Exploring Lunar Habitats and Space Startups at Interstellar Dreamers Camp
- Kittens Rule
- Sep 24
- 6 min read
Hello Blog World, signing on!
We're Kashmir Pandolfi, Olivia Hao, and Isabella Hao.
Although we’ve never actually been to the Moon or Mars, we love adventures. This summer, we attended Interstellar Dreamers Camp, starting with a week “on Mars,” and then continued with three more weeks of Art Week, Entrepreneurship Week, and Moon Week. We never left Earth, but we learned a lot while trying, and we had some amazing adventures along the way. Today, we’d like to share the story of our summer at Interstellar Dreamers Camp—and hopefully, you’ll learn something from it, too!
Now, without further ado, let’s start with Space Entrepreneur Week.
Hello, again it's me, Olivia. This summer, we attended the Interstellar Dreamers Camp, and our mission for the first week focused on entrepreneurship. Each of us became the founder of our own space-related company, tasked with identifying real challenges that astronauts might face during their missions and creating innovative solutions. Our projects required support from research, a business plan, and a persuasive pitch to present. From companies designing lunar habitats to businesses focused on asteroid mining, regardless of the idea, we all shared one common goal: to make space travel safer, more efficient, and more enjoyable.
I founded PEAR Electronics, which is short for Personal Evaluation After Research. Our goal was to tackle one of space travel’s most overlooked challenges: the mental health of astronauts. Long missions can cause stress, anxiety, mood changes, and feelings of isolation. To address this, I developed a holographic watch that projects a 3D model of the wearer’s brain in real-time, tracking mood, stress levels, and cognitive function. Using this data, it offers personalized routines—like breathing exercises, adjusted sleep schedules, or specific physical activities—to help astronauts stay mentally and physically strong throughout their mission. Developing PEAR Electronics meant combining science, technology, and business strategies, while ensuring we could answer tough questions from the audience to support our design.
By the end of the week, I realized that building a company is as much about collaboration as it is about the product itself. This camp taught me to adapt when others point out flaws, as well as to keep my main goal in mind and appreciate different perspectives. Problems as big as space travel can’t be solved if everyone thinks the same way. Interstellar Dreamers Camp didn’t just teach me entrepreneurship, but it also gave me confidence, problem-solving skills, and the ability to work under pressure and within limited time constraints.
Hello! I’m Kashmir Pandolfi, and this summer, I was lucky enough to attend 4 weeks of the Interstellar Dreams Camps. Today I’ll be telling you about Moon week, my personal favorite. Isabella and I fulfilled our main objective: to give new crew members a fully functional base and explain all its systems. Isabella and I were responsible for walking the team through the Living Quarters, Life Support Systems, Power Supply, and Laboratories, making sure they understood how each system keeps us alive on the Moon. We had to run many tests on our communication systems, multipurpose room, and the reliability of our greenhouse’s plant growth. It was much less about memorizing a list of items we had to include, and more about making sure all of our systems were capable of handling the challenges of long-term lunar missions, without, how do I put this? Blowing up.
Most of our week was spent working on our 3D model, which included eight beautifully detailed rooms and two laboratories. We poured our hearts and a shocking total of 132 glue sticks into this gorgeous and handmade craft. Each room had equipment and any furniture crafted from cardboard and “bolted” down with hot glue. We spent so much time working on it that, in the end, our legs went numb from being on the hard floor for so long, and my once-soft and well-taken-care-of hands are still recovering from the papercuts and hot glue burns. We were proud of the final result, despite the challenges we faced. Our final product, the 3D model, was more than a representation of our research; it was a trophy of our teamwork and dedication, demonstrating not only the complexity of lunar life support systems but also our ability to bring our visions to life.
