AstroLands Summer Interns 2021 Blog 5

Hi guys, Lauren and Gráinne here. We’ve just finished our first week of Astro Camp!

We had so much fun in Astro Camp this week, especially with all the activities we had planned and how the Astro Campers really got involved with them. It was also great to see how innovative the participants were and how our activities that we had planned for weeks really took on a life of their own! I think we’ll be cleaning up little pieces of paper and cardboard for a while after this, but definitely worth it! We particularly enjoyed designing aliens with the Campers on Day 3. Everyone got really into it, coming up with great ways life might evolve on other worlds, including internal dust filter mechanisms, alternative plant life and more!

Some cool aliens from the Campers!

We also had some really amazing guest speakers at Astro Camp this week, chatting to us about solar physics and the European Solar Telescope, EIRSAT-1 (Ireland’s first satellite!), the European Space Agency (including tips on how to become an astronaut) and all kinds of exoplanets! It was great to see all the cool, well thought out questions the Campers came up with, even questions we would never even consider. It really opened up topics that we had never thought about which made the discussions even better. We were surprised to hear how aware the Campers were of the cost of big space projects and our speakers were great at providing insight into the world of research funding! We also got to listen to and learn about things we would have never gotten a chance to do if not for the camps – we hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as we did!

Now that the first Astro Camp is over, I think we’re even more ready and more excited for the other camps coming up over the next few weeks! We’re super interested to hear what questions the next Campers will come up with – infinite possibilities! 

If this all sounds like something you’d like to be part of, there are still a few spots available on some of our Astro Camps in August, from ages 10 to 18 years. Check them out and register here.