space for your students
Space Education Programmes for your students and Professional Learning Development for teachers through immersive experiences.
Supporting and delivering NCEA levels 1,2 and 3.
Spaceward Bound New Zealand
OUR AVAILABILITY
We come to you!
Our programmes are delivered nationwide and for all ages. Check out the map below for the schools and events we’ve already been to.
Last updated: April 2025.
Immersive experiences
We deliver our programmes in an environment of cultural safety and respect. This means we engage mana whenua and seek opportunities for our work to link strongly with local perspectives.
book us on a daily basis/day
Book us for a tailored programme
Our programmes are based on hands-on, immersive experiences that we deliver using:
Our own portable PLANETARIUM,
Telescopes, mini Mars Rovers, a unique collection of Astrobiology-relevant rocks,
our own developed Analog Astronauts Programme,
VR, Water Rockets & Field Trips.
SPACEWARD BOUND NEW ZEALAND is supplemented by a strong online presence, including mentorship, networking, follow-up activities, and educational resources for students, teachers, and the communities they are part of.
The Planetarium
This is an out of this world experience
years 1-13
The Mars Blueberry
The Mars Blueberry Astrobiology Dome
**Name inspired by the “blueberries” discovered on Mars by the Opportunity rover.**
Our planetarium, The Mars Blueberry is unique in New Zealand.
A modern walk-in planetarium, it is wheelchair accessible and holds 25 students and their teachers comfortably.
We have a modern, digital planetarium with the latest available data from space, including detailed planetary surfaces.
The software we use is also unique in New Zealand and is created with funding from the science community including NASA, the US National Science Foundation and the Swedish Academy of Sciences, to display the latest space science discoveries.
Visit various environments on Earth, other planets and moons and travel through the Universe. Our lessons are custom-made for your needs and relatable to your local curriculum, for example we can fly from your school to the edge of the Universe and back.
Look through and learn about telescopes
One of the best things about space sciences is that we can observe space from the surface of the Earth, day and night.
When we come to your event or school, we can bring our solar telescope for safely observing the Sun and our refracting telescope to observe the Moon during the daytime if it is visible or use it for a STAR PARTY with the community at school.
Workshops on telescopes, how to operate them and what to buy for your school are also available.
All ages
Explore extremophiles and learn about Astrobiology
years 5-13
Since 2015, we’ve been studying extreme environments in New Zealand.
Your students will handle a unique collection of extremophiles we collected from our field trips and learn about them.
We believe New Zealand is one of the best places on Earth to understand how life started.
Your students will learn about astrobiology, the science that studies the origin of life, the evolution of life on Earth, and the search for life elsewhere in the Solar System.
Mars Rovers
Ages 5-14
Our Mars Rovers programme is unique in New Zealand.
We designed our six-wheeled robotic Mars Rover models so your students can experiment with controlling and moving around complex terrain.
In planning mode, they can simulate how a rover is driven on Mars by planning a route, sending the driving commands to the rover, and watching what happens!
Really young students have a blast driving them too!
Since 2024, we have some new and exciting additions – a mini-Perseverance replica and two Mars analog rock kits from JPL, which we visited in July.
Augmented Reality and young students programmes
Years 1-10
Our augmented reality 3D-printed planets are a fantastic way for visually impaired students and everyone else to explore.
They will examine the differences in the surfaces of Mars, Earth, and the Moon and explore the Solar System.
We also teach very young students about the cycles of the Earth in a fun and interactive way.
Virtual Reality
Year 5 and above
Explore space with our Virtual Reality headsets.
Visit the International Space Station, see what it was like to launch with Apollo 11 or try out some orbital physics with your own asteroids. Go on a tour of the Solar System or even create your own solar system.
Minimum recommended age is 9 years old.
Water rockets
Any age
Learn the basics of physics with our water rockets programmes.
With or without calculus – depending on the age of your students.
Field trip
Astrobiology on location
Teachers only
Approximately once a year, we organise an astrobiology field trip to regions of interest in New Zealand, looking at the origin of life and you can incorporate astrobiology into the classroom.
Learn with us
Up-to-date and innovative technology
Immersive and Interactive
All our activities are hands-on
Professional Space Science Communicators
Field-basedSTEM
We are registered PLD providers with the Ministry of Education and work with Field-based.STEM to deliver PLD to schools across New Zealand.
News & Events
Rock stars, space rocks and the origins of life: An Extraordinary Discovery
Scientists have discovered all five DNA and RNA nucleobases on an asteroid for the first time! This astonishing finding reshapes our understanding of the origins of life. Could asteroids have delivered the ingredients for life to Earth? Learn how this discovery connects to the RNA World Hypothesis, panspermia, and the New Zealand’s science curriculum.
NZ’s first Aerospace Summit
Milky-way Kiwi attended New Zealand’s first aerospace summit, on 5th of October 2022.
The conference had more than 300 delegates participation and a programme with keynote addresses from Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck and NASA Deputy Administrator and former astronaut Pamela Melroy. The theme of the conference was “Building an Aerospace Nation”.