When the end of the week rolled around, I realized how much of life in a Lunar Habitat depends on more than just machines--it depends on the crew’s ability to adapt, cooperate, and think ahead. We learned that clear communication is just as critical as the oxygen pipeline, especially when systems overlap, like the greenhouse, which depends on both the lab space and the chambers. I also learned that emergencies aren’t just a possibility, they’re a certainty, and preparing for them isn’t just about making thousands of drills and plans, but about building trust. More than anything, this week showed me that sustainable exploration isn’t only a matter of engineering—it’s about the human systems we create to support one another, even when the nearest help is 1,261,154,167 feet away!
During this camp, Isabella and I “founded” a company called ‘Space Palz.’ We created a four-legged robotic mount called the Hare Dare, designed to help Astronauts on Lunar and Mars missions. We carefully designed logos, blueprints, drawings, and a beautiful 3D model, and created numerous differences between the Moon and Mars prototypes, including claws, weights, storage, and speed. Eventually, we partnered with Saleem Enterprise and PEAR Electronics to create an even more efficient product. While we most likely won’t be launching this product or company, the skills we learned about management and the importance of marketing a business were even more valuable than everything we learned about mechanics and space as young entrepreneurs. I take great pride in the fact that by last week, almost all attendees of the press conferences were familiar with Space Palz and excited about our presentations.
Hello, my name is Isabella Hao. This summer, we participated in Interstellar Dreamers Space Camp, and for the final week, the focus was on space art and design. And our goal this week was to combine our space entrepreneurship skills with our storytelling, art, and design skills to create a product that varied from creating a magazine to designing toys. Although this might sound easy, we encountered real challenges astronauts might face during their mission and created innovative and unique solutions.
This week, we spent most of our time creating an educational and engaging board game. I carefully handcrafted dice, figures, cards, and lots of lava tubes. My team and I worked hard and fast to complete the board before our time ran out. I perfected the cards after sacrificing many trees, one of which was named Loaraxius. I enjoyed crafting the partially translucent dice and turning Space Palz “Hare Dare” into a marketable plushy. Overall, I absolutely loved this fun and educational opportunity to create, shape, and inspire the youth with my artistic capabilities and precious summer time.
Throughout this experience, I learned that it's not just about creation and art, or simply learning about the moon and Mars; it’s about learning important life skills. Within these few weeks, we were able to accomplish a great deal and improve our academic performance. I enjoyed the hands-on approach to learning, which influenced my mindset about education. It shaped me as a person, my collaborative skills, and my compassion for others. I cannot think of a more fun and interesting way to spend my time this summer. This camp was so intriguing that it is one of the few things I would rather do than spend my time in leisure. I would most definitely recommend this camp, and will certainly be coming back next year if presented the opportunity.
Overall, spending our time at Interstellar Dreamers space camp, we were so excited to explore space entrepreneurship, lunar missions, and space art and design. Through this process, we enhanced intellectual prowess by working together, sharing ideas, and providing constructive criticism. We have improved many of our skills, including communication, problem-solving, leadership, and creativity. We showcased our mechanical ingenuity from the PEAR Electronics holographic watch to the Hare Dare robotic mount and the educational board game. These projects mirrored real life so much that we were able to and highly encouraged to use real statistics and scientific work when planning and creating our work. Being able to test our skills in such a hands-on way helped to boost our confidence, resilience, and appreciation for collaboration. In addition to all the hard work we did, we enjoyed joking around with the other students and having healthy and controlled roast battles. We would 100% suggest this camp to any other students looking to have a fun and interesting time, while excelling in their educational journey.
Hello again, it’s Kashmir, Olivia, and Isabella, signing off!
Although our summer at Interstellar Dreamers Camp is over, the lessons, adventures, and teamwork will stay with us forever. From exploring space entrepreneurship to building lunar habitats, designing robotic mounts, and creating educational board games, we learned so much while having an amazing time together. We hope that sharing our story inspires you to explore, create, and tackle challenges with curiosity and collaboration—no matter where your adventures take you, even if it’s just Earth for now.
A huge thank you to Leidos, Ms. Robin McDougal, and Ms. Terry for making this incredible adventure possible—and thank you, Blog World, for coming along on our interstellar journey!
—Kashmir, Olivia, & Isabella
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