The same software NASA teaches astronautics with is being used by Border teens in a six-day international challenge.
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Scots School student Liam Murphy, 12, is taking part in the International SpaceCRAFT Exploration Challenge.
"On the first day, we got to build our own planets with the software," he said.
"There's two live streams per day usually, and then there's also a leader board system with your teams - there are daily challenges.
"One of the people who spoke to us has previously been on the International Space Station, and they said that when they came down, it was hard to adjust.
"I've been really enjoying it."
Scots teacher Brad Murphy, Liam's Dad, is leading a group in the six-day challenging ending on Saturday.
"There's about 170 students doing it, from Australia, the U.S. and Egypt, and there's 39 students in the group that I'm running, which is pretty huge for our area," he said.
"I think a big thing is for them to actually have exposure to space industry professionals involved in all different parts of the space industry."
Those professionals include former NASA astronaut Gregory Chamitoff.
"He was six years old when his parents took him to Cape Canaveral and they saw a rocket launch. He said, 'I want to do that', and ended up doing hundreds of hours in space," Mr Murphy said.
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"The software the kids are using is actually what Greg uses to teach students who are doing aeronautics and astronautics in university degrees.
"They're learning stuff as well - about science, technology engineering - what you need to know now to go and do these kinds of jobs."
