Explore what life is like on board the International Space Station, where technology is used to carefully manage its finite resources, and imagine how these groundbreaking innovations could be used here on Earth to ensure the planet is thriving and sustainable 100 years from now.

Spaceship Earth draws inspiration from a collision between science fact and science fiction, questioning how we might live better on Earth.

Solutions in the Stars

Do you want to live like an astronaut? Living on board a space station, every gram of material and watt of energy is precious – join us as we look Earthwards to see how we can take that approach at home.

From water and air to food production and energy, see the current technology and future ideas that take inspiration from the space industry, including world leading innovation coming from Scotland, that could re-design everyday life to run on less.

Our science communicators are on hand to bring the story to life, demonstrating how astronauts adapt their daily lives to live with limited resources.

Creating the Future

The best innovation happens when you think creatively! Take inspiration from creative thinkers in the arts and science and imagine what a thriving Earth could look like in 100 years’ time. Build your vision out of LEGO® and add it to our collaborative installation.

Sci-Fi Futures

We have paired Scotland-based science fiction writers Martin MacInnes, L R Lam and Eris Young with scientists to explore what a future sustainable world could look like. From these discussions, the writers have created three commissioned pieces that imagine a utopian future living within our means. Learn more about the development process and read extracts of their work in this exhibition.

Don’t miss our Sci-Fi Futures event, where you can hear about the experience of the project from the writers themselves. Alongside these pieces of writing, we’re displaying the winning pieces from our sci-ku (science haiku) competition. The winning entries from Scottish entrants in the primary school, secondary school and all ages categories perfectly share their vision of the future in a constrained sci-ku format, echoing the challenge of constrained resources.

All these writings are accompanied by illustrations representing the authors’ future worlds by graphic illustrators from Edinburgh College of Art.

Presented by Edinburgh Science