Public Outreach

10 October 2023

From October till December 2023, the Museo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología in Madrid hosts the “RoadMap to Mars” expo, that was previously showcased at Astropolis in Oostende. They are also offering free workshops "Mars in a box" during the weekends and public holidays. “Mars in a box” is the educational project developed within RoadMap that aims to introduce European secondary school students to fundamental science through cutting-edge research on Mars through a series of workshops.

9 October 2023

Listen to Olga Muñoz and Dani Guirado from CSIC, speaking about Mars-in-a-box at Mañana Más on NCE, the National Radio of Spain.

8 October 2023

Olga Muñoz and Teresa Jardiel participated in the ‘Ciencia en primera Persona’ cycle at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Madrid giving the talk “Marte, nuestro polvoriento vecino en el Sistema Solar” October 8, 2023. The talk was promoted through social media. The video is available at Marte Polvoriento.

18 September 2023

How to keep our rovers and future missions on Mars safe from dust storms? Until now, no computer model can predict when and where dust storms and global dust storms will occur. The teams of scientists working on the RoadMap project aim to improve computer models in order to solve this issue and keep everyone as safe as possible !

RoadMap: Predicting the climate and dust storms on Mars

26-27 August 2023

On 26-27 August 2023, the Wolvendael Night took place in the park near the Space Pole in Uccle. Follow a long-standing tradition, BIRA-IASB scientists inserted some drops of science in this mostly cultural event. Arianna Piccialli braved the changeable Belgian weather to demonstrate the “Mars in a box” experiments with the enthusiastic and curious (both adult and little) visitors.

3 April 2023

The Martian atmosphere is a fascinating and enigmatic subject of study. It is a complex system of gases, dust, ice, and other particles that are constantly interacting and affecting the planet's weather patterns. However, this highly technical and scientific data is often unapproachable to a wider audience, which raises the question, how can abstruse, scientific data about the atmosphere of Mars be represented in an artistic and appealing form?

Inspiring collaboration between BIRA-IASB and LUCA School of Arts in the framework of the RoadMap project. Credits: Karolien Lefever (BIRA-IASB)

Inspired and informed by researchers from the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB) studying the atmosphere of Mars, students from the Media and Information Design (MIND) programme of Luca School of Arts in Brussels sought to answer this question in the course of a week-long workshop on artistic data visualization, that took place from 27-31 March 2023. Under the guidance of Gijs Ipers and Jakub Stepanovix, highly complex data about dust and ice in the atmosphere were transformed into unique and engaging representations that offer a new way of looking at scientific research. The results were presented during an exhibition at the LUCApremises on 31 March.

9 Decembre 2022

The science of Mars today for the scientists of Mars tomorrow. With this leitmotif, we have produced an educational project aiming to introduce European secondary school students to fundamental science through cutting-edge research on Mars. "Mars in a box" combines the classic "experiment box" format with the power of online applications and the excitement of accessing, visualising and managing scientific data from cutting-edge space missions, as well as the possibility of contacting professional researchers in the field of planetary science.

Discover all about it on https://marsinabox.eu/.

24-25/10/2022

During the weekend of 24-25 September 2022, the Space Pole in Uccle (Royal Observatory of Belgium, Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium, Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy) opened their doors for the public. They welcomed about 8500 visitors over the two days. In the Aeronomy tent, Lori Neary and Arianna Piccialli presented the RoadMap project.

As part of the efforts to communicate the goals and results of the H2020 RoadMap project to the general public, an animation has been developed . The animation has been published on BIRA-IASB's YouTube channel and shared on the Institute's social media.

More info: Astropolis

18 Feb. 2021

Dr. S. Robert of the BIRA-IASB Planetary Atmospheres Group was interviewed during a special event organized by the Public Observatory Armand Pien (Gent, Be) about the Perseverance landing.