Watch the Moon Camp webinar with ESA astronauts Samantha Cristoforetti and Luca Parmitano

Samantha kicked off the webinar by expressing how happy and honoured she was to take part in the webinar and to meet all the teams virtually: “It is great so see so many bright, brilliant, dedicated, engaged boys and girls from around the world […] that decided to dedicate their talent, energy, passion and curiosity to the challenge of exploring the Moon, that is very dear to me as an astronaut.”

Samantha replied to questions from all the teams that covered topics as different as mental health and black holes.

Afterwards, it was Luca’s turn to satisfy the teams’ curiosity. When one of the teams asked Luca to describe what he would find important on a Moon Base, he described a few items he felt would be important: “I would want to get in and out of the base in a fairly quick way, I would definitely want windows to be able to look outside […], I would definitely want an exercise room so that I could keep my body in good shape […] while I’m on the Moon […] and also the possibility to have a communal life, because I would want to spend time with other crew members.”

Luca also discussed the future of human exploration from the technological and biological point of view. The far, far away future is unknown, but space explorers may adapt to resist radiation or have extra hands or even a tail!

After the question and answer session, Luca encouraged the students with these inspiring words: “It was such a huge pleasure to see your faces, I was really excited to do this. I see your smiling faces and it makes me think that the future is going to be good. […] I can imagine […] that you are the future and the future is in your hands and thanks to you there is a lot of hope. I look at you guys and maybe I am looking at one of the people that will land on Mars one day. I really want to take a good look at your faces, because I may be staring at the astronauts of the future. Good luck and keep rocking! Keep loving what you do and doing what you love.”

Watch the webinar below. 

ESA and the Airbus Foundation would like to thank all the teams and teachers that participated for their effort and great work. Those who did not have the opportunity to participate this year can still join Moon Camp @Home or take part in the next school year edition. Stay tuned! 

Note
The Moon Camp Challenge is an educational and inspirational curricular and interdisciplinary school project run by ESA and the Airbus Foundation, in partnership with Autodesk.