esa hands-on projects education strategy
- Paper number
IAC-08.E1.1.2
- Author
Mr. Francesco Emma, European Space Agency (ESA), The Netherlands
- Coauthor
Dr. Roger Walker, European Space Agency (ESA), The Netherlands
- Coauthor
Dr. Javier Ventura-Traveset, European Space Agency (ESA), Spain
- Coauthor
Mr. Thomas-Louis de Lophem, European Space Agency (ESA), Spain
- Coauthor
Mrs. Helen Page, European Space Agency (ESA), The Netherlands
- Coauthor
Mr. Matthew Cross, European Space Agency (ESA), The Netherlands
- Coauthor
Mr. Carlos Lopez de Echazarreta, European Space Agency (ESA), Spain
- Coauthor
Mr. Per Berglund
- Coauthor
Mr. Victor Nikolaidis, Vienna University of Technology, Australia
- Year
2008
- Abstract
This paper will describe a number of hands-on educational projects conceived by the European Space Agency with the aim of promoting the interest of European students in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET), encouraging to follow their professional careers in the field of Space, and providing a suitably qualified space workforce for Europe.
The hands-on space projects currently and recently carried by ESA Education Office include:
- YES2 (Young Engineer Satellite 2). An experiment flown on the Foton-M3 microgravity mission to demonstrate the use of a long tether to de-orbit a re-entry capsule, involving almost 500 students from most ESA Member States and Associated States, together with the United States, Russia, Japan and Australia. The mission, performed in September 2007, was largely successful.
- Educational Payloads on the Vega Maiden Flight. The agreement to include an educational payload on the Maiden Flight of the Vega launch vehicle will comprise two separate components: up to six CubeSats that will be released from the main qualification payload, known as the Flight Spacecraft, and other ‘fixed payload elements’ that will remain attached to the Flight Spacecraft.
- ESEO (European Student Earth Orbiter), a micro-satellite mission to the harsh radiation environment of the Van Allen belts, which is planned to be developed, built and tested by European university students and has currently completed the first part of its Phase B. It is planned to be launched in 2011.
- ESMO (European Student Moon Orbiter), a mini-satellite mission to take images of the lunar surface for education outreach purposes and perform global lunar gravity mapping for science and exploration. ESMO recently commenced the first part of its Phase B, and is planned to be launched in 2012.
- GENSO (Global Educational Network for Satellite Operations), being developed to extend the ground coverage of all educational satellites operating in Low Earth Orbit by sharing of educational ground station resources worldwide. GENSO is planned to be operational in 2009.
- REXUS and BEXUS (Rocket / Balloon EXperiments for University Students) flight opportunities, which are offered by ESA in collaboration with Swedish National Space Board and DLRopportunities for student experiments on sounding rockets and stratospheric balloons. REXUS is an unguided, spin-stabilised, solidpropellant, single stage rocket while the BEXUS vehicle consists of a balloon with a piloting system and an experiment gondola. The next flights are scheduled to occur in September 2008 (BEXUS) and March 2009 (REXUS).
- STRAPLEX (Stratospheric Platform Experiment).This project offers students from European universities and high schools the opportunity to send experiments into the stratosphere using balloons filled with helium.
In addition, ESA Education Office is planning to set up a number of educational initiatives ( ESA Educational Generator –EsEG) in order to better meet the needs and interests of the wide educational community (mainly Universities). By building bridges between ESA and that community. These initiatives will allow the students to benefit from an important knowledge transfer, enjoying ESA’s expertise in many fields through educational activities.
The space related educational initiatives include:
- OSCAR (Open Source Cooperation for Academy and Research), which consists in the development of open source educational software for Science and Space Engineering (e.g. Educational Toolkits), facilitating the bilateral transfer of knowledge between ESA and European universities or research centres in several disciplines;
- CESAR (Cooperation for the Education in Science and Astronomy), where a former ESA’s tracking antenna will be refurbished as an educational satellite tracking antenna and in a radio-telescope for educational purposes (promoting the students research in Astronomy and other Science fields in close coordination with the ESA existing science know-how;
- SatDESK (Satellite Design Education Support Kit), which provides the students training on the basic functionalities of a satellite system and system verification, as well as familiarity with planning phases of a real space project;
- ELISA (ESA Launches International Sharing for Academy), through which every ESA launch will be shared with a network of Universities, Research Centres, Museums, etc, creating the figure of the “ESA volunteer” in charge of promoting Space and Science at University level.
- Opportunities of student experiments onboard parabolic flights. A number of students would be involved in 2009 in flying their experiments in microgravity created by a specially equipped aircraft. Focus will be put on the scientific interest of the experiments and on the results achieved. All along the project, the participants will benefit from a strong follow-up from experienced scientists from ESA and ELGRA (European Low-Gravity Research Association).
This paper will describe the underlying policy and strategy for the above mentioned activities in some detail, including their status and associated work plan, and the expected positive contribution in enhancing the students’ interest in SET
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-08.E1.1.2.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.