Humanity’s journey towards space habitation is progressing, and World Space Week 2025’s theme Living in Space sheds light on the technologies, challenges and collaborations that are making this a reality.

World Space Week in early October 2025 aimed to educate the public about the reasons people travel to space, while encouraging young people to prepare for the exciting space opportunities ahead, President of World Space Week Association Dennis Stone said in a press release.

Scitech Discovery Centre’s featured exhibit, Destination Mars is open until November 16, educating the public on what it takes to explore, adapt and survive on another planet. The exhibition contains 17 interactive exhibits where visitors can engage with the challenges of living and working in space firsthand.

Scitech content producer Kimberley Phoon said Destination Mars was built back in 2017 inspired by the Mars One project, which aimed to send people to live on Mars by 2024. The Destination Mars exhibit anticipated the challenges of space habitation spotlighted by World Space Week 2025, from building habitats, growing food and surviving extreme environments.

The exhibit explores different topics that focus on what would be needed for a self-sustaining colony, such as growing food, finding water, how to get oxygen and creating power, Ms Phoon explained.

Features that encourage visitors to tackle these challenges are referred to as: Surface Vehicle Exploration, Space Potatoes, Build a Habitat, Life in a Vacuum, Planet Base, and Scan the Planet.

To make living in space a reality, Ms Phoon said that there should be a focus on sustainability.

“While rockets are a single-use object, we need to create the technology that allows us to go up and back with the same rocket ship, without burning too many resources,” Ms Phoon said.

Mr Stone clarified that ten people are living in space currently and that this number will increase. Seven crew members are aboard the International Space Station, and three crew members are aboard China’s Tiangong Space Station.

Spanning decades from the first launch in 1961, many astronauts have taken part in this feat.

Mr Stone said: “With new space stations and increasing benefits from research in microgravity, the population in orbit will keep rising, and eventually people will live and work on the Moon and Mars.”

Curtin University associate deputy vice-chancellor of research Gretchen Benedix is a geologist who studies rocks from space. She likens the challenges of living in space to being a lot like camping.

Professor Benedix said: “Think about camping on Earth, what are the main things we need to survive? Air, food and water.”

She explained that greenhouses are needed to protect food within a controlled environment. When seeds are planted directly on the moon, the radiation environment would stop the growth the moment the plant reaches the surface.

Professor Benedix explained that to make space habitation on Mars a reality, humanity needs to first relearn how to go to the moon.

“If you are going to mine the moon, we need to know the dangers. What are the slopes, the dangerous roads and what craters might cause issues,” she explained.

She said: “We apply our mission learning techniques to extract relevant information that could be helpful for hazard prevention.”

A journal article by researchers from Poland’s University of Information Technology and Management, Florida International University, and Johns Hopkins University, published in Acta Astronautica, verified the effects travelling to space has on the body, which include muscle deterioration, bone density loss, vision issues and an impaired heart rate.

Ms Phoon confirmed how changes in space, even the lack of gravity, can create challenges such as changes in eyesight and bone density.  

Ms Phoon said: “The International Space Station has specialised exercise equipment on board to reduce that bone density loss. When astronauts who have been on the ISS come back down to Earth, they have to do tests and also rehab, or retraining to be back on Earth, because their bodies have been used to being up in space.”

Ms Phoon hopes Scitech’s Destination Mars exhibition will inspire the younger generation to be immersed and excited about the possibilities that are out there for space travel and exploration.