On Tuesday, Ed-tech firm WhiteHat Jr announced its partnership with satellite company EnduroSat, to foster applied science opportunities for students.

The partnership between WhiteHat Jr and EnduroSat(providing space industry solutions and is the fastest-growing space company in Europe) will promote applied science opportunities for students who will be able to send commands to, and access data from a satellite operating in space.

According to the official blog, The partnership calls for a satellite launch in December 2021 with a payload dedicated to WhiteHat Jr that will provide students with exciting space-related learning opportunities. In addition, WhiteHat Jr students will have access to a satellite that will be launched on a trial basis in June 2021. According to the announcement, both satellites will use SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rideshare.

Key characteristics of December 2021 satellite (codename AYANA) include:

– 30+ onboard sensors (e.g., infrared, temperature, etc.)

– Cameras and other tools

– A programmable computer (Raspberry Pi)

– Communication with a station on Earth once every 5-6 hours

The program will be available to WhiteHat Jr students in grade 1-9 who has enrolled for 144 class coding course. Students will build curriculum-based applications, using dedicated software and that will be transmitted to the satellite via an EnduroSat API. Once received, the onboard computer & the WhiteHat Jr. payload computer would be set up to orchestrate systems, run the application, analyze the sensor data, and send the results back to students on Earth.