THE DEATH STAR CHALLENGE: AN AMBITIOUS AND MOTIVATING ENGINEERING PROJECT TO PROMOTE ASTRONAUTICS AND TRANSFORM SOCIETY'S VISION ABOUT SPACE RESEARCH

Abstract

The race to put a person on the Moon motivated and captivated the imagination of USA society and the community worldwide. This led to an unprecedented investment in science, technology and the space program, which eventually resulted in a successful Moon landing in 1969. Current estimations state that, for every dollar invested in space technology, there is a return of more than five dollars for the country's GDP. However, public opinion worldwide does not perceive this investment as a benefit for the society. The moonshot was a challenge, an idea, a dream that aligned a whole society towards progress. To change society's vision about space, our proposal is to promote an outrageously ambitious, exciting and motivating Engineering project. While this project may be extremely difficult to implement, it can be envisioned, brainstormed, analyzed, and even brought to the attention of policy makers. It would involve the design of the greatest Engineering work in space, even greater than the International Space Station (ISS). This endeavor would also help to raise awareness in our society about the Earth's sustainability. To that end, the project would drive a circular economy requiring the development of technologies that in the mid-term would reverse climate change. We believe that involving students from different backgrounds in this project would be vital to attract the interest of future generations in Aeronautics and Space research. In order to do this, we propose a number of outreach activities at all different teaching levels. We also propose the organization of an international contest for different ages, in which student groups would submit innovative proposals for different technologies that would be developed throughout the project. Furthermore, in order to raise awareness in our society, the project should generate a debate. The project would consist of the design and construction of a Space Station similar to that of the Star Wars "Death Star", but without its weaponry and making the most of the publicity around and the revived interest in the Star Wars movies. Its construction would be feasible within a reasonable period of time, and the design would involve international, intercultural and multidisciplinary student teams. This paper outlines the principles that underpin the viability of this project. It also proposes a communication plan for universities as well as an outreach plan for the public at large. Finally, it defines a strategy for developing sustainable projects and assessing the students' learning outcomes.

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IAC-16-E.1.IP.18
THE DEATH STAR CHALLENGE: AN AMBITIOUS AND MOTIVATING ENGINEERING PROJECT
TO PROMOTE ASTRONAUTICS AND TRANSFORM SOCIETY’S VISION ABOUT SPACE RESEARCH
Antoni Perez-Poch1*, Fermín Sánchez2, David López1, Marc Alier3
1 Institute of Education Sciences, Universitat Polit
è
cnica de Catalunya (UPC). Ed. V
è
rtex, P.Eusebi G
ü
ell 6,
E08034, Barcelona, Spain.
2 Department of Computer Architecture, Universitat Polit
è
cnica de Catalunya (UPC).
3 Department of Services and Information Systems Engineering, Universitat Polit
è
cnica de Catalunya (UPC).
* Corresponding Author: antoni.perez-poch@upc.edu
Abstract
The race to put a person on the Moon motivated and captivated the imagination of USA society and the community
worldwide. This led to an unprecedented investment in science, technology and the space program, which eventually
resulted in a successful Moon landing in 1969. Current estimations state that, for every dollar invested in space
technology, there is a return of more than five dollars for the country's GDP. However, public opinion worldwide
does not perceive this investment as a benefit for the society. The moonshot was a challenge, an idea, a dream that
aligned a whole society towards progress. To change society's vision about space, our proposal is to promote an
outrageously ambitious, exciting and motivating Engineering project. While this project may be extremely difficult
to implement, it can be envisioned, brainstormed, analyzed, and even brought to the attention of policy makers.
It would involve the design of the greatest Engineering work in space, even greater than the International Space
Station (ISS). This endeavor would also help to raise awareness in our society about the Earth's sustainability. To
that end, the project would drive a circular economy requiring the development of technologies that in the mid-term
would reverse climate change. We believe that involving students from different backgrounds in this project would
be vital to attract the interest of future generations in Aeronautics and Space research. In order to do this, we propose
a number of outreach activities at all different teaching levels. We also propose the organization of an international
contest for different ages, in which student groups would submit innovative proposals for different technologies that
would be developed throughout the project. Furthermore, in order to raise awareness in our society, the project
should generate a debate.
The project would consist of the design and construction of a Space Station similar to that of the Star Wars “Death
Star”, but without its weaponry and making the most of the publicity around and the revived interest in the Star Wars
movies. Its construction would be feasible within a reasonable period of time, and the design would involve
international, intercultural and multidisciplinary student teams. This paper outlines the principles that underpin the
viability of this project. It also proposes a communication plan for universities as well as an outreach plan for the
public at large. Finally, it defines a strategy for developing sustainable projects and assessing the students' learning
outcomes.
Keywords: space education, STEM, outreach, sustainability, space station, death star.
Acronyms/Abbreviations
Challenge Based Instruction (CBI).
Centre National d’Études Scientifiques (CNES).
European Space Agency (ESA).
Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
International Space Station (ISS).
Project Based Learning (PBL).
Public Relations (PR).
Software Technology Action Reflection Legacy
Cycle (STAR).
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
(STEM).
United States of America (USA).
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
1. Introduction and rationale
Our world needs engineers to design and build
technologies and artifacts that improve the quality of
life of its inhabitants. These engineers should be able to
create clean energy sources that allow us to reverse
climate change, as well as being capable of designing
the technology needed to feed the entire world
population and definitively eliminate hunger from the
earth. Furthermore, they would enable us to achieve the
seventeen sustainable development goals [1] in the short
term. However, the vocation for such a task is largely
absent in today's youth. Young people think that
engineering is a difficult subject and prefer to study

