Henry HO Hur, SpaceMap, Inc.; Franklin DI Kang, SpaceMap, Inc.; Shawn Seunghwan Choi, SpaceMap, Inc.; Peter JH Ryu, SpaceMap, Inc.; Douglas Deok-Soo Kim, SpaceMap, Inc.
https://doi.org/10.64861/RVQF2600
Keywords: space education, education platform, human resources
Abstract:
The satellite population grows rapidly and human activity expands beyond Geospace. Studies strongly indicate the explosion of the space market in the near future and so does the growth of space education. This implies that it is necessary to have good educational materials that help students understand the space environment better. However, conventional space educational materials have important limitations: static, non-interactive, and 2D representation. In addition, they rarely use space data on a real-time basis. Existing digital tools with 3D representations reveal limitations such as fixed viewpoints, predefined scenarios, hardware dependency, complicated manipulation, etc. Here we present SpaceSAGA, abbreviated as SAGA, as a new space education platform designed to solve these limitations. SAGA is a space encyclopedia that is based on the 4D representation of the space environment with emphasis on objects such as stars, constellations, planets, both natural and artificial satellites, etc. Its unique capabilities include the spatiotemporal, i.e., space and time, reasoning of moving objects in space using objects’ best available real data in real time as much as possible. SAGA consists of three Classes: TUTORIAL, ARENA, and THE GARDEN OF STARS (GoS). TUTORIAL consists of Chapters where each covers an important technical/scientific topic; ARENA allows students to create their own Avatar satellites or interplanetary spacecraft that fly together with catalogued objects; GoS is a kaleidoscope of the universe allowing students to access all space objects on their cellphones. It is available as an application in the App Store and the Play Store, free of charge for now. SAGA has useful additional features. Its Learning Management System allows a teacher to create and optimally operate classrooms with group discussions archived by the server. WIKI plays the role of a dictionary for keywords. SpaceGENIE is an AI chatbot available anytime. We expect that SAGA will introduce a new horizon of space education by combining the 4D spatiotemporal representation with important scientific knowledge so that students can be equipped for the forthcoming New Space Age.
Date of Conference: September 15-18, 2026
Track: Space Domain Awareness