Almost Two Decades Building the Future of Space Education with ESA

Aug 13, 2026 | Augmented Reality, Multimedia Creation, Scaled Models, Science & Software, Space Education, Space Industry, Space Robotics, Virtual Reality

Some projects last for a few months. Others become part of your history.

Our story with the European Space Agency (ESA) belongs firmly to the second category.

Since 2008, our professional journey has been closely connected to ESA and to ESAC (European Space Astronomy Centre) in Spain. As educational activities at ESAC began to grow, our role evolved with them, eventually encompassing many of the elements required to transform world-class space science into educational experiences for students, teachers and the general public.

Over the years, we have worked across educational visits, STEAM workshops, scientific tools, software development, web platforms, databases, telescopes and observatories, multimedia content, simulators, virtual and augmented reality, robotics, 3D printing and interactive experiences.

It has been a long journey at the intersection of science, engineering, education, technology and creativity, constantly adapting to new missions and new ways of learning.

And throughout all these years, one objective has remained unchanged: to bring the extraordinary science and technology of ESA closer to the generations that may one day help shape its future.

ESAC: turning space science into education

European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), located near Madrid, is one of the major scientific centres of the European Space Agency (ESA). It plays a key role in ESA’s scientific missions and hosts important scientific operations and archives containing data from missions exploring the Solar System and the Universe.

Bringing students into such an environment creates an extraordinary educational opportunity, but also a significant challenge: how do you transform the science taking place inside a space agency into something a student can understand, explore and experience?

The answer required much more than producing educational content. Activities had to be adapted to different ages, scientific concepts had to be transformed into practical experiences, educators had to be trained and coordinated, software and technological tools had to be developed, and the educational infrastructure had to evolve as the programme grew.

Over the years, our work has covered many of these areas, from the delivery and coordination of educational visits to the creation of the technology, content and tools behind them.

A multidisciplinary team for a multidisciplinary universe

Space exploration cannot be understood through a single discipline, and neither can space education.

Throughout these years, we have worked with multidisciplinary teams including astrophysicists, physicists, aerospace and industrial engineers, software engineers and developers, robotics and electronics specialists, designers, multimedia creators, educators and science communicators.

This combination of disciplines has allowed us to approach educational projects as complete technological experiences.

A scientific application must produce meaningful results while remaining accessible to students. A simulator must accurately represent a mission while being intuitive enough to use in an educational environment. A virtual reality experience must be technologically impressive, but its ultimate purpose must remain educational.

This approach has allowed us to participate in the complete development cycle of many projects: from the initial educational concept and scientific content to software development, 3D modelling, physical construction, technological integration and, finally, the experience delivered to students.

CESAR: bringing real ESA science into the classroom

A major part of this journey has been our involvement in CESAR – Cooperation through Education in Science and Astronomy Research, the educational initiative developed at ESAC to bring astronomy and space science closer to European students.

Our work within CESAR has covered different areas, including educational activities, scientific tools, technological development, software, web platforms, telescopes and observatories.

One of the most powerful concepts behind the project is enabling students to approach astronomy using methods inspired by real scientific research. Instead of simply reading about the Universe, students can work with observations, images and scientific data, analyse phenomena and understand how scientists transform measurements into knowledge.

We developed, among other solutions, specific web-based scientific tools for CESAR’s scientific cases. These included applications for studying the rotation period of the Sun, analysing differential solar rotation at different latitudes and calculating the distance between Venus and the Sun using observations from a Venus transit.

The applications were designed with different levels of difficulty so that students of different ages could work with them. The challenge was particularly interesting: simplify the interaction without simplifying the science itself.

The result was a set of educational tools capable of bringing genuine scientific methodology into schools and educational experiences.

Winning ESA Education’s competition

A particularly significant milestone came in 2017, when we won a competition organised by ESA’s Education Department to become part of the CESAR educational project at ESAC.

The responsibility went far beyond delivering workshops. The work included designing and leading Space Science Experiences, developing new space technology for educational purposes and organising school visits to ESAC.

This represented an important evolution in a relationship with ESA that had already begun years earlier. It placed our multidisciplinary team directly at the intersection between ESA’s scientific activity and the students who were discovering it.

From that point onwards, creating educational experiences increasingly meant creating the technology behind those experiences as well.

Building the invisible infrastructure behind space education

A successful educational programme involving schools, teachers, students and multiple activities requires an infrastructure that visitors rarely see.

As ESA’s educational activities evolved, we also worked on websites, management applications, registration systems, administrative platforms and databases designed to support educational visits and programmes.

These systems helped manage schools, teachers, participants, bookings, educational seasons and activities, while also providing access to educational resources.

This less visible part of the project has been fundamental. Educational innovation does not only happen when a student interacts with a robot or enters a virtual spacecraft. It also happens through the technological infrastructure that makes it possible for thousands of students to access those experiences efficiently and consistently.

When education requires real engineering: automating a solar observatory

One of the clearest examples of how far this combination of engineering and education can go is our work on the CESAR Solar Observatory.

The project involved both hardware and software.

Physical improvements were made to the system, specific components were designed and produced using 3D printing, and a major upgrade of the control software significantly increased the observatory’s level of automation.

The resulting system was capable of checking weather conditions, determining whether observations could safely take place, controlling the dome, pointing the telescopes towards the Sun, focusing the instruments and acquiring images.

The process continued automatically after the observation itself, with the system capable of aligning, rotating and calibrating the images before publishing them to a server.

The purpose was educational, but making that education possible required genuine engineering: automation, control systems, astronomical instrumentation, image acquisition, software development and scientific image processing.

