On 15 September 2026, pupils from the VGTU Engineering Lyceum visited the Faculty of Civil Engineering. They took part in the ‘First City in Space’ event as part of the ‘Spaceship Earth 2026’ science festival. Together with faculty lecturers Anna Glinskienė, Dr Milda Pečiulienė and Dr Eugenijus Gudonis, the pupils embarked on a journey into space engineering, during which they explored one of the most fascinating questions of the future – will humanity ever be able to create a habitable environment beyond Earth?
The young guests from the VGTU Engineering Lyceum learnt about the principles of building space cities, discussed life on the Moon, Mars and in Earth’s orbit, and, most importantly, formed their own teams of space engineers. Whilst building models of their own space cities, they tackled real-world engineering problems, considering structural strength, energy supply, infrastructure and the creation of a habitable environment in space.
At the end of the session came perhaps the most exciting part of the mission – the pupils were able to test the strength of the structures they had built in practice. The space city structures were put through their paces with a ‘meteorite shower’, which allowed the pupils to assess the structures’ resilience and the effectiveness of their engineering solutions. Although not all structures managed to withstand this challenge, the experiment provided an excellent opportunity to understand why testing, calculations and continuous improvement are so important in engineering.
I was greatly impressed by the pupils’ curiosity, creativity and active engagement in the proposed activities. The participants confidently shared their ideas, justified their decisions and worked brilliantly in teams. It is precisely these qualities that are particularly important for future engineers who will be developing innovative solutions both here on Earth and on future space missions.
We are delighted to have had the opportunity to meet these talented and motivated young researchers. We believe that today’s activities not only broadened their knowledge of civil engineering and physics, but also encouraged them to dream even more boldly about future technologies and careers.
We would like to thank the pupils and teachers of the VGTU Engineering Lyceum for visiting us, and we hope that curiosity and the joy of discovery will accompany them every step of the way. It was a real pleasure to meet you all and to create the vision of the first city in space together! We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to UAB ‘Teniso sala’ for the ‘meteorites’ provided for the event, which helped to create a memorable and entertaining space challenge.
