In Bulgaria, training should be established, directly aimed at the applied development of space engineering technologies

In Bulgaria, training must be established that is directly aimed at the applied development of space engineering technologies. This was stated by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vladimir Bozhilov from the Department of Astronomy at the Faculty of Physics of Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", project leader of Space Education for Bulgaria /SpaceEdu4BG/, during today's discussion on the topic "Space and Education", which took place at the Second National Forum for Contemporary Space Research, organized from October 7 to 9 at Sofia Tech Park. He spoke about the project, which aims to establish space engineering training in Bulgaria for the first time, so that Bulgarians can work at the European Space Agency on equal footing with their foreign colleagues. Bulgaria should not just follow good practices; Bulgarians can be leaders in space education, he said. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Veselka Radeva, head of the Marine Astronomical Observatory and Planetarium of the "Nikola Yonkov Vaptsarov" Naval University in Varna, pointed out that astronomy is extremely necessary for sailors. They learn celestial navigation, without which they cannot orient themselves, because at some point a collapse of the ship's navigation systems may occur, and they must be able to determine its location, wherever it is in the open sea. Assoc. Prof. Radeva also noted that in Europe, the creation of military space forces is beginning, and in every country, observatories will be built to monitor artificial satellites, with the goal of tracking the stability of their orbits, whether they are turning into space junk, etc. The European Space Agency has already allocated over one trillion euros within three to four years solely for observation, she explained. We need to build our observatories and have trained people – military personnel and astronomers, Radeva said. My goal is to find common ground between the military community interested in space and the scientific space community, so that we can work together, Assoc. Prof. Radeva said. Assoc. Prof. Dimitar Ginchev from the Department of Air Transport at the Technical University of Sofia noted that there is a significant shortage of machine engineers, such as specialists in aviation technologies. Space technologies are the highest level of engineering science, he reminded, and added that strong space engineering must be developed in Bulgaria.

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BTA, 09.10.2021