It is perhaps one of the best examples of the philosophy that has guided much of our work with ESA: when education needs new technology, we build it.

Creating STEAM workshops from ESA science and missions

Alongside technological development, one of the central areas of our work has been the creation, continuous evolution and delivery of STEAM educational workshops.

Over the years, we have developed activities covering astronomy, space engineering, satellite construction, robotics, electronics, spectroscopy, astrobiology, solar observation, rocket design and launch, 3D printing, planetary exploration and ESA missions.

As technology evolved, so did the educational possibilities.

Virtual reality, augmented reality, robotics, 3D printing, immersive experiences, interactive applications and increasingly sophisticated physical models allowed concepts that were once limited to photographs, diagrams or videos to become experiences students could explore directly.

Technology, however, has never been the objective in itself. Every tool has been developed around an educational purpose: understanding how a spacecraft works, discovering the stages of a mission, experimenting with physical principles, analysing scientific data or discovering the many professions involved in space exploration.

Turning ESA missions into experiences

One of the most creative challenges throughout these years has been transforming highly complex space missions into experiences that students and the general public can understand.

Missions and programmes such as Rosetta, BepiColombo, Gaia, Sentinel, ExoMars and Ariane, together with Mars exploration, Earth observation and activities related to the International Space Station, have inspired many different educational developments.

Depending on the mission, we have used interactive applications, educational video games, animations, 3D models, physical models, virtual reality and technological demonstrators.

BepiColombo, for example, became the basis for an educational video game. Ariane 5 inspired an interactive physical demonstrator designed to explain the launcher’s structure, assembly and stage separation. Other projects transformed scientific data, spacecraft and planetary environments into digital and physical experiences.

The challenge has always been to find the right educational language for each mission while preserving the science behind it.

Space Summer School: experiencing the space sector from the inside

The different editions of the Space Summer School at ESAC have brought together many of these ideas in intensive educational programmes where children and young people can spend several days immersed in space science and engineering.

Our involvement has included programme and activity design, coordination, software development, construction of devices and preparation of technological experiences used during the different editions.

Participants have taken part in activities involving space engineering, robotics, astronaut training, rockets, mission design, satellite construction, virtual reality, lunar and Martian exploration and space science.

The format makes it possible to go considerably further than a traditional workshop. Students have time to develop projects, work as teams, experiment, make mistakes, solve problems and discover, at a level appropriate to their age, how scientists and engineers approach real challenges.

These experiences are particularly important because they do more than transmit knowledge. They allow young people to discover professions and disciplines that may eventually become part of their own future.

From school visits to ESA Open Day

Our experience in education has also extended beyond schools to major public outreach events such as ESA Open Day at ESAC.

For these events we have developed and deployed virtual reality, augmented reality, engineering workshops, multimedia experiences, space-themed chroma key installations, physical models and robotic systems, giving families and visitors the opportunity to interact directly with ESA missions and technologies.

Among these developments is a robotic 1:2 scale model of the Rosalind Franklin rover, alongside experiences allowing visitors to explore Mars or the International Space Station in virtual reality and participate in activities related to engineering and planetary exploration.

The audience may be different from a school group, but the philosophy remains the same: preserve scientific rigour while finding the technology, language and interaction capable of making space understandable and engaging.

Much more than delivering workshops

After almost two decades connected to ESA, our contribution cannot be summarised simply by counting workshops or educational visits.

Our work has included educational visits and coordination, STEAM workshop creation, scientific content, software development and maintenance, websites and educational platforms, databases, scientific tools, telescopes, observatory automation, mobile applications, multimedia, virtual and augmented reality, robotics, 3D printing, scale models, simulators and interactive experiences.

Maintaining this activity over so many years has required constant evolution. Space missions change. Technology changes. Students change. The tools available to educators change.

Our responsibility has therefore never been simply to repeat an educational model, but to continuously rethink how space can be taught using the science, technology and creative possibilities available at each moment.

Since 2008: a history connected to ESA and space education

Our professional relationship with ESA began in 2008, and education at ESAC subsequently became one of the most important and long-lasting areas of our work.

During this journey, we have witnessed an extraordinary transformation in both European space exploration and educational technology. We have moved from developing early software tools and platforms to working with automated observatories, robotics, virtual and augmented reality, 3D printing, simulators and immersive experiences, while continuing the fundamental work of workshops, educational visits and direct interaction with students.

This long-term perspective has allowed us to contribute not only to delivering space education, but also to building part of its technological and methodological foundations, creating specific solutions when they were needed and continuously improving them as educational programmes evolved.

The result cannot be measured only in software developed, telescopes automated, platforms created, models built or workshops designed.

The real legacy is in the generations of students who have passed through these programmes.

Children who entered ESAC years ago are adults today. Some may now be studying physics, engineering, astronomy, computer science or other disciplines they first encountered through these experiences. Others may already be working in science and technology.

And new generations continue to arrive.

The most important result may still be in the future

After so many years, there is one outcome that no database can fully measure.

Somewhere among the thousands of students who have taken part in these activities may be a future astrophysicist analysing data from an ESA mission, an engineer designing a spacecraft, a programmer developing autonomous systems for planetary exploration, or a scientist preparing an instrument that will travel somewhere humanity has never reached before.

That possibility is precisely why education matters so much.

Since 2008, we have grown professionally alongside the European Space Agency and dedicated a fundamental part of our journey to creating the tools, technology and educational experiences that bring its science closer to new generations.

Almost two decades later, the technologies are different, the missions are different and the challenges are greater, but our purpose remains the same:

to ensure that the next generation does not simply watch the future of space exploration unfold, but has the knowledge, curiosity and ambition to become part of it.

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