I know Iceland isn’t exactly a place you think of when it comes to space… and I will be honest that I didn’t originally either. But then I learned some things from our stellar students that changed my view on this! Let me explain…
In 2018, an incredible human came into our orbit as a student at Go For Launch! in Durham, NC – Sophie Crowder. Sophie quickly became part of our orbit and we loved that she wanted to keep engaging with our program… and she did! In many ways! And still does! But she also was working to find additional STEM and Space engagement to keep her thirst for knowledge quenched. One of the things that she found was this really cool opportunity called GeoSpace in Húsavík Iceland.
GeoSpace draws inspiration from the geology field training undertaken by Apollo and Artemis astronauts in Iceland. NASA astronauts trained in Iceland in 1965 and 1967 ahead of the Apollo lunar missions, while a new generation of Artemis astronauts visited Iceland for geological field training in 2024 and 2026.
While she was part of this experience Sophie was sending me notes about how cool it was and her and her Mom, Wella, mentioned to the organizer of the event Orly that he should connect with Higher Orbits. And in 2025, Orly did just that! I was asked to be a Keynote Speaker at the 2025 Explorers Festival and to talk with the GeoSpace 4 student cohort that was being selected. For this GeoSpace 4 cohort in 2025, Sophie’s younger sister, Ava, was selected to be part of the student cohort!
Clearly STEM and Space run deep in this family!
This was my first trip to Iceland but it didn’t take long for me to hope it wouldn’t be my last! And I was excited to have the opportunity to share it with Ava and her Mom Wella. We also made many new friends!
The Explorers Festival was inspirational! There were great talks on exploration from a wide variety of topics and there was also a film festival that was so much fun to view. I feel fortunate to have become friends with several of the filmmakers in attendance and in particular the gentlemen who created the film “Look Down Not Up” – Rick and Yehuda.
In fact… this friendship may have developed into another exciting opportunity for Higher Orbits stellar students… but you’ll have to stay tuned in the months to come for that!
It was such a privilege to do a keynote talk for this event and was thrilled to share my love of space with the festival attendees.
But I wasn’t the only one who shared my love of space and STEM… Ava did too! She gave a talk about her experiment design she proposed as part of Go For Launch!
The GeoSpace outings to explore the geology of Iceland and tie it back to space were out of this world! I learned so much and I loved seeing the student cohort soak it all in!
Through the course of these excursions I had the opportunity to talk to Orly about all things space and geology and we just knew that working together to share these things with students was something we absolutely wanted to make a reality!
We decided to start this cosmic collaboration in earnest in 2026…. So here we are!
2026 & the GeoSpace 5 cohort of students!
The GeoSpace 5 cohort will have students from the US, Iceland, and Mexico. They will spend 3+ days together learning about space and STEM as well as further developing their teamwork skills. They will also get to take advantage of all The Explorers Festival has to offer. I am so excited to share all of this with them. After we leave Húsavík, our Higher Orbits students will have a few additional days of adventure in STEM, teamwork, leadership, and communication.
Get to know the Higher Orbits students who will be part of this adventure!
Check out their pre-trip blogs!
Abi – https://higherorbits.org/abis-thoughts-before-geospace-in-iceland-2026/
Kaley - https://higherorbits.org/kaleys-thoughts-before-geospace-in-iceland-2026/
Raine - https://higherorbits.org/raines-thoughts-before-geospace-in-iceland-2026/
And follow along on Higher Orbits social media (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn – but especially Instagram) for updates.
Stay cool and cosmic… let’s go to Iceland!
Written by Michelle Lucas
