Space education development

ANO «Space Education Development» was founded to promote cosmonautics, astronomy, and astrophysics, with the aim of sparking interest in engineering, scientific, and technical creativity among its target audience. The organization strives to create opportunities for young people and schoolchildren to engage with space research and development, as well as to familiarize them with the achievements and future potential of modern Russian science and technology.

One of the key objectives of the ANO is to establish the necessary infrastructure to support and nurture the scientific and technical creativity of schoolchildren in the field of space research and development. This includes providing methodological support for working with youth and schoolchildren. At present, the ANO operates SONIKS, a network of open ground stations that receive signals from spacecraft. The organization is responsible for developing and maintaining this network, which involves renting servers, coordinating the web developers’ work, creating educational materials, and advancing the project.

SONIKS is Russia’s first open amateur radio project, which aims to enhance the appeal of cosmonautics, space research, and technology among a broad audience of young people and schoolchildren. This is achieved through the development of open-source software and technologies used to collect data from active spacecraft. Operating in collaboration with educational programs, this initiative fosters an environment that not only strengthens interest in domestic technologies but also provides foundational knowledge for future professionals across various related fields.

ANO follows the principles of the organization's “Open Space Manifesto”.The ANO follows the principles outlined in the «Libre Space Manifesto» declared by the LibreSpaceFoundation:

«Space is humanity’s future. It is humanity’s opportunity to explore, develop, use, and thrive differently. A way to ensure the longevity, sustainability, openness, equality of those efforts for all humanity.»

The ANO objectives include:

• creating opportunities for young people and schoolchildren to engage with space research and development, and maximizing their involvement in the creation and application of space systems and technologies to address complex and significant challenges facing humanity;
• uniting the efforts of various parties and partners to establish an accessible, modern educational environment focused on a broad spectrum of space research and development. This environment aims to increase the number of schoolchildren annually involved in scientific, technical, and creative activities.

A key feature of the SONIKS project is the integration of educational processes into working with satellite data. Direct collaboration between developers and educators will help bring schoolchildren and students closer to space technologies. Additionally, the open development model provides an opportunity for anyone interested to participate. All developments and additional functionalities contribute to the international open station project and, importantly, to domestic open technologies. The project uses servers and cloud storage facilities located within the Russian Federation.