JA Europe is proud to announce the launch of the Boeing Moon Base Camp 2026, a pan-European STEM education initiative delivered in partnership with Boeing and Vlajo, the Belgian member organisation of the JA network.
Beginning this spring and running through November 2026, the programme brings together 200 students from 10 secondary schools across Belgium Flanders all in their fifth year of a STEM-track double finality programme, to work on one of the most complex engineering briefs imaginable: designing a fully operational Moon base for human habitation.
Working in teams of five, students will each tackle one of five interdisciplinary STEM challenges: transport on the Moon, energy generation, radiation and pressure management, communication systems, and water and nutrition for a lunar crew. Each challenge requires students to research, design, and produce a digital solution that is then integrated into a co-constructed Moon base concept.
The project culminates in the week of 9–13 November 2026 in Brussels, where each school’s team will present their work, including a 3D-printed physical model of their Moon base, to a jury of Boeing engineers and members of the European Parliament.
The Boeing Moon Base Camp is the first edition of the JA Europe × Boeing partnership to focus on the Moon Base theme, and represents a significant expansion of scope compared to previous years: from a 24-hour innovation event to a seven-month, curriculum-integrated STEM journey.
“The Moon has always represented the outer boundary of human ambition. What excites me about the Boeing Moon Base Camp is that it asks 200 young Belgians not to admire that ambition from a distance, but to engineer it. These students are working on problems that real space agencies are still solving, and they are doing it in the classroom, in teams, with the rigour and creativity that will define their generation’s contribution to Europe. This is what JA Europe was built for.”
Salvatore Nigro, CEO JA Europe
JA Europe will be sharing updates from the project throughout the campaign, including a five-part STEM learning series exploring the science and engineering behind each of the five Moon base challenges. Follow @JAEurope and @vlajo_vzw on LinkedIn and Instagram for monthly updates as the mission unfolds.
