Blast off with Space Engineering

Rocket taking off into space 650 x 366

Space isn’t just the final frontier for humanity - it’s also a ground-breaking area for engineering! At our marquee we were excited to offer three incredible “space” experiences:

1. Immerse yourself in the cosmos with virtual reality adventures using state-of-the-art headsets.

2. Try on a replica spacesuit, just like the one worn by Tim Peake during his launch to the International Space Station.

3. Get a hands-on experience with real space rocks, including pieces of the moon. Our team will be on hand to let you touch, feel, and learn about these celestial samples and their fascinating origins.

What does space have to do with engineering?

Electronic – Shrinking devices to their smallest possible
Aerodynamics – Flying to space and back
Communications – connecting to a spacecraft
Civil – Building launch towers
Chemical – Optimising fuel mix
Mechanical – Designing parts of a spacecraft

Did you know?

Dr Norah Patten (From Balina, Co. Mayo) will be the first Irish person in space (2026)
The fuel valve (feeding the rocket thrusters) can push through the same fuel equivalence as 1.36 elephants per second
The Apollo missions were the first to send people to the moon, several of Irish descent
Every modern smartphone is connected to satellites in space used to calculate position with GPS
Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space in 1961
The largest rocket ever was launched this year, which was the Space X Starship, beating the Saturn 5 rocket from the 1960s
SpaceX Starship has more than twice the thrust of the Saturn V rocket, or ~16.7 million pounds (~7600 tons) vs Saturn V's 7.6 million pounds (or ~3450 tons)
To put this in context, the Saturn 5 in its rocket generated 34.5 million newtons (7.6 million pounds) of thrust at launch, creates more power than 85 Hoover Dams. A car that gets 30 miles to the gallon could drive around the world around 800 times with the amount of fuel the Saturn V used for a lunar landing mission.