Prague in space to present a greenhouse and a lunar Škoda
The Virtuplex complex in Horní Počernice looks at first glance like an ordinary hall. However, when you put on virtual reality glasses, you know what it’s like to live on a space base. A walk through the hall is a real-size basic tour.
The city in the southern hemisphere of the Moon consists of prefabricated modules and buildings built on the site of lunar dust using 3D printing technology. Residential buildings are complemented by laboratories, greenhouses, solar farms and landing ramps. “Here we could make the central Wenceslas Square, the launch pads we call Žižkov with a working name, we usually look at the Žižkov tower from home from the window,” describes the space architect Tomáš Rousek, who designed the space station.
For example, the space technology specialist is suitable for projects by NASA or the German space agency DLR and the Vienna studio Liquifer.
“It’s a distant future, we could have such a foundation in twenty to thirty years, but it’s important to talk about it now,” Rousek said when asked if it was even possible to build such a foundation on another cosmic body.
Part of the new Prague is also a greenhouse, which Rousek designed for the polar station in Antarctica and which can grow vegetables for a ten-member team of ponies.
Czech cars also drive in space Prague, and a LUNIAQ rover inspired by a Czech Škoda drives in its streets. Instead of a door, it has two manhole tunnels on the sides, which can be connected to residential modules. It is thus possible to get out inside the house.
The lunar electric vehicle for 4 astronauts with autonomous and remote control works on a similar platform as the vehicles in the simulated space base in the Arizona desert, for which Rousek is best suited.
Successes of Czech companies
The space festival is intended for the general public and experts, takes place in Prague and Brno from 5 to 14 November, offers over thirty lectures, panel discussions and live broadcasts, all events are free. The aim of the festival is to celebrate the successes of Czech companies in this field and to present their innovations.
However, according to the organizers, many companies still do not know what business potential this sector hides. “There are many successful companies in our country and in the surrounding countries that do not know each other. We want to change this, introduce them to each other and outline the potential and possibilities of cooperation, ”says Tereza Kubicová from the CzechInvest agency, which organizes the event together with the Ministry of Transport.
According to the organizers, the Czech Republic is one of the world’s leaders in the field of science and space industry. Formerly nicknamed Europe’s assembly plant, it is now moving to produce complex systems and entire space missions. The first purely Czech mission in the ESA program is the SLAVIA project, the aim of which is to map the mineral wealth around our planet or the Lisa mission, which deals with the measurement of gravitational waves in space. Czech experts are also involved in the Hera planetary defense mission.