RAF & Rolls-Royce's Mission to Mars

If you had to get a human to Mars, where would you start? What sort of things would you consider? You obviously need a rocket and enough fuel, but what will our space traveller eat? How will you keep them alive and healthy?

To celebrate the Royal Air Force's 100th birthday, they have teamed up with Rolls-Royce and the Royal Air Force Association to launch STARRSHIP; a social media campaign looking to answer these questions.

As you can imagine, the topic is huge and has opened up the opportunity for some creative and fun content. The campaign is aiming to show STEM careers in a new light, and inspire a generation of innovators. 

To draw in a wide audience, STARRSHIP has drafted in some YouTube influencers. 
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​Tom Scott, whose YouTube channel has over a million subscribers, flew with the Red Arrows to explain how Formation Flying works. He also flew with the Blades, a full time civilian aerobatic display team, to explain G-Force.

​​On the nutrition topic, 13 year old Junior Bake Off Winner 2016 and YouTuber Nikki Lilly and Great British Bake Off finalist and Rolls Royce engineer Andrew Smyth baked a no-fat chocolate cake and dehydrated it so it can be eaten in Space.

​They skilfully navigate through the issues of baking in space in their video.

There is lots more content to come, which will hopefully inspire some budding engineers and scientists of the future.

For more information, visit the STARRSHIP website.