of engineers and we were delighted to be able to support this incredible project”.