CubeSat Design Competition to Foster K-12 STEM Participation in Maine.

A cube satellite (CubeSat) is a small (10 cm X 10 cm X 10 cm) cubic form factor device that continues to gain in popularity due to its low mission costs and accessibility. As of 2021, over 1,600 CubeSats have been deployed into low-earth orbit, many of which are educational in purpose. According to BIS Research, the global small satellite market is expected to increase from $0.52B in 2018 to $2.9B by 2030. Maine is a sparsely populated, largely rural State with historically low rates of representation in STEM related fields. Maine has placed in the bottom third of U.S. states in STEM workforce size, conferred STEM degrees and STEM economic output in recent years. Yet, there exists significant opportunity for CubeSat launch services from Maine due to its geographic access to polar launch operations vital for telecommunication, weather and earth mapping satellites. Numerous initiatives are being developed to grow the Maine space-based economy, all of which recognize the importance of Maine workforce development and STEM preparedness in K-12 education. To bridge the technological gap, the University of Southern Maine has developed a CubeSat design competition targeting grade 6-8 and 9-12 students to engage participants in collaborative STEM learning. In this program, teams of 1-15 students from school districts across Maine create a unique science or technology demonstration mission and use the engineering design process to design and build a CubeSat meeting the mission requirements under cost, performance and time constraints. Teams are judged on their mission success and ability to communicate results to a broad audience. Teams are provided learning workshops in the design process, computer-aided design, computer programming and fundamental science during the competition. Methodologies, outcomes and assessment tools are presented and a framework for future expansion is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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