On December 1, 2023, the Noosphere Planetarium opened the updated winter program "Colonization and Space Ecology". It includes an updated science exhibit, an expanded Mars area, new games on interactive tablets, the premiere of three new themed programs and the premiere of two full-dome cartoons produced by Planetarium Noosphere.

Establishing settlements on other planets and using their resources to travel to the outskirts of the solar system and beyond will most likely be humanity's next step in space exploration. That is why the updated Planetarium Noosphere scientific exposition is dedicated to this topic, with the help of which visitors will get answers to the following questions:

• What minerals are rich in asteroids?
• Where on Venus, the hottest planet in the solar system, can life be found?
• On the surface of which satellite are rivers and lakes of natural gas capable of fueling manned missions to the farthest corners of the solar system?
• How to build a circumstellar city?
• How to choose a star for the implementation of this astroengineering project?
• And how much materials and time will have to be spent on such construction?

But, in addition to the development of other planets and satellites, humanity should also take care of the planet Earth, which is why the scientific exhibition will also introduce current problems of space ecology, such as: light pollution, garbage in the Earth's orbit, depletion of minerals in the bowels of our planet and the appearance of garbage continents

This issue is also reflected in two full-dome cartoons produced by Planetarium Noosphere: "Cosmic Weekend: New Home" and "Beyond the Sky: Big Space Cleanup" based on the graphic novel by Jan and Joachim Checherski.

Space Weekend: A New Home is a full-dome cartoon for children ages 8 and up that immerses visitors in the story of an amazing journey through the solar system in search of the most habitable planet or moon.



"Beyond the Sky: The Great Space Cleanup" based on the graphic novel by Jan and Joachim Checherski" is a full-dome cartoon for children aged 4 and older, during which viewers will be able to find out where space debris comes from, why it grows, and also learn take care of the environment.



As part of the updated program, there was an addition to the Planetarium Noosphere, the only Mars zone in Ukraine, which was created in August 2023 - an installation has appeared here that will allow Planetarium Noosphere visitors to "try on" the equipment of an astronaut who will be the first to fulfill humanity's most ambitious aspiration - to finally set foot on the surface Mars!



Also, the scientific exposition of the Mars zone was supplemented with a model of a rover and an interactive project of the future settlement on Mars: from now on, you can see in miniature how people who will settle on Mars will grow plants in greenhouses, extract minerals and convert the energy of Martian winds and sunlight into electric current.



It is worth noting that Planetarium Noosphere is the only planetarium in Ukraine that creates its own full-dome films, which this year were presented in the competitive program of three international full-dome film festivals in Jena (Germany), Brno (Czech Republic) and Macon (USA).