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other higher education courses because they believe
them to be easier, a choice that often leads to
unemployment or to jobs involving something very
different from what they have studied. It may be that
space engineering could help to alleviate this serious
problem.
Forty-seven years after man first stepped on the moon,
space applications and activities remain largely
unknown to the general public. Space technologies and
services are in the worst case simply ignored, and in the
best case still regarded as simply a tool for specialized
science and research [2]. Except for a small group of
space professionals, teachers and students around the
world are poorly informed about space systems, and so
are unable to grasp the importance of aerospace and
space studies for the human progress.
The current vision of space endeavors is that of a non-
sustainable and expensive undertaking that gives rise to
very few direct applications for improving the quality of
life of the earth’s inhabitants. A concerted outreach
effort is needed to overcome this situation. Our goal is
to change this perception held by the public at large in
order to bring science, space engineering and research
closer to everyday life as well as raising awareness of its
day-to-day importance.
Our proposal to engage students in science and space
engineering is to encourage them to participate in a
Moonshot or an even bigger project. So why not build a
Death Star? The question arises of why choose such a
huge project as a motivation rather than others that may
be less ambitious. The main reason is its direct outreach
impact. Everyone has heard about the Death Star
because of the huge commercial success of the Star
Wars® movies. This in itself means that little effort
would be required to explain and publicize the final
objective. It also constitutes a controversial project from
the outset; an endeavour of such magnitude would
undoubtedly have its supporters and its detractors, and
would therefore give rise to a broad cross-section of
opinion from many people all over the world.
Sustainability is another important asset in our vision.
Teaching sustainability in Engineering studies is a
current trend, and building a sustainable space station of
such a size is already a current matter of discussion.
Would a Death Star be sustainable [3, 4]. This is
precisely the purpose of this article: to raise interest in
and stimulate discussion about the suitability of a space
project. Our aim is not to actually construct the Death
Star, but to develop all possible technologies involved
in building it, and most importantly, to analyze how
these developments may lead in the short- or long-term
to the improvement of the everyday life of citizens on
Earth.
With a view to the involvement of student groups
worldwide, we have designed a plan for building a
Death Star which will also benefit different aspects of
life on Earth. The next step will be to find companies
and sponsors to invest in this research and
commercialize the spin-offs that may lead to
improvements in day-to-day life on Earth. Stakeholders
would then include [5] not only public space agencies
like ESA or NASA, but also private hi-tech companies
that may build products in line with the objectives of
this project.
2. Opportunity: Creating a global space education
community
To change society’s vision about space, a new
approach is needed in education. First, we need to
arouse the sense of vocation among the young vis-à-vis
STEM studies (Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics).
One of the problems with STEM studies is that young
people only see the hard part: it is necessary to study
many hard subjects in order to master the discipline.
Neither are they familiar with the reality of the daily
work of scientists and engineers. As Theodore von
Karman (1918-1963) said, “A scientist discovers that
which exists. An engineer creates that which never
was”. The key words that young people must bear in
mind when speaking about science and engineering are
“creativity”, “discovery”, “design”, “solving real
problems”, and “help humankind”, rather than
“difficulty”, “too abstract” and “boring”.
There is a need for a humanistic vision in STEM
studies. When the young, especially young women, say
that they want to study to help humankind, most of them
are thinking about health sciences, because they can
hardly imagine how a mathematician or an engineer
might help humanity. Even nowadays, when global
warming has become a huge problem of which the
young are aware, few of them wish to become scientists
in order to address this problem.
What are the challenges capable of capturing the
imagination of kids, young people and senior scientists?
Which of these challenges could become the dream of a
generation while also involving policy makers and
investors?

