UKube in the classroom - from space to Fukushima

We propose a pilot scheme to build up to the launch of the UK’s first CubeSat mission - UKube-1, part of a knowledge transfer
partnership sponsored by STFC. The e2v Centre for Electronic Imaging at the Open University are building a camera module to
be launched on the mission to take pictures of the Earth and to study the damage caused to the camera by radiation in space.
This aspect is particularly timely as we can also encourage informed debate about radiation effects (e.g. in Japan following the
recent radioactivity releases). We aim to provide students with interactive sessions comprising of a short talk linking our work to
their stage in the science curriculum, hands-on experience with flight-equivalent camera modules and a question and answer
session for the students so they can find out what they really want to know about the mission.
Through this pilot outreach project we therefore aim to:
• Develop and demonstrate an outreach strategy for post-launch and future UKube missions (expected annually) where pupils can
get hands-on experience with fully operational flight-equivalent equipment.
• Engage pupils in our frontier research, in their local area, on the STFC sponsored UKube-1, the UK’s pilot CubeSat mission.
• Generate interest in UKube-1 in the build up to launch (currently scheduled for September 2012).
• Motivate school students to study physics and engineering beyond 16 and on to university by demonstrating the work of our PhD
students on the UKube mission; they will only be 4 years ahead of the older school students and will offer experiences that can
be related to.
• Provide development opportunities for our STFC funded PhD students in communicating science to the public.
• Demonstrate how the science that the students are learning in their curriculum is relevant and essential for space missions.
For example, for GCSE level students we will link the project with the study of ionising radiation, gravity and different orbits.
• Explore with students the concept of ionising radiation and its effect not only on Earth and people (e.g. current events in
Fukushima) but also on space missions. To do this we will have previously conditioned the cameras so that they will perform as
though one has been exposed to Jovian radiation, one to Earth orbit and one to levels at Fukushima (there are no Health and
Safety implications in this conditioning!). The students will be able to directly observe how increasing radiation levels degrades
the images the students take.
• Show the students how the technology in their own mobile phone cameras (CMOS) can be developed towards space missions,
linking the research into their everyday lives.
• To answer students’ questions about the project through question and answer sessions, providing further information online.
• Create an online presence in the form of a blog to record the images taken by the students, and most importantly the questions
asked by the students and the answers to these questions, building up an FAQ as the project progresses of what the students
really want to know with links to sources of further information. This will also introduce a “multiplier effect”, allowing teachers not
involved in this pilot scheme to use the resource to lead their own lessons on the UKube mission.
• Discuss with the students and teachers in the question and answer sessions what they think about the project, aiming to bring
continual improvement, feeding into plans for post-launch outreach activities (when images will be sent from the satellite) and for
future UKube missions (expected annually).