National Mars Week
The CPS takes part in National Mars Day/Week, organised by the UK Space Education Office (ESERO-UK) at STEM Learning and in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the UK Space Agency.
Mars Week 2024
Our Mars Week Debate ‘Exploring the Moon and Mars: Are human missions essential or are robotics the future?’ was a free public engagement event held online, on Thursday 7th March, as part of ESERO-UK and STEM Learning National Mars Week 2024.
Exploration of our Solar System has never been more exciting with many new space missions planned or on route to their distant destinations, promising to increase our understanding of the Universe and our place in it. Exploring the Moon and Mars has been at the forefront of our endeavours so far making discussion of how essential human-crewed missions are relative to future possibilities with robotic-only missions of great significance.
This event aimed to highlight both sides of this exciting and topical debate. After hearing from our experts and delving deeper by asking them questions, the audience were able to cast their own vote for Team Human or Team Robotic Exploration. Watch here to discover which team won!
Mars Week 2023
The ‘Mars vs Europa!’ debate was a free public engagement event held live in person at UCL and online, on Thursday 9th March, as part of ESERO-UK and STEM Learning National Mars Week 2023.
Planet of the week, Mars, is pitched against Guest Planet Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, in a lively debate on one of the hot topics in astrobiology and planetary science: ‘Where is the best place to search for life beyond Earth?’
Our experts presented their cases for Team Mars or Team Europa and the audience were able to put their questions to the panels, before casting their vote. Watch to find out who won on the night!