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2.1 A contest to achieve our goal
Space research has been one of the agents of change in
this regard: the launching of Sputnik in 1957 [6] and the
widespread perception that the United States was behind
the Soviet Union in technical capability was one of the
reasons for the 1950’s emphasis on increasing
mathematical and scientific foundations in engineering
curricula. In addition, the race to put a person on the
Moon led to an unprecedented investment in science
and engineering. By the end of the 1960’s, the dream of
most children was to become an astronaut, and they
were the modern heroes.
We believe that involving students from different
backgrounds in a collective project is fundamental for
making the new generations interested in STEM ideas,
and therefore in Aeronautics and Space research. To this
end, we propose a number of outreach activities at all
different teaching levels, ranging from secondary school
to Bachelor Degrees, Masters and PhD theses. We also
propose the organization of an international contest for
different ages, to which student groups would submit
innovative proposals for different technologies to be
developed for the project.
In order to raise awareness in our society, the project
should generate a debate. It must also be attractive to
both young and old generations as well as drawing
attention from the media. No such project will be a
success unless it is easy to understand, fashionable and
creates a sense of community. Nowadays, it is hard to
find a project as attractive for the public as the Moon
project once was. Hence, we propose the design and
construction of a Sustainable Space Station similar to
that of the Star Wars “Death Star”, but without its
weaponry (some kind of Live Star) and taking
advantage of the publicity coming from the revived
interest in the Star Wars movies. The construction of
such a station would be feasible in a reasonable period
of time, and the design would involve international,
intercultural and multidisciplinary student teams. The
design would address the most scientific challenges in
manned space exploration and colonization of other
planets, eventually guaranteeing the survival of
mankind.
However, it is necessary to bear in mind that the final
objective is not the creation of a real Death Star Space
Station, but rather the organization of a contest in which
new ideas would be discussed. The main idea is to
create an environment in which everyone can
participate, from primary education student to young
postdocs. The most important factor is to create a sense
of community for participation in a project where the
current problems facing our planet are presented and
discussed. This would provide the opportunity to make
the new generations conscious of current and future
problems and how science and engineering can solve
them.
From the pedagogical point of view, the aim is to
introduce students into a familiar community where
creativity and active discussion are paramount. A
challenge-guided contest in which real problems are
discussed is the best way to involve the new generations
in STEM topics and change young people's perception
of space research.
The creation of a global space education community
would therefore require a concerted effort from space
education stakeholders in order to engage teachers,
learners and citizens in shaping a vision in which the
mutual benefits of preserving planet Earth are made
manifest, as well as conveying to a broad cross-section
of people how space exploration can help global
societies to overcome 21st Century challenges both on
Earth and in space [7].
Different educational and outreach activities have so far
been proposed and conducted. Space scientists have a
wide range of possibilities for conducting their
experiments in hypogravity conditions, from drop
towers to sounding rockets [8] as well as satellites and
the International Space Station (ISS). All these facilities
provide flight opportunities for their diverse research
interests. In addition to these well-known opportunities,
parabolic flights have for some time been carried out as
an alternative way of performing short-time duration
experiments and technical demonstrations. Aircraft
parabolic flights provide up to 23 seconds of reduced
gravity and are used for conducting short investigations
in Physical and Life Sciences, both for senior
researchers and for international students’
experimentation and motivation. The French Company
Novespace, a spin-off from CNES, has been conducting
a large amount of parabolic flights for many years [9].
Among these events, seven ESA Student campaigns
[11] and joint partial-g parabolic flight campaigns [10]
have taken place, in the latter case providing partial
gravity similar to that present on the surface of the
Moon and Mars. In 2014, the highly successful Airbus
A300 ZERO-G was withdrawn from service, and a new
Airbus A310 ZERO-G entered into operation in early
2015; new parabolic flight campaigns are currently
being conducted with this aircraft [12]. Finally, in recent
years small single-engine aerobatic aircraft have also
been used out of Barcelona for conducting motivational
parabolic flight campaigns as part of the “Barcelona
ZeroG Challenge” international contest [13].
Indeed, the International Space Station (ISS) is a unique
space platform used for research in such fields as life,

