Manitoba students maneuver Canadian space equipment

Students in Stonewall, Man. got an out-of-this-world lesson Thursday.

Grade seven and eight students at Stonewall Centennial School got to remotely command a rover the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is developing to travel across the moon's surface.

Teacher Maria Nickel said she learned about the opportunity from a CSA social media post, asking for students who would want to drive the rover.

She said her students were excited when they learned they could be apart of real-life space work.

"It was really intriguing for them, that they got to be doing the exact problem solving that's being done for the lunar rover that will be landing on the moon," Nickel said.

Grade seven and eight students at Stonewall Centennial School remotely command a rover the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is developing to travel across the moon's surface on Oct. 10, 2024. (Jamie Dowsett/CTV News Winnipeg)

The class was split into different teams, and they learned about minerals, oxygen and water on the moon. They then looked for areas on the moon that might have those elements, and remotely piloted the rover to check those areas out.

"(The CSA's) lunar mission will be sending this rover to the south side of the Moon to look for the same types of minerals, oxygen, water," Nickel said.

She added the mock mission also got the kids asking questions the real mission might find answers to.

"Would this be a good place to land our astronauts build a habitat ,and be able to live and work there, then maybe launch from there, because we have all the necessary supplies?"

The students worked with scientists and engineers with the CSA in Longueil, Quebec to use the laptops in Stonewall to move the rover in Quebec. While on earth the students commands moved the rover in real time but a 1.5 second delay was purposely added to make the simulated mission feel more realistic.

"You're going to have delays for connection when you go to the moon, so this is real life. You got to roll with it," Nickel said.

Nickel said she hopes the simulation will help her students start to consider a career in space or engineering.