Orbital Debris Capture Simulator

Through the proposed activities we have a unique opportunity to communicate the importance of science and engineering as well as key underlying principles in an accessible manner. Students will be active participants throughout, exploring and synthesising new concepts, learning and teaching new skills and demystifying an area of science and technology that is often seen as impenetrable.

The following aims are the general aims of the project:

- To create STEM learning opportunities for disadvantaged schools as defined by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
- To contribute to the wider efforts to address the gender imbalance within STEM higher and further education
- To raise awareness of the space debris problem for school students and invite them to consider being part of the solution
- To engage and enthuse school students with cutting edge space science in line with the Curriculum for Excellence
- To give future space scientists a first taste of a mission control environment
- To create and host a schools competition based around space debris capture science
- To ensure a legacy for the project through a biennial schools competition and its inclusion as an element of the Strathclyde Space School activities

We are targeting school audiences in particular with the following aims:
- Make the participants feel inspired by space science and technology
- Welcome them into space science and engineering environments at Strathclyde
- Show them the value of the research's social, and economic impact in society
- Encourage them to consider choosing to study or work in STEM at a higher and further education level.


The following learning outcomes are the more specific learning aims, i.e what the students will be able to demonstrate during and after this project, cover the whole range of learning types found in Blooms Taxonomy. The activities in our proposal will enable students of all abilities and experience to learn and demonstrate new skills, gain and communicate new knowledge and analyse and evaluate complex science and engineering processes.
Debris App and Debris Capture Challenge:

- Students will be able to identify and describe key types of orbital objects
- Students will be able to classify orbital objects based on their orbital regime (LEO,MEO and GEO)
- Students will demonstrate the ability to build simple mental models of how an objects orbital behaviour effects its ground track on the Earth.
- Students will appraise different orbital objects and order them based on their danger posed to other objects
- Students will collect or 'capture' debris using the app and will be able to generalise features and behaviours of orbital objects across the entire pollution.

We will ensure coverage of the project and competition events in mainstream media and STEM media.
We will disseminate the aims and outcome of the project both internally at Strathclyde and externally, in visits to other universities and at public engagement conferences such as the BSA Science Communication conference, BIG annual conference, and events run by professional bodies such as Glasgow City of Science. Existing contacts such as with The GIST (Glasgow Insight into Science and Technology) magazine/Glasgow Science Festival will be valuable routes to publicise the outcomes of the project and help the participants to network and expand their ongoing engagement activities.
The project will be nominated for a Sir Arthur Clarke award as part of the British Interplanetary Society's annual conference.
The experiences of the project team will be shared across the public engagement community at University of Strathclyde and in Glasgow, feeding into further developments of classes and courses for students and researchers. The competition will become a central activity of the widely lauded Strathclyde Space School.
The existing networks of the participants will serve as an invaluable source of dissemination. The sustainable legacy of the project will be a Glasgow schools competition. Eventually we hope to create a biennial Scottish schools competition, which can become a model for schools around the UK and further afield to copy and eventually we hope to create a national competition.
Furthermore, the legacy of the project is a key part of the dissemination. In trying to instigate a biennial national competition we will be touring the UK with the space debris capture simulator to demonstrate its usage and encourage other universities, science centre and schools to participate in the future. Further grant proposals will seek to expand the activities of and participation in the competition.