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physical sciences, and space medicine The ISS is also
used as a testbed for several technologies and
applications, including robotic operations, as well as
several bodies’ maneuvers in orbit. Perhaps most
interestingly of all, it provides a platform for
educational and outreach events for new generations.
Among these educational activities, we may mention the
following: “Butterflies, Spiders and Plants in Space”,
from Nasa, which has shown the efficiency of ISS for
conducting experiments aimed at students; the
“AuroraMAX” by the Canadian Space Agency, the first
monitoring project of aurora borealis from Earth, and
ISS Modular didactic materials developed by the
European Space Agency, including ISS educational kits
issued in 12 languages with videos. Finally, we may
also mention the SUCCESS student contest [14].
SUCCESS stands for Space Station Utilisation Contest,
which was a competition for University students all
disciplines and belonging to ESA member states. All
these initiatives have been successful over the years,
although as regards overall awareness of the importance
of space research and activity, they have had a limited
impact on the general public.
What we propose herein is an even bigger and more
ambitious project; that of building the most complex,
popular and compelling space station imaginable; a
motivational endeavor such as the design and
construction of a realistic Death Star (Figure 1). Such
huge undertaking would provide the opportunity for
developing new sustainable technologies and scientific
research projects, all of which would constitute an
advance in knowledge as well as a parallel practical
application on Earth to enable the quality of life to be
improved for all humankind.
Figure 1. Designing and building a sustainable
Death Star may foster people’s imagination.
[Image: http://misterkenneth.deviantart.com/ ]
2.2 The roadmap for designing a challenge: a story to
tell.
In 1919, Raymond Orteig offered a prize of 25,000
USD for the first allied aviator(s) to fly non-stop from
New York to Paris. This challenge was made in a letter
to the president of the Aero Club of America
“Gentlemen: As a stimulus to the courageous aviators, I
desire to offer, through the auspices and regulations of
the Aero Club of America, a prize of $25,000 for the
first aviator of any Allied Country crossing the Atlantic
in one flight, from Paris to New York or New York to
Paris, all other details in your care.”
This prize prompted several groups of aviators and
engineers to invest time, effort, optimism and money
towards a common goal, even putting their lives at risk.
At least 6 teams competed with different technical and
organizational approaches. In 1926, the team led by
René Fonch invested 100,000 USD in building the S35
aircraft and setting up the flight to win the Orteig Prize.
Unfortunately, the plane was overloaded and crashed at
takeoff, and two of the four crew members were killed
in the accident. Nevertheless, it became clear that the
prestige of the prize had provided enough incentive to
invest four times more than the prize itself.
The following year, 1927, with backing from the
bankers of Saint Louis, Charles Lindberg won the price.
He won by using a different strategy from his
competitors: just one engine in the aircraft instead of 3
(therefore lighter and able to carry more fuel); he flew
alone (avoiding friction with teammates, an issue that
delayed at least one of the competing teams), and took
the decision to take off before bad weather had
completely cleared (thus stealing a march on his
competitors).
The Orteig Prize [15] not only opened the way to much
greater investment than the value of the prize itself, but
it also tapped into different approaches and problem
solving skills. Moreover, now that it had been proved
that a non-stop crossing of the Atlantic by plane was
possible, more entrepreneurs started working on
building a profitable business with long distance air
transportation. Thus, it is possible to state that the
enthusiasm and investment that stemmed from the
Orteig Prize was the point of departure of the current
aviation industry.
Inspired by Lindberg’s feat, Peter Diamandis set up the
Ansari XPrize, which offered 10 M$ to the team who
created the first reusable 3-person spaceship. In 2004,
this prize was won by the Tier One, designed by Burt
Rutan and financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
The technology was immediately commercialized by
Richard Branson to create Virgin Galactic. Interestingly,
Diamandis did not actually have the 10M$ at the time
he announced the prize. He spent all his available funds
on promotion and then set about obtaining the rest,
which he accomplished successfully [16].

