Community and Societal Engagement

Space Lab has a vigourous program of community and societal engagment. Our key objectives are to:

• Bring the world-class research performed by Space Lab members out of the lab and into the heart of the community. This will increase the reach and accessibility of our research.
• Promote space science and engineering as a career path for school students, presenting Space Lab researchers as positive role models, and improving public understanding of the relevance of STEM subjects to the societal challenges of the future.
• Help teachers learn more about space science and provide ways to develop their knowledge for teaching the relevant sections of the National Curriculum.
• Develop a two-way conversation between Space Lab researchers and the public helping to shape and influence our research as well as helping the public to better understand the impact of space research upon their lives.

We are excited to communicate our research, and are always looking for new opportunities to get out of the lab and into the community. If you would like to know more, please email us here at Space Lab!  

Listen to our science podcasts

Want to learn more about our space science and engineering research? We've made a Soundcloud playlist of all the content we currently have relating to space: https://soundcloud.com/user-499485249/sets/space - click on the link to head over and find out more!

Make a spaceship!

Here at Imperial College we've sent space missions all over the solar system - Our Space Exploration Infographic shows all the places we've visited (and places like Ganymede - the moon of Jupiter - that we'll be visiting in the future).

If you could design your own spaceship, where would you go? What would your spaceship look like? 

Here's your challenge: complete one of the following tasks:

For younger children (and adults!),

• Make your own spaceship out of anything you have lying around the house - old cardboard boxes, containers, the contents of your recycling bin, whatever you can find!
• Draw your own spaceship and be as creative as you can!

For older children (and adults!)

• Design your spaceship. Draw a diagram showing the layout of your spaceship. What do you need? What don't you need? How many people are going? What's the purpose of your mission? Look online for inspiration - or use your imagination!

When you're done, why not share your creation?

• If you want to share your creation, ask your parents or carers to help post a picture of your creation on Twitter with the hastag #spacelabspaceship, and send Space Lab a tweet with your picture to @ICSpaceLab - we'll collect them there.
• And don't forget: tell us where your spaceship is going, and the name of your spaceship