Planet Watch: Russian Nationwide Aerospace Education Program

摘要

The work describes the effects of implementation of the Russian nationwide STEM program "Planet watch". This program was initiated by a number of top level stakeholders in Russia, each playing their own role: "Sirius" education center, Skolkovo institute of science and technology (Skoltech), State space corporation "Roscosmos" and the Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises (FASIE). The 5-year program is aimed at educating 100,000 school children through various contests, educational programs and space technology outreach programs. The program was initiated in 2018 and attracted more than 20,000 pupils in the first year with 2018/2019 being the largest space education outreach program in Russia. The main goals of "Planet watch" are both to ensure popularization of space activities and select top talented and motivated students for the industry and professional community. The program shows the full technological cycle for students: some contests are focused on upstream, mainly constructing cubesats and their subsystems; others are working on ground stations and data reception; thirdly, the program includes courses and contests on applications of remote sensing technologies. Thus, the main purpose of the program is to demonstrate the full range of technologies, applications, programs and careers in modern commercial space industry. five contests were launched in 2018, with three contests focusing on space hardware (cubesats, cubesat subsystems and space systems), one on ground stations and one on remote sensing and data applications. The paper analyzes current progress and key advances in the program implementation and considers the main institutional challenges hindering the program growth.