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According to Diamandis [17], if properly and
aggressively promoted, a prize ranges from 5X to 10X
in investment the prize purse.
We know that it is not possible to offer a prize for
building a Death Star. First of all, just drawing up the
specific conditions for the prize would pose an
enormous challenge. The key factor in our opinion
resides in the phrase “properly and aggressively
promoted”. Stories are the best way to spread a message
as well as to create sympathies and empathy, and the
construction of a Death Star is indeed a story that is
easy to tell. If we are able to define objectives in a
roadmap, stimulate discussion, identify the problems to
be solved and specify the achievements to be gained in
the construction of a Death Star, then we may have a
really good story to tell.
The backstory for the building of a Death Star would
involve a very easy Public Relations campaign (PR) to
help promote many prizes. If young people believe (or
just pretend) that they are helping to build a Death Star
while at the same time solving concrete science and
engineering problems, they will be more motivated to
participate and to discuss it amongst themselves. In the
same way, the relative ease with which this kind of PR
could be set in motion is the key to obtaining the proper
funding for the prizes themselves, which would be open
to young people all over the world.
2.3 Pedagogical framework
The pedagogical ideas behind our proposal are based on
Challenge Based Instruction (CBI), which is based on a
reference framework named “How People Learn” and
an instructional design named “Software Technology
Action Reflection Legacy Cycle (STAR)”, developed
by the universities of Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Texas,
Harvard and MIT [18]. This is somewhat similar to
Problem Based Learning (PBL), but the main difference
is that, while PBL present students a problem to solve,
CBI offers open general problems in which students
themselves decide which challenge they want to tackle
[19]. The Death Star Challenge is the kind of open
problem that can be used in Challenge Based Instruction.
One of the most important tools we wish to promote is
mentoring. Mentoring is an aspect of professional
education in which a relatively more senior and
experienced person (the mentor) and a more junior
person (the mentee) come together in a personal and
collaborative relationship; the mentor guides the mentee
in the discovery and exploration of the learning process.
Mentoring has already been widely used and is based on
what Vygotsky called the “Zone of Proximal
Development”, which can be considered the point at
which students have enough knowledge to proceed
independently, but are unable to make further progress
without more input from a mentor [20]. We believe that
the best possible structure for our proposal is a
mentoring organization in which a university teacher is
the mentor of a PhD student, who at the same time is the
mentor of an undergraduate student (or student team),
who in turn is also the mentor of a secondary school
student (and so on).
Working in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams is
of great importance in our proposal, since it plays a vital
role in engineer education and is one of the ABET
criteria for the accreditation of engineering programs
[21]
3. Contest topics
The projects submitted to the contest must comply
with a predefined set of topics. These topics should be
in line with the research of major aerospace agencies in
the world. Thus, the work done by students may result
in a direct impact on space research and projects would
much more likely to be implemented.
NASA has for several years been working on a project
to send a man to Mars and hopes to achieve this goal by
2030. According to NASA, some of the technological
hurdles to be overcome before a human being sets foot
on Mars are as follows: creating an environment for
humans to live and work in space; travel to distant
places; manufacture products in space; landing on and
taking off from planetary surfaces and establishing swift
communication between Earth and spacecraft.
Any extension program of human presence in the
universe requires learning to reuse resources in the
places of destination as well as the natural resources
arising from the exploration activity itself. The products
obtained from these resources could be used to reduce
the mass and cost of both human and robotic
exploration. They also reduce the risk and cost of
missions by allowing self-sufficiency, thereby giving
rise to new mission concepts rather than transporting
everything from Earth.
In order to put a man on Mars, in 2010 NASA defined a
set of 14 Technology Roadmaps to guide the
development of space technologies. This list was
updated in 2015 by 40 experts with the support of
specialists from different areas*.
* Nasa Roadmap to Mars:
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oct/home/roadmaps/index.html

