IT is known as the City of Discovery and now Dundee is setting its sights higher as it takes on a mission to inspire the next generation of space entrepreneurs.

Dundee Science Centre has landed a national grant to bring the latest in space science to families and schoolchildren across the area.

The UK Space Agency is to support the UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres (ASDC) to create new space resources aimed at inspiring visitors, communities and school pupils with the science and cutting-edge engineering of future interstellar missions.

Following the success of the Destination Space programme, the Destination Space 2 funding will allow the science centre to deliver a series of activities through to March 2021. These will cover topics such as UN spaceports and space launchers, the new James Webb space telescope, the ExoMars mission and innovative ways to use data from satellites.

The new programme also covers this summer’s celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing.

Amanda Dobrowski, Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) learning officer at Dundee Science Centre, said: “Destination Space has been an invaluable part of the programmes we present here at Dundee Science Centre.

“We look forward to engaging current and new audiences with exciting space science and the space industry here in the UK. We anticipate this project will bring more interest and awareness to the variety of opportunities available in the space industry to our communities.”

Destination Space is the national STEM programme created and run by ASDC and funded by the UK Space Agency. Its first phase ran from 2014 to 2017, engaging almost one million children and adults throughout the UK. This new 30-month programme will share cutting-edge space science and engineering with children, families and the wider public.