Mars Day 2023

Mars Day 2023 will land on Tuesday 7 March 2023

Mars Day 2023 is an exciting free virtual event adventure for everyone, presented by the UK Space Education Office (ESERO-UK) at STEM Learning and in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the UK Space Agency.

The flight plan and programme for Mars Day 2023 will be launched at the end of this year.

Register with us in advance to get a sneak peak of these in December. Then, in the New Year, get regular updates of new sessions and stars, space VIPs joining us on the mission, what to visit in Mars Week and a galaxy full of Mars Hour activities to download.

You can then plan your own Mars Day mission - touchdown on favourite topics, book for a session or two, take part in Mars Hour activities or join us for the whole day.

Check in with your class or your whole school, friends, family, or embark on a solo mission.

Register for your place on the next mission to Mars Day and prepare to land on Mars next year.

Flight plans are being drawn up and, for one starry day, this next mission will:

• Host more speaker stars than ever before from ESA, NASA’s Perseverance team and the UK Space Agency
• Run Mars Hour at 11:00, full of activities and resources for schools
• Star hidden heroes of the UK space industry revealing their journeys from studying STEM subjects to participating in space missions here on Earth
• Introduce a new element to the programme - Guest Planet of the Year - with the imminent mission to Jupiter in 2023
• Explore Mars over the week with nationwide partners offering out-of-this-world events and sessions for schools during Mars Week.

The mission control team at ESERO-UK can’t wait to explore Mars with you!

Mars Day 2022

Our last mission to Mars was in March this year when an audience crew of over 100,000 zoomed in for an array of live link-ups, talks and careers discussions from national and international space VIPs.

Mars Day 2022 had an out-of-this world programme for everyone, exploring Mars and beyond. There were sessions from the UK Space Agency's Head of Space Exploration to the Director of Human and Robotic Exploration at the European Space Agency (ESA) on their future missions; from live link ups with ESA Operation Control teams covering the topic of life on Mars to interviews with drivers and flyers of Mars rovers and helicopters at NASA JPL in California; from hearing about the history of Mars exploration with NASA’s Senior Advisor and the former Chair of UK Space Agency and Director of Science & Robotic Exploration at ESA to the four top UK scientists involved in the NASA Mars 2020 Mission unveiling anniversary achievements of Perseverance and friends. Plus Tim Peake also got suited up and joined us for Mars Hour.

Secondary schools had their own sessions starring hidden heroes of the UK space industry and activities. Everyone heard about their journeys from studying STEM subjects to participating in space missions here on Earth with careers in the vast UK space industry. Primary schools had their own Mars Day space-themed activity sessions too.

Take a look at our Mars Day 2022 session stars here: https://marsday.org.uk/sessions-and-stars-2022/

Mars Hour

Mars Hour ran from 11:00 – 12:01 and 36.968 seconds (GMT) – a real Mars hour.

Thousands of students joined in with space-themed activities in classrooms alongside fellow schools nationwide. Schools either ran one full Mars Hour of activities or joined for part of the hour - whatever worked for them and their crew. Tim Peake even landed with us for the hour. In Mars Hour we gave a shout out to some of the schools involved and many shared photos so they could be stars too!

Check out the vast Mars Hour space-themed activities and resources from ESA, ESERO-UK and Explorify here: https://marsday.org.uk/mars-hour/

MARS WEEK

As part of the Mars Day 2022 mission thousands had the chance to explore Mars during the whole week.

An array of Space and STEM partners offered in-person and virtual events during Mars Week for schools and the public. Amazing events included activities with Space and STEM experts; workshops at science centres; talks and lectures from universities and societies; stargazing with space groups and virtual visits to ESA facilities.

See the range of Mars Week 2022 partners and events here: https://marsday.org.uk/mars-week-sessions/

Follow ESERO-UK on Twitter (@ESERO_UK) and Facebook (@ESEROUK) for the latest and remember to follow us on Eventbrite for updates.

Information for teachers

You can access further space themed resources and professional development through the ESERO-UK website: https://www.stem.org.uk/esero/

Privacy notice

For our full privacy notice, please see link below:

https://www.stem.org.uk/privacy-policy

If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data please contact our Data Protection Officer who will investigate the matter. You can write to our Data Protection Officer at National STEM Learning Centre, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD or email [email protected]

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