This year, the Space Explorers will be participating in the Air Force Association's StellarXplorers - The National High School Space Challenge - Virtual Competition.
StellarXplorers inspires and attracts high school students to pursue studies and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) through a challenging, space system design competition involving all aspects of system development and operation with a spacecraft/payload focus.
This is an exciting hands-on learning experience that develops commercially valuable skills and increases appreciation for the critical role of space in our daily lives.The competition attracts all types of students with diverse backgrounds who will establish their own experiential base off of their accomplishments, all while building teamwork and leadership skills. Most of all, it's FUN!
ATLAS Space Operations is proud to sponsor the ATLAS Space Explorers Post 2025 and we are very excited that with this program, our Space Explorers have the opportunity to learn all about the system simulation software Systems Tool Kit (STK). We are growing our future workforce with this relevant, real world learning because STK is used by ATLAS as an orbital analysis tool. In addition to having our very own STK Subject Matter Expert, the training resources for this are online and the actual competition is accomplished from our home location. As such, this is a perfect program for COVID-19 distancing.
Teams are given a scenario describing a system’s mission and constraints and they provide a solution to a typical space design problem, such as orbit determination, satellite component selection, and launch vehicle planning. Practice Rounds begin in October with Qualification Rounds beginning in November that determine which teams advance to the Semi-Finals in February. The top 10 teams from the Semi-Finals will receive an all-expense-paid trip to the National Finals.
