Lunar Mission One Education Pilot Programme
The purpose of the Lunar Mission One project is to create an epic record of life on Earth that everyone can be part of!
Lunar Mission One (LM1) plans an international project with the aim of sending an unmanned robotic spacecraft to land at the south pole of the Moon. It drills down 20-100 metres to collect and analyse lunar rock up to 4.5 billion years old age. In addition, it assesses the South Pole’s suitability for a permanently manned base in the future, and also investigates the Moon’s potential for deep space radio astronomy. Once the drilling is complete, it places an epic record of “Life on Earth” as a digital time capsule in the borehole to last there for a billion years. Anyone, anywhere, can include their own personal “digital memory box” alongside the principal archive. The mission is managed commercially, under public authority, and for the benefit of a non-profit trust created to fund space science and exploration. It takes three years to set up the contractual arrangements before the main development of the mission technology can proceed. The mission is expected to take place around the year 2024.
LM1 foresees a very large-scale global education programme that allows children to benefit from the many opportunities to participate in the project. Most of all, they can freely contribute to the information in the “Life on Earth” archive, from human civilisation and the history of the world to a database of biological life on Earth. Students can record and learn about their local area – its culture, history, geography and wildlife. They can also learn about, and even contribute to, the science and engineering of the mission itself, such as the technology of the archive, the lunar science and the instruments to be carried, the spacecraft’s robotics and drilling, the spaceflight from launch to precision landing, the future of space exploration and the future of humankind and planet Earth.
To prepare for the main education programme, LM1 plans a pilot programme lasting about three years. It seeks a few pilot schools from each major culture around the world, to test ideas for schools to find out what works best for their local curriculum. The ideas can cover many areas, from culture to science and technology, and for any age and ability. Each pilot school gets the opportunity to shape LM1’s educational programme in its country, and to involve its students from an early stage of the project. With the teachers’ agreement, classwork can be recognised within the archive and attributed to the students. Pilot schools can use their local language, but LM1 asks for one school in each country to be able to communicate in English with the schools of other countries, and with LM1’s project management.
Basic information
No information targeted for researchers is available at this moment
LM1 is without doubt an exceptional way to connect your pupils directly with humankind’s greatest adventure, the exploration of space, through the public creation of a comprehensive description of “Life on Earth” for education and research, in conjunction with the development of the knowledge and methods required to explore our Moon and the planets beyond. This is not fantasy or science fiction, as LM1 has raised a considerable sum of money towards this goal and is backed by professional space exploration organisations, universities and public institutions (see https://lunarmissionone.com/). Today’s children may be the space scientists and engineers of the future. People who are involved in the project are great believers in the way space, as an educational topic, can excite children of all ages to engage in the classroom. They think that, as it develops over the next ten years, Lunar Mission One will be one of the most inspiring educational projects that students can get involved in.
The practical benefits of being an LM1 Pilot School help teachers and students to engage with exciting activities from the very start. In particular, the team at LM1 project are already developing several learning activities that they would like Pilot Schools all around the world to trial , such as:
- Building a record of society, starting at a community level.
- Building a description of nature and our environment.
- The science and challenges of solar system exploration.
There are opportunities for pupils to create artistic, musical and social contributions to the project to celebrate the human race’s creativity and inventiveness in all its different aspects, which could also be included in the “Life on Earth” record. If this is an opportunity that interests you and your school, and will excite the curiosity of your students, then please sign up now by contacting schools (at) lunarmissionone.com to discuss the next steps.
