A day filled with scientific discussions
The event allowed each class to present their work to the other schools, the CNES teaching team, and the expert Sébastien Rouquette, an engineer specialising in manned spaceflight at CNES. Space bases for the Moon Camp project, computer code to calculate the speed of the International Space Station for the Astro Pi project, and a space-themed dance routine for the Mission X project: these were the projects carried out by the five schools in attendance:
- 5e pupils at the Collège Forain François Verdier in Leguevin
- 5e pupils at the Collège Blaise Pascal in Argentonnay
- 6e and 5e pupils at the Collège Victor Hugo in Colomiers
- The students at New Scool College in Besançon
- The students of the Lycée Immaculée Conception in Pau
The students spent a morning engaged in a rich exchange of scientific, technical, and cultural ideas, during which everyone had the chance to ask the expert questions and experience the selection process for European astronauts first-hand and with great excitement, as part of a Cité de l’espace event entitled ‘How does the ESA select its astronauts?’.
The ESERO France team and CNES would like to congratulate all the teams that took part in the Moon Camp, Mission X and Astro Pi projects during the 2025–26 school year.
The winning team of the ‘Build Your Intelligent Base’ challenge
To mark the launch of the 2025 Science Festival, which had ‘Intelligences’ as its theme, CNES, through its ESERO France office, chose ‘Build your intelligent base’ as the national theme for the Moon Camp project. This provided an opportunity to complete the challenge by designing a lunar base optimised by artificial intelligence (AI).
32 teams submitted their “optimised” lunar base designs via the Moon Camp website. From regulating the base’s temperature to the automatic piloting of rovers, as well as monitoring the astronauts’ physical and mental health, the students devised dozens of applications designed to make the astronauts’ daily lives easier using artificial intelligence tools. The CNES jury announced their “favourite” as the Selenetykos base from the Lycée Immaculée Conception in Pau.
