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Education

Why The Space Industry Needs A Space College

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
June 27, 2022
Filed under
Why The Space Industry Needs A Space College

Why The Space Industry Needs A Space College, By Dylan Taylor and Keith Cowing, The Space Review
“According to the Space Foundation’s annual report, the global space economy netted $447 billion in 2020. Commercial space activity alone rose to nearly $357 billion, representing 80% of the total space economy. Launch attempts, which totaled 145, were the highest in history.
The formation of a campus–a “space college,” if you will–committed to expanding humanity’s progress beyond Earth could reimagine who gets a chance at an aerospace career and accelerate timelines for future missions.
These figures highlight a five-year trend of uninterrupted growth, encompassing space tourism, research on Mars, and major steps towards sending a crew to the Moon again. Interest in the cosmos appears unwavering, and experts estimate the industry will generate $1 trillion or more in 2040.
These efforts require highly skilled and enthusiastic workers. From programming the self-driving Perseverance rover to designing more durable spacesuits, immense skill goes into every aspect of off-world exploration whether it is done by humans or robots–or both.
That’s why the space industry needs a dedicated university for aerospace studies and related career paths. The formation of a campus–a “space college,” if you will–committed to expanding humanity’s progress beyond Earth could reimagine who gets a chance at an aerospace career and accelerate timelines for future missions. By nurturing a new generation of astronomers, scientists, engineers, and business leaders in one place, a centralized college, with a global reach to anyone who is interested, would serve an important role in launching a truly spacefaring economy.
Oh yes, when the word “campus” is used it is done so in a 21st century context. In a post-pandemic world, where you are physically located no longer need limit who you can work with. When you take into consideration that the exploration and utilization of space will span distances where interaction is limited by the speed of light, various modes of interaction–many asymmetric–need to be factored into how the space economy operates. As such, this “space college” needs to be wherever you are.
As with any training that involves technology and travel, the hardware you train on and the places where you use it can require you to be physically present. As such, a virtual space college must be paired with a physical one. If you do it right, you can connect nearby and remote locations to function as one. In many cases existing capabilities can be brought together to act as one, with an emergent property being a space college that is both personal and distant. And instead of being wholly limited by “bricks and mortar,” such a space college would be open to anyone, anywhere with an Internet connection–even a slow one.”

Continue reading at The Space Review
Also – have a look at SpaceCollege.org

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

14 responses to “Why The Space Industry Needs A Space College”

  1. Homer Hickam says:
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    We’re working on it! https://whnt.com/news/hunts

    • Skinny_Lu says:
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      Dang man. Jared Isaacman, again. He IS something! Putting serious money where his convictions are. Bravo Zulu!

  2. Richard Brezinski says:
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    While space camp is great it is not an academic college program. It focuses mainly on mission operations-astronauts and mission control. After many decades spent in the space program, I would recommend engineering, technical or other applicable work experience before someone moves into those operations areas. The astronauts and flight controllers typically have no idea what it takes to design, build certify, integrate and prepare vehicles for spaceflight.

  3. ex-NASA says:
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    We already have the beginnings of a Space College, it’s call Florida Tech (Florida Institute of Technology). It was named Brevard Engineering College in 1958 when it was founded by Dr. Jerome P. Keuper, a physicist who rightly believed that the U.S. couldn’t win the space race unless an innovative and enterprising university existed. He started it as a night school for the engineers and scientists who were working at Cape Canaveral, building the foundation for the U.S. space program. It is now a world class university with a Human Spaceflight Laboratory and numerous space related activities. See FIT.edu

    • kcowing says:
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      What if I live in Oklahoma and cannot afford tuition?

      • ex-NASA says:
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        All or most Universities, Florida Tech, Embry-Riddle, MIT, Cal Tech, etc. have online courses so location is not necessarily an issue, although nothing beats the hands-on experience of labs and simulators, try becoming an astronaut or pilot in Oklahoma online. As good as the article was, and I do agree with the premise, it did not address tuition and any brick and mortar space college campus would have the same tuition issues.

        Instead of only one centralized Space University, I believe building off the already existing Universities, with their ties to the space industry, is a better solution. Florida Tech already has a relationship with many private space related companies along with Kennedy Space Center, as I’m sure many other Universities do as well. Grants, like the $50 million Florida Tech received to expand it’s Engineering, Physics and Life Sciences programs, should be encouraged by the space industry to expand the already existing Space Sciences departments that Florida Tech and other Universities already have.

  4. cynical_space says:
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    Why not have a “Space Engineering and Operations” concentration in the Aerospace Engineering degree track (or possibly some other degree)? No, it is not as glamorous as a full blown “space university”, but it is a start. It has the advantage of having an established credited university at the base and makes use of the necessary “generic” science and engineering courses which already exist at these schools to be incorporated into the program. As the space economy expands and grows more robust, this could naturally evolve into it’s own degree program.

  5. mfwright says:
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    Sounds good but make it so grads are not burdened with debt and can make a reasonable salary like back in the days.

  6. Richard Brezinski says:
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    I find it interesting that on NASAWatch, Space Review and other blogs where this article has been highlighted, people around the US like to submit the names of their local institutions as already fulfilling or intending to fulfill the intent of this ‘space college’. We’ve heard from Huntsville, Virginia, Florida,….fact is there are dozens of institutions, mainly small state or local academic institutions all over the US that offer individual courses or in fewer cases some programs.

    What there is not is a prescribed set of courses that would compose complete programs, and then any kind of supporting textbooks or study material, and there appears never to have been any coordination to ensure that offered programs are complementary to the skills or knowledge they are trying to teach. Personally I would suggest the Generals of the US Space Force organize a new US Space Force Academy.

    • kcowing says:
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      Exactly.

    • mitest1234 says:
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      What other industry has one centralized unversity for education? Yes, there are many different universities that teach the skills for space. I see that as a plus, not a minus. Diversity of thought is what pushes innovation.

    • Bob Mahoney says:
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      And it should be located in space. ;-]

  7. Ted says:
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    No, come on. In the US we are lucky to have MIT and Cal Tech, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech, Cal Berkeley and a dozen other names with affiliated space programs, the Utah States and UC Boulders etc. Starting a new University to address current workforce shortage is going to be an epic boondoggle on the SLS scale. The existing schools already produce qualified graduates. They just don’t want to work for NASA that is seen as out-of-date, staffed by folks older than their parents, and grossly underpaying of new hires.

    • kcowing says:
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      What about the people who cannot afford those high tuitions? Please don’t reply with “student loans” or “scholarships”.