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NASA shared the roadmaps with the broader
community to raise awareness and to generate
innovative solutions to provide the capabilities for space
exploration and scientific discovery. The 2015 NASA
Technology Roadmaps cover a wide range of
technology candidates and development pathways up
until the year 2035. Moreover, NASA states that these
technologies will produce devices to improve health,
medicine, transportation, public safety, and consumer
goods for the general population. The 15 roadmaps are
the following:
● Launch Propulsion Systems
● In-Space Propulsion Technologies
● Space Power and Energy Storage
● Robotics and Autonomous Systems
● Communications, Navigation, and Orbital
Debris Tracking and Characterization Systems
● Human Health, Life Support, and Habitation
Systems
● Human Exploration Destination Systems
● Science Instruments, Observatories, and Sensor
Systems
● Entry, Descent, and Landing Systems
● Nanotechnology
● Modelling, Simulation, Information
Technology, and Processing
● Materials, Structures, Mechanical Systems, and
Manufacturing
● Ground and Launch Systems
● Thermal Management Systems
● Aeronautics
The document also specifies different transverse
technologies such as artificial intelligence and
autonomous systems, avionics, space walks, on-site
reuse or radiation and space weather resources areas.
These technologies may also be included as topics for
the contest. These topics may also be supplemented by
further specific topics not considered by NASA and
aimed more at the Death Star design, such as studying
the impact of artificial gravity environments on the
human body.
Experts who have drawn up roadmaps indicate that
space exploration using robots will continue to
monopolize much of the American effort in this regard.
However, future missions will be much more complex
and will require great machine autonomy. Distant
missions will have dynamic targets, and will require
robots capable of adjusting their configurations and
behaviour to circumstances. These robots will be able to
react in situations of uncertainty. For example,
exploring near Earth asteroids will require automatic
systems capable of making decisions and tracking
processes autonomously.
Astronauts need spacesuits that are like small
spaceships and incorporate many systems, such as vital
systems, thermal control, avionics, distribution and
storage of energy, impact protection, propulsion and
communications. For the design of the near-future
spacesuits, the needs of planetary exploration must be
taken into account.
In 2015, the total mass of space junk exceeded 6,000
tons. US surveillance network of space junk is currently
monitoring more than 22,000 objects larger than 10
centimeters. The data indicate that there are 500,000
pieces of trash larger than one centimeter, and more
than 100 million greater than a millimeter in size. Space
junk fragments of 0.2 mm pose a real hazard to both
astronauts and spacecraft. The measures taken so far are
insufficient to prevent the increase of space junk in the
future. The NASA roadmap identifies technologies that
will be needed to meet this challenge: (1) optical and
radar observations, and (2) direct measurements to
better characterize the population of space junk from
low Earth orbit to geosynchronous orbit ( about 36,000
km altitude), where many communications satellites are
currently working. We must also advance in modeling
both the current and future space junk environment as
well as the processes of satellite fragmentation when
pieces reenter the Earth's atmosphere.
It is essential to forecast space weather on the distant or
long missions in which neither astronauts nor ships or
space probes have the protection provided by the Earth's
magnetic fields. Radiation is a problem for both human
explorers and the electronic equipment they carry, so we
need to improve technologies of radiation protection.
Technologies that allow predicting solar flares must also
be improved.
NASA has launched a call for proposals in line with the
15 defined objectives. Some proposals selected by
NASA in 2016 to conduct a study phase are as follows:
● A robot shaped eel or squid, able to feed off the
energy generated from the magnetic field
variation. This robot could be useful for
exploring amphibious worlds like Jupiter's
moon Europa, which has liquid oceans;
● Two gliders connected by a wire moving at
different heights without propulsion
● Small, inexpensive robots such as footballs
capable of searching for water, nitrogen and
hydrogen in the permanently shaded regions of
planetary bodies

