Space exhibit opens at ZigZag: Zacatecas

The exhibition “The Mexican Dream of Conquering Space,” which opened at the Zigzag Interactive Science Center, showcases technology and photographs from missions carried out by the Experimental Module for the Iterative Design of Satellite Subsystems, in collaboration with NASA.

The traveling exhibition—brought by the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN)—aims to highlight advances in space technology in Mexico and Zacatecas, serving as a reminder that space exploration has been one of humanity’s greatest motivations.

Mario Alberto Mendoza Barcenas, a research professor at the IPN’s Center for Aerospace Development, explained that the devices on display were sent into the stratosphere to gather scientific evidence.

EMIDSS No. 7 was designed at the IPN’s Interdisciplinary Professional Engineering Unit, Zacatecas Campus (UPIIZ), where a photobioreactor was sent to expose biological samples and other elements to space conditions for the future development of food for astronauts.

The professor noted that Module No. 6 was used to conduct an experiment in collaboration with the Mexican Space Agency (AEM) to capture images of the polar stratospheric environment in search of microplastics in the atmosphere.