AstroPlant Challenge

On April 7 and 8, Border Labs, ESA and Blue City organise the AstroPlant Challenge at BlueCity. 

During this design hackathon, you have the opportunity to collaborate with scientists, engineers, biologists, designers, artists, and software developers and work on the AstroPlant hydroponics kit. A range of speakers from the space industry and maker movement will be there to inspire us and there will be lovely vegetarian food.

Register at www.borderlabs.org/2017/03/02/astroplant-hackathon-7-8-april-at-bluecity/

What is a hackathon?
A hackathon is an event where people get together to solve a problem. Within a set time frame (8, 24, 48 hours) groups will develop concepts and prototypes and present those. It's a fun way to bring people together around a common cause and to stimulate innovation.

AstroPlant
AstroPlant is an educational citizen science project to better understand which plants should be grown (and how!) to feed astronauts. AstroPlant generates data about its plant and environment that is fed into plant models by ESA-scientists. AstroPlant is a collaboration between Border Labs and ESA, and comprises of I) A hydroponics system, II) A sensor and climate control system, and III) An educational and citizen science user experience to learn about how plants, space and electronics. The product will be launched on Kickstarter at the British Science Festival (Sept. 2017).

Border Labs
Border Labs is a spinoff of the international tech festival Border Sessions in the Hague, which is a yearly international event about future societies (themes include data/ethics, robots, food, space, transport, etc.)​. Border Labs develops relevant ideas emerging at the festival into concrete products and services. Current labs are collaborations with ESA, de WAAG Society, Next Nature, Mars One, and others.