SPACE FOR OUR PLANET

Not only is improved access to quality education important for creating progress in the Space sector, but Space can also be used to benefit education, simultaneously improving our own planet. If we are to achieve all the other SDGs, we must invest in young people by investing in our education systems and space-based technologies to provide that education.

We should be working to foster the skills needed to achieve these other SDGs. The next generation is the future, and we have a responsibility to ensure that every child, regardless of their background or where they are born, has the chance to contribute to that future, is not limited and has the tools available.

The main challenges to the deployment of offshore windfarms are the lack of suitable and quality data to estimate offshore wind resources, investment costs – mainly installation, operation and maintenance, and sea conditions. The Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-3 satellites can monitor the state of the sea with good spatial and temporal resolution and provide ocean wave spectra and ocean surface winds.

Our Earth is unique and fragile, and we have a moral imperative to protect it. Your actions determine what happens next, and now is your time to be the change you want to see.

The Giga initiative is about really connecting all the schools to Internet in Niger and empowering young people, giving them the choice and opportunities in space, to really have access to education, to skills that they need to bounce back and thrive.

Many of our projects have dealt with schools, universities, members of the public, and families. A common thread has been to use astronomy as a gateway to give the public a greater understanding of science and technology. Another aspect of our work has been on the development of skills to use astronomy to stimulate skillsets. If everyone has access to skills then they will have access to more opportunities. Astronomy has driven the continent’s scientific renaissance.

From Space, we measure the pulse of our planet and collect essential climate data: the rise in sea level, sea surface temperature, concentrations of greenhouse gases, and rates of deforestation. Without satellites, scientists would not be able to make predictions about climate change.

The International Charter: Space and Major Disasters is available for all countries worldwide. Through such universal access, any country with a national civil protection agency, which has the capacity to work in English, receive digital files and work remotely, can access the charter like Haiti did two years ago.

For glaciologists working in polar regions, data transmission is a real problem. There are no telephone networks, or wifi and electricity. Thanks to Astrocast, a constellation of satellites launched in partnership with the ESA, we receive essential scientific information that reveals glacial melting on a daily basis.

For 13 months, I lived on the Concordia science station as a doctor-researcher for ESA. Living In the Antarctic is a unique experience: you have to survive on limited resources for long periods of time; even though you are surrounded by Ice, water is still a precious resource and 80% of it is recycled. The Antarctic station is an experimental site for space exploration, where we learn to live in a responsible way and to protect the planet Earth.

In order to mitigate the climate change impacts, our project for a European Coastal Flood Awareness System (ECFAS) uses the Sentinel satellites of the European Union’s Copernicus programme, as well as images offered by ESA through the third-party missions’ programme. The high revisit frequency and high spatial resolution of the Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites are used to monitor coastal areas affected by coastal floods, the changes in land use, land cover and the position of the shoreline.

Mapping the water regime of wetlands is a very challenging task. Some wetlands are always flooded whereas others are only seasonally or rarely flooded. These changes make wetlands very dynamic ecosystems. As Low Earth Orbit satellites acquire images every few days, they can be used to monitor this dynamic behaviour. 

I decided to start my own company where I could spend the whole day figuring out how to measure the climate impact of businesses or financial portfolios. Using the CESAH space incubator, we got access to satellite technology that we can use to calculate emission data for a single company.

My name is Yumna Majeed and I am founder of  “Exploration by Yumna Majeed ” which is a space education based organization working in Pakistan to promote astronomy and space technology since 2016.

Since childhood I had two crazy dreams, my first was to become an astronaut, and my second was to recreate dinosaurs; right now, I am a space educator and a medical lab technologist and I am looking forward to do a masters in human genetics. I want to engage young curious minds in all the sciences and space is the best way to do this.

My mission is to make an institute which could teach astronomy and space technology to young kids in Pakistan. I faced a lot of obstacles, but in the beginning of my space education career, the biggest obstacle was being a girl. I couldn’t go out to random places or parks and invite people to enjoy the beauty beyond the earth’s atmosphere. I belong to a Pakistani family where coming back home before sunset is a must for a girl.

Phytoplankton are important for the climate and for ocean life. They are fascinating microscopic organisms, invisible to the naked eye, but visible from Space. A reduction in the quantities of phytoplankton would lead to a reduction in the ocean’s resources and its capacity to capture carbon dioxide, one of the causes of the greenhouse effect.

I study fruit-eating bat migration in Africa. To understand their migrations, we need very precise data about their high-risk travel conditions. As part of the ICARUS project (International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space), we have developed very effective transmitters fitted to bats to relay information to the International Space Station. This innovation is a giant step in the study of animal migration. It will give us a better grasp of how the climate is changing, how biodiversity is being preserved and how infectious diseases are spreading.

My name is Luca Parmitano, I am an astronaut with the European Space Agency, and I flew twice to the International Space Station, in 2013 and then between 2019 and 2020. My first experience onboard was the mission “Volare” for 166 days, I flew on the Soyuz. It was called TMM09, and it was my first flight. I was a rookie so I was the flight engineer.

When we talk about responsible consumption and production (SDG 12) we can make a direct link with the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS receives all of its energy from the sun and recycles almost 95% of its water. Beyond that, space exploration gives us a unique perspective on Earth. It is the only way for us to see Earth as a unique planet. The images that we share everyday from the ISS tell the stories, either good or bad, of what we are doing to our home Planet.