The Southern Hemisphere Space Studies Program: The next 5 years

摘要

Since 2011, the Southern Hemisphere Space Studies Program (SHSSP) has been held seven times in Adelaide, Australia. The last program, which ran from January 15 to February 16, 2018, reached a new attendance high, enrolling 50 participants from over 15 countries around the world. Attendees were engaged by over 45 international experts, whose backgrounds encompassed the entire spectrum of disciplines relevant to space exploration, industry and technology. The participants had a broad range of experiences, being represented by undergraduate students all the way to professionals employed in national space agencies, and entrepreneurs. This provided an exciting mix of motivations and abilities, which clearly epitomised the purpose of the program: to expose highly achieving students in training as well as accomplished professionals to a proxy of the multidisciplinary and multifaceted environment typical of space enterprises. The international, intercultural, and interdisciplinary philosophy of the program was reflected in a diversity of lectures, hands-on workshops, public events and team exercises and, for the first time, the construction and launch of 12 model rockets. Two capstone projects, involving participants, faculty and consulting experts, were synthesised in papers entitled 'Disaster Management, Space-based Solutions for Developing Nations' and 'Space Ready, The Launchpad for Emerging Agencies'. The 2018 program was highly successful, and the five week live-in program, complemented by one optional week of intensive English as second language program carried out before the commencement of the SHSSP, is now an established educational offering of the International Space University - University of South Australia (UniSA) consortium. With the stability of a new agreement securing the program for the next 5 years, we are looking at more strategic improvements to the program structure and embedding it further within the Australian Space and academic communities.