Massive Open Online Course on Sustainable Use of Space

Our modern society is becoming increasingly dependent on space. The number of satellites launched to Earth’s orbits continues to rise with several mega-constellations in development, efforst to return humans to the Moon are on-going and crewed missions to Mars in planning. While these enhanced space activities come with many sustainability challenges, such as space debris, they on the other hand, play an important role in solving sustainability issues on Earth. Finnish Centre of Excellence in Research of Sustainable Space (FORESAIL), funded by Research Council of Finland, had launched a MOOC course [1] on sustainable use of space, now and in the future. The course is free, no prior knowledge is need and it can be taken any time at own pace. If (multiple choice) excerises are completed, 2 credist will be provided by the Open Univeristy  of the University of Helsinki. The course covers diverse and interdisicplinary  topics, including the Sun and its activity, Earth’s atmosphere, ionosphere and magnetosphere, space weather, satellites and their orbits, launchers and manned space flights, space law and ethics. The last chapter introduces key on-going and future space activities and visions, such as return to the Moon, harvesting the space and space tourism. 

[1] Kilpua, E.K.J., E. Asvestari, M. Grandin, F. Tesema,  and A. Workayehu, Sustainable Space  [MOOC], University of Helsinki, https://courses.mooc.fi/org/uh-physics/courses/sustainable-space (2024)