From June 29 to July 1, the Expedice Mars team assembled a stratospheric gondola at ESA BIC Prague and Prague Startup Centre. This hardware will carry student experiments into the stratosphere.
Visit ESA BIC Prague late on a weekend night in June, and you'd find a team of students working nonstop—building, coding, assembling. Behind them, a 3D printer runs continuously, churning out parts throughout the weekend and beyond. These are the organizers of Expedice Mars, constructing a gondola for a stratospheric balloon launch. Later, it will house experiments from students competing in September's semifinal round.
"Last year's balloon payload included an Arduino microprocessor and sensors measuring atmospheric pressure, temperature, and cosmic ray particle counts. We also sent microorganisms into the stratosphere to track their survival," explains Kryštof Hes, the final mission commander overseeing all balloon preparations.
Expedice Mars is a science competition for students aged 13-18. Ten finalists tour the European Space Agency facilities. The top five undergo a 100+ hour simulated Mars mission.
