A huge heart made of flowers will delight thousands of children
The Children’s Heart Foundation, Rieger-Hofmann GmbH and the German Space Agency at DLR are jointly setting an example for children suffering from heart disease with a huge heart made of wildflowers in bloom. In the ‘Space Seeds II’ hands-on activity, schoolchildren are conducting research with wildflower seeds that flew to the International Space Station (ISS) with German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer during his ‘Cosmic Kiss’ mission and have since returned to Earth. How well did the seeds survive their journey into space? A school competition will be held in the 2022/23 school year to find out. Primary schoolchildren aged eight to ten can participate. In addition to accompanying educational materials, the classes will receive the ‘space seeds’ that returned from the ISS and comparative seeds for planting and observation. In this way, children will get a taste of scientific research and simultaneously be made aware of the topics of biodiversity and the protection of our unique planet.
The heart, which will contain millions of poppies and cornflowers will be so large that it will even be visible from the ISS. The ten-hectare heart will bloom in June 2022 and will be photographed by Italian ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti from the ISS at an altitude of approximately 400 kilometres. These photos will be shared across the globe – bringing hope to children with heart disease.
Links:
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Volker Schmid · Email Volker.Schmid@dlr.de
In the ‘Space Seeds II’ hands-on activity, primary schoolchildren will conduct research with wildflower seeds that travelled to the ISS on SpaceX CRS-23 and returned to Earth following the end of the ‘Cosmic Kiss’ mission. Image credit: DLR