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We believe that all contest projects should include a
section indicating what other applications, not
necessarily connected with the aerospace industry,
might be put into practice with the technology or the
ideas suggested. These applications should be clearly
aimed at improving the quality of people’s lives. This
would induce potential private investors to finance some
of the projects, since as everyday applications exist, it
would be easier for investors to identify the potential
return on investment. This would facilitate the
involvement not only of government agencies such as
ESA or NASA, which would focus on the aeronautical
and spatial aspects of the project, but also of companies
such as TESLA, GOOGLE, etc., which could build
products based on the proposed technology or ideas in
accordance with their own research lines.
4. The Death Star Challenge
The main goal of the Death Star Challenge Roadmap
would be to launch the first edition of the challenge
(Challenge 1) in the academic year 2018-2019. After the
creation of the steering committee, in the Fall of 2017,
we foresee 4 phases in our roadmap: Bootstrap (Q1-Q3
2017); Pre-challenge 1 (Q3 & Q4 2017); Challenge 1
Launch (Q1 & Q2 2018), and finally Challenge 1
Execution (Q3 2018 to Q3 2019).
The phases of this Death Star Challenge are
designed as follows:
 Bootstrap (Q1-Q3 2017)
 Pre-challenge 1 (Q3 & Q4 2017)
 Challenge 1 Launch (Q1 & Q2 2018)
 Challenge 1 Execution (Q3 2018 to Q3
2019).
4.1 Bootstrap (Q1-Q3 2017)
In this phase, the steering committee would be required
to undertake the following tasks:
 Refine mission, vision and objectives. The
vision, mission and objectives presented in this
paper need to be examined, revised and fully
approved by the steering committee.
 Create pitch to get backers and partners.
Funding is a key element for this project. We
need to create an effective and compelling
pitch to try to convince as many backers and
partners as possible.
 Create association. We need to determine the
best legal figure under which to organize the
Death Star Challenge and take the legal steps
to create it.
 Define communication strategy.
 Setup online and social media presence. A
website with all the relevant information needs
to be set up, plus we need to start a community
management and online marketing campaign.
 Get partners and backers. Backers will be
persons and organizations contributing funds
for the execution of the Challenge and the
Awards. Partners will be organizations that
help with the organization and execution of the
Challenge. Both will be extremely important
for the success of the project.
4.2 Pre-challenge 1 (Q3 & Q4 2017)
In this phase, we need to define the first edition of the
Death Start Challenge down to the last detail. We
consider the following phases.
 Identify problems to be solved. The scope of
themes and problems to be solved have been
outlined in foregoing sections. In this phase,
however, we need to define what problems
need to be solved in the different categories of
the first edition of the Challenge.
 Define challenge categories and rules. The
rules of the Challenge and the categories of the
competition need to be specified, written down
and translated into the local languages.
 Creation of the first challenge committee.
The Death Star Challenge Committee will be
composed of 10 to 15 persons, including:
representatives of 2 universities on each
participating continent, representatives of
space agencies and companies, 2
representatives of K12 schools and high
schools, engineering and students associations
(Space Generation, Euravia, BEST, ASEE,
SEFI, etc.).
4.3 Challenge 1 Launch (Q1 & Q2 2018)
In this phase, preparations will be made for launching
the Challenge as defined in the previous phase.
 Form local committees. The Challenge will
take place in two spheres: Local and Global.
The winners of the local Challenges will
compete among other Local winners in the
global final. We need to create the Local
committees that will oversee the execution of
the Challenge in each area.
 Communication and dissemination. Both in
the global and local spheres we need to set up a
communication campaign to raise awareness
and interest in the Challenge.
 Instructors training. The instructors of the
students participating in the Challenge will
receive specific training in order to provide

67th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Guadalajara, Mexico, 26-30 September 2016.
Copyright ©2016 by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). All rights reserved.
IAC-16-E1.IP.18 Page 8 of 12
support and guidance (when needed) to the
students. This training will be developed and
provided by the First Challenge Committee.
4.4 Challenge 1 Execution (Q3 2018 to Q3 2019)
Now we assume that the First edition of the Death Star
Challenge is under way. If all the above has been
carried out correctly, this should be the “easy” part.
These are the tasks planned.
 Quick Off
 Process monitoring.
 Feedback and guidance
 Local finals
 Global finals
 Communication
Notification of the final results will be made during the
upcoming IAC 2019, where prizes will be awarded in a
public gathering.
A detailed chronogram and budget are described in
Annex 1 and Annex 2, respectively, of this manuscript.
4.5 Budget previsions
On the first iteration of the challenge, we plan for 5
regions/countries mobilizing 50 schools and high
schools per region. This would mean that approximately
3,750 students would be participating in the challenge.
The estimated cost for the first execution is
approximately 550 K € - see Annex 2. However, the
bootstrap phase could be funded for less than 100K€
while more funding is being raised.
5. Conclusions
In this paper, we have outlined the reasons why a
widely-publicized, ambitious and motivating challenge
is needed to attract the young to STEM studies,
especially to astronautics, while transforming society’s
vision of space research. We propose to take advantage
of the Star Wars films, which are firmly lodged in the
imagination of several generations, to address enormous
problems above and beyond those that the construction
of the Death Star Space Station would entail.
Society needs a challenge equivalent to that of the space
race, which started when the USSR launched the
Sputnik and which came to a halt (for most of society)
when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. An idea such as
this that is able to captivate the imagination constitutes
the only kind of project capable of involving students of
all types (both young and senior) from all parts of the
world, the final goal of which is the advance of
knowledge and the solution of problems common to the
whole of humanity, such as climate change.
Furthermore, a world contest of this nature, in which all
such problems could be discussed and debated, is the
type of project that could attract partners to invest
money in promoting and developing whatever ideas that
might emerge.
From all the possible projects, the authors of this paper
believe that there is only one area of knowledge with the
potential to capture the imagination, while at the same
time addressing enough real challenges that cover
practically all challenges currently posed in knowledge;
this is in the field of Astronautics, and the proposition of
a real Sustainable Death Star Space Station.
Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to George Lucas, Lucasfilm ® and
Disney ® for providing us inspiration for this paper.
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67th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Guadalajara, Mexico, 26-30 September 2016.
Copyright ©2016 by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). All rights reserved.
IAC-16-E1.IP.18 Page 9 of 12
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Exploring
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67th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Guadalajara, Mexico, 26-30 September 2016.
Copyright ©2016 by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). All rights reserved.
IAC-16-E1.IP.18 Page 10 of 12
ANNEX 1: Chronogram
2016 2017   2018   2019
Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2 Q3
 Creationofsteeringcommittee    
 Bootstrap 
Refine mission, vision and
objectives         
Create pitch to get backers and
partners         
Createassociation(legal) 
Definecommunicationstrategy 
Setup online and social media
presence    
Getpartnersandbackers 
 Pre‐Challenge 
Identifyproblemstobesolved 
Define challenge categories and
rules         
Firstchallengecommittee 
 ChallengeLaunch 
Formlocalcommittees 
Communicationanddissemination 
Instructortraining 
Challenge1Execution 
QuickOff    
Processmonitoring    
Feedbackandguidance   
Localfinals    
Globalfinals    
Communication    

