Yesterday, May 14th, part of the SpaceCamp Valencia team attended the talk "Explorers of Tomorrow", organized by the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències (City of Arts and Sciences) to celebrate its 25th anniversary. We couldn't miss it. There, three great figures from the aerospace field gathered to share more than just their technical knowledge: their childhood dreams, their beginnings, their moments of awe... in short, what once drove them to want to learn more about space.
And that, precisely that, is what we do at SpaceCamp: ignite that first spark.
The engineer Elizabeth Cordoba, now part of the mission team Europe Clipper at NASA, shared how her story began with a simple question:
"What if there were life beneath the ice of one of Jupiter's moons?"
As a child, her fascination with the ocean led her to wonder if there might be other oceans beyond Earth. That same curiosity is what we try to awaken in our participants with our workshops on Mars' habitability or simulations of interplanetary missions. During the camp, we don't just talk about science: we live it, just as she does now on the front line.
José Lorenzo Álvarez, responsible for the telescope PLATO of ESA, was especially touching when he recounted how he fell in love with the starry sky as a child:
"I looked up and wanted to know what was beyond those bright spots. Today I look for other worlds."
Their search for exoplanets, distant worlds that might resemble Earth, connects directly to the activities of our SpaceLab, where children design planets, study atmospheres, and calculate the conditions necessary for life to exist. That a child's dreams can end up in a space observatory is the best proof that our activities make sense.
The conversation was masterfully conducted by Fernando Doblas, former ESA communications director, who recalled:
"I wasn't a scientist, but I needed to tell this. To tell it well. Because what is not communicated, does not exist."
We also make that phrase our own. SpaceCamp is also outreach, emotion, context. We want what is learned to be understood, felt and remembered. That's why our activities include real simulations, cooperative challenges, debates and immersive experiences that bring to life what is sometimes only seen in a book or on a screen.
The talk ended with a clear message: the real explorers of tomorrow are in our classrooms today. Or in our camp.
And we, from SpaceCamp Valencia, will continue working to give them the boost they need. Because every astronaut, every engineer and every science communicator started the same: with a look at the sky... and many questions.
🔗 You can watch the full talk here: Explorers of Tomorrow - Museu de les Ciències