Kazakhstan Smart Space 2025: young people design the future of space

10th grade students of Nazarbayev Intellectual School of Taldykorgan, Sania Shohan and Enlik Maman, won the first place at the International Space Research Competition Kaz Smart Space 2025. This competition has become a real challenge for young researchers, bringing together more than 60 project teams from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, France and Uzbekistan. The NIS Taldykorgan team presented a unique project, the Likisanktum robot, designed for seismic exploration of the Martian interior. The main goal of the project is to develop a manned rover capable of collecting data on the internal structure of the planet. This is especially important because the project solves the problem of protecting future Martian colonies from dangerous ionizing radiation. Exploring lava tubes and caves on Mars can help create safe living conditions using these natural shelters. The principle of operation of the robot is quite complicated: it lands in the area of the proposed cave entrances, unwinds the braid and installs vibration sensors every 5 meters. The robot then lowers the seismic vibrator and collects data, which is transmitted to a microcontroller and sent to Earth for analysis. After completing the exploration, the robot moves to another sector to repeat the process. The work of the contestants was evaluated by leading experts of the space industry of Kazakhstan, including representatives of NCKIT, the Republican Center for Space Communications and scientific institutes. The competition was supported by organizations such as Satbayev University and the Kazakhstan Institute of Project Management, and the strategic partner of the event was CenterCredit Bank. "Working on Likisanktum has been a real challenge, but we are confident that our robot will be able to make a significant contribution to the exploration of Mars and ensure the safety of future colonies,— commented Sania Shohan. — Participation in the competition gave us the opportunity not only to demonstrate our ideas, but also to share our experience with other teams. We are inspired by the fact that young people can influence the future of space research, and we hope that our project will be the first step towards new discoveries on the Red Planet," concluded Enlik Maman. The Kaz Smart Space 2025 competition has become an important step for young scientists seeking to change the world and contribute to space research.