STEM camp for students ages 15-18 simulating a Martian expedition with rocket building, rover engineering, coding and astronaut training simulations.
Space Center Houston is hosting Space Center U, a STEM camp for students ages 11-18, with a Martian Expedition session running from Monday, November 23, to Wednesday, November 25, 2026. It's held at NASA's official visitor center in Houston, and the whole program is built around real-world space exploration, project-based teamwork, and guest speakers from NASA. Some sessions even include a live presentation with an astronaut.
Students choose from mission tracks tailored by age and academic level, like Planetary Discovery, Science in Space, Living and Working in Space, Destination ISS, and AERIS. The Martian Expedition track is the one that gets into the actual building: you'll build and launch rockets, engineer and code robotic rovers to navigate the Martian surface, and construct cryogenic capsules capable of withstanding temperatures as low as -321°F (-196°C). There are astronaut training simulations mixed in, too. Lunch is served onsite by Wolfgang Puck Catering, and the program wraps up with a graduation ceremony in the Mission Briefing auditorium, where graduates get certificates and medals.
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There's also the Gene Kranz Scholarship, which supports deserving students by awarding a week-long engineering design program. It's named for the 'Kranz Dictum'—'Tough' and 'Competent'—that Gene Kranz established after the Apollo 1 tragedy. The session runs from 8 AM to 4 PM each day, and it costs $779.95 per student, or $679.95 per student for groups of more than 20.
