The Space Ball Project

The educational uses can be considered as questions; a healthy part of education is learning to answer questions. This project will be particularly applicable to inquiry based learning. Below are a few representative questions in several categories, before and after launch.

• During Development
• Social
• Scientific
• Technical
• In Orbit
• Social
• Scientific
• Technical

During the Development cycle

• Social The ability to function collaboratively in a distributed environment is a significant part of this project.  Within this context, students can learn a great deal about social systems.  They will develop social system: a governance system.  Hopefully, they will develop ideas that are new and fresh in collaborative learning.  Let’s look at some of the questions.
  • How are decisions made?  Clearly the decisions on orbital height made by 16 year olds are going to be qualitatively different from those made by a six your old.  How does the group decide who participates in which decisions, and how?
  • How are (adult) experts to be used?  Are they advisory or do they have the ability to override a decision?
  • Who will make which tools?
  • Who gets to participate?  International organizations such as the EC and UN?  Countries? Foundations? Companies? Individuals?
  • Will advertising be allowed?  How might this affect revenue?
  • What are the terms for participation?
  • Where does the money come from?
  • Does the size of the financial contribution affect the power of the vote?
  
  
• Scientific There are many scientific questions to be addressed:
  • How high should the orbit be?  Visibility versus drag.
  • What alternative designs should be considered?
  • How big should the ball be to be visible with the unaided in a city?  Outside of a city?
  • What should the plane of the orbit be?
  • How fast should it spin?
  • How big are the retroflectors?
  • How frequently do you predict that the occasional flash will be see from where you are? 
  
  
• Technical The Space Ball project has many technical issues: 
  • How thick is the skin?
  • What is the filling foam?
  • How do you test things?
  • How big do the spin engines need to be?
  • How and when do you turn the spin engines on and off?
  • What is the cost per kilo to put it in orbit?
  • How heavy can it be?

The list goes on and on.  These are inquiry-based study questions.  Students can make collaborative projects. 

In Orbit

• Social
  • If this existed 5,000 years ago, what might have been the effect? Timekeeping?  Large monuments such as Stonehenge?
  • Who will manage the main Space Ball internet portal?
  • Who will make which tools?
  • How will tool instructions be translated?
  
  
• Scientific As long as the Space Ball is in orbit there are questions that students can ask as part of their education. Many activities relate to the fundamentals of astronomical observation.   Some questions can be asked by having students around the globe make observations against a standard clock. 
  • What is the true orbital period? (taking into account the earth’s rotation)
  • How can you tell if the orbit is circular or elliptical?
  • How can you tell the shape of the Space Ball?
  • How can you estimate the spectral scattering of the atmosphere?
  • What does spectral scattering tell you about air pollution?
  • How do you calibrate your tools?  How do you calibrate two tools from different sources and with different designs that are can be used to measure the same thing?
  • What are errors of observation?
  • How far away does the Space Ball appear to be?
  • How much is the Space Ball slowing down?
  • What is the effect of the Space Ball’s spin?
  
  
Technical The Space Ball project has many technical issues.  These are good issues for educational activities.
• Design new tools
• Verify tools
• Maintaining a web portal
• Calibration

Summary

The Space Ball project will involve learners around the world in a collaborative learning experience.  The Space Ball satellite and the tools and web activities will be resources "owned" by primary and secondary learners around the globe.