Build a 'Mars City'!

'It is a pleasure to invite you to the official start of ESA's national 'Mars City' competition on the 2 February at my junior school in Brielle, the Meester Eewoutschool. The students of groups 7 and 8 (age 11-12) will be given two hours to plan and build a 'Mars City', making use of their creativity, ability to work together and Melkunie school milk packaging. After the given two hours I will discuss the details of the project with them'

The 'Mars City' competition aims to encourage the students of groups 7 and 8 of the Dutch junior school to construct a Mars city from the empty milk packaging of Melkunie school milk. ESA will reward the makers of the best 'Mars City' with a visit to the space centre ESTEC in Noordwijk, where the students can see satellites and meet astronauts. The winning class will also be able to discuss their project with the real space ship designers. In this way ESA is hoping to encourage children's interest in space.

For the same reason, ESA has also designed a space game - the 'Kwispel' game, that increases childrens knowledge of space. This game is part of the competition package, and may be used in the building of the city.

The 'Mars City' competition is a joint project between Melkunie and ESA. The opening event, the first construction of a 'Mars City' by the students of the school Wubbo Ockels went to as a child, takes place on the 2 February. The distribution of the game and the competition package will be done by Melkunie to 2400 junior schools in the Netherlands between the 5 and 9 of February. Competition entries must reach ESA by the 16 March. The batteries for the Kwispel game will be provided by Philips Powerlife.

Deadline: 16 March 2001

For more information:
ESA `Mars City' contact person:
Julia Birch
e-mail: Julia.Birch@esa.int
tel.: 071 565 3110
fax.: 071 565 5590

For more information on the web:
`Mars City' Competition website:
http://www.estec.esa.nl/outreach/kwispel