European Space Agency – Education Payload Operations – Mission-X (ESA-EPO Mission-X)
Research Area: Educational Demonstrations
Expeditions: 29-ongoing
Principal Investigator(s): ● Elisabeth Celton, ESTEC HSO-K, Noordwijk, Netherlands
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
Education Payload Operations Mission-X (ESA-
EPO-Mission-X) is a worldwide educational
initiative to encourage healthy and active
lifestyles among children. Teams of primary
school students (8-12 years old) learn
principles of healthy eating and exercise,
competing for points by finishing training
modules, and getting excited about the world's
future in space and the educational possibilities
for their own future.RESULTS
As an education objective, this activity was a
success. It has a growing number of students
taking part in successful live link activities with
astronauts on the International Space Station,
and a global audience of children participated.
To date, 3 ESA astronauts have taken part in
the Mission X program (Paolo Nespoli in 2011,
André in 2012 and Luca Parmitano in 2013).At the time of compilation the most recent ESA
mission to include Mission X was the mission of
ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano. ESA and NASA anticipated as many as 15,000 students would
join in the competition—3 times more than the first time Mission X was undertaken.
This investigation is ongoing and additional results are pending publication.
Paolo Nespoli on the International Space Station
kicked off the ‘Mission X - Training like an Astronaut’
program in January 2011. ESA/NASA image.