67th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Guadalajara, Mexico, 26-30 September 2016.
Copyright ©2016 by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). All rights reserved.
IAC-16-E1.IP.18 Page 11 of 12
ANNEX 2: Budget
Expectedscope1stedition    
 Localareas  5countries/regions 
 Numberofschools 50 perregion  
 Totalschoolsexpected 250   
 Numberofstudents 15 averageperschool 
 Totalstudentsexpected 3,750 students  
 Totalteamsexpected 1,500 teams  
      
Budget     
 Administrativepersonnel 2person  
   3,000€ costperson/month 
   6,000€ administrativepersoneelexpenses/Month
   144,000€ totaladministrativepersonnelexpenses
 Steeringcomitte 5person  
   
voluntaryparticipation/no
cost 
 Firstchallengecommittee 14 person (steeringcomitte+9)
 Travelexpenses 400€ averagemonth/person 
   50,000€ steeringcomiteetravelexpenses
   75,600€ Othertravelexpenses 
      
 Officesandequipmentrental 2,000€ monthrentalcosts 
   48,000€ rentalcosts  
 Legalsupport,accounting,etc 20,000€   
 GraphicDesignandWebdevelopment 20,000€   
 Webmasterandcommunitymanagement 80,000€ (onefull‐timeperson24months)
 Challengemanagementsoftware 20,000€ (includescustomizationandoperations)
 Eventsorganization,merchandise,cateringsetc 50,000€   
 Travelexpensesforlocalteamfinalists 20,000€   
 Insurance  20,000€   
 TOTAL  547,600€ PLUSAWARDS 
      
Expectedscope1stedition    
 Localareas  5countries/regions 
 Numberofschools 50 perregion  
 Totalschoolsexpected 250   
 Numberofstudents 15 averageperschool 
 Totalstudentsexpected 3,750 students  
 Totalteamsexpected 1,500 teams  

67th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Guadalajara, Mexico, 26-30 September 2016.
Copyright ©2016 by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). All rights reserved.
IAC-16-E1.IP.18 Page 12 of 12
Budget     
 Administrativepersonnel 2person  
   3,000€ costperson/month 
   6,000€ administrativepersonnelexpenses/Month
   144,000€ totaladministrativepersonnelexpenses
 Steeringcommittee 5person  
   
voluntaryparticipation/no
cost 
 Firstchallengecommittee 14 person (steeringcommittee+9)
 Travelexpenses 400€ averagemonth/person 
   50,000€ steeringcommitteetravelexpenses
   75,600€ Othertravelexpenses 
      
 Officesandequipementrenting 2,000€ monthrentalcosts 
   48,000€ rentalcosts  
 Legalsupport,accounting,etc 20,000€   
 GraphicDesignandWebdevelopment 20,000€   
 Webmasterandcommunitymanagement 80,000€ (onefull‐timeperson24months)
 Challengemanagementsoftware 20,000€ (includescustomizationandoperations)
 Eventsorganization,merchandise,cateringsetc 50,000€   
 Travelexpensesforlocalteamfinalists 20,000€   
 Insurance  20,000€   
 TOTAL  547,600€ PLUSAWARDS 