Recently in Students Category

Students Across the US Write Code to Control Zero Gravity Satellites on ISS

"Twenty seven teams of high school students from across the United States competed in the Zero Robotics SPHERES Challenge which took place at MIT in Cambridge, MA and aboard the International Space Station (ISS) this week. "Team Rocket" from River Hill High School, Maryland, "Storming Robots" from Storming Robots LLC, of New Jersey and "SPHEREZ of Influence" from Rockledge High School, Florida posted the best cumulative score out of 9 multi team 'alliances' seeing their code tested in space by real astronauts."

Spheres Final Robot competition in Zero-gravity

"School teams from Europe and America have been commanding robots competing in the Spheres ZeroRobotics tournament in space. The arena: 400 km above Earth on the International Space Station. Student teams could send a single piece of instruction software to control the small robotic 'Spheres'. The goal of the tournament was to earn points through masterful operation via guidance and navigation control algorithms as well as choosing the best tactics to win the game."

NASA Joins MIT and DARPA for Out-of-This-World Student Robotic Challenge

"NASA will join the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and high school student teams from the U.S. and abroad for the third annual Zero Robotics SPHERES Challenge on Monday, Jan. 23. The event will take place on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Mass., and be broadcast live on NASA Television from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EST."

Montana Students Pick Winning Names for Moon Craft

"Twin NASA spacecraft that achieved orbit around the moon New Year's Eve and New Year's Day have new names, thanks to elementary students in Bozeman, Mont. Their winning entry, "Ebb and Flow," was selected as part of a nationwide school contest that began in October 2011. The names were submitted by fourth graders from the Emily Dickinson Elementary School. Nearly 900 classrooms with more than 11,000 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia participated in the contest. Previously named Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL-A and -B, the washing machine-sized spacecraft begin science operations in March, after a launch in September 2011."

Fifty-Seven Student Rocket Teams to Take NASA Launch Challenge

"More than 500 students from middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities in 29 states will show their rocketeering prowess in the 2011-12 NASA Student Launch Projects flight challenge. The teams will build and test large-scale rockets of their own design in April 2012. NASA created the twin Student Launch Projects to spark students' imaginations, challenge their problem-solving skills and give them real-world experience. The project aims to complement the science, mathematics and engineering lessons they study in the classroom."

The 2012 FIRST Robotics Competition Kicks Off Saturday in Cleveland

"The FIRST Robotics Competition kickoff marks the beginning of the season for high school students to design and build a robot to compete in a tournament against a field of competitors. NASA, the largest sponsor of the FIRST Robotics Competition, will broadcast the kickoff for over 100 local students at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, at Cuyahoga Community College, Unified Technologies Center. The event will air nationwide on NASA Television from Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester."

NASA Selects Student Teams For Microgravity Research Flights

"NASA has selected 24 undergraduate student teams to test science experiments under microgravity conditions. The teams will fly during 2012 as part of the agency's Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program (RGEFP). The teams will design and build their experiments at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and conduct tests aboard an aircraft modified to mimic a reduced-gravity environment. The aircraft will fly approximately 30 parabolas with roller-coaster-like climbs and dips to produce periods of weightlessness and hyper-gravity ranging from 0 to 2g's."

NASA Announces Robotics Student Competition 2012 Grant Awards

"NASA is continuing its strong support for the annual FIRST Robotics Competition, which inspires student interest in science, technology, and mathematics through a challenge to design and build a robot. The agency is awarding grants totaling $1,386,500 for student teams in 37 states to participate in FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology."

NASA Opens Registration for Annual Great Moonbuggy Race

"NASA is challenging student inventors to gear up for the agency's 19th annual Great Moonbuggy Race. Registration is open for the engineering design and racing contest set to culminate in a two-day event in Huntsville, Ala., on April 13-14, 2012. The race is organized annually by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and held at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, both in Huntsville. Since 1994, NASA has challenged student teams to build and race human-powered rovers of their own design. These fast, lightweight moonbuggies address many of the same engineering challenges overcome by Apollo-era lunar rover developers at Marshall in the late 1960s."

Thousands to Gather at NASA in Silicon Valley for Technology Festival, Creating Projects for a Better World

"Campus Party announces the first edition of its Silicon Valley Technology Festival, to be held from August 6-12, 2012, at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. This will be the first event in the United States organized by Campus Party, the world's Starting today, a website with information on the festival is posted at www.campus-party.org .Tickets for the event will be available in February. Several thousand participants from around the world are expected."

NASA'S Diverse Collaborations Spread The Stem Education Message

"NASA's Office of Education is collaborating with a variety of organizations this week to engage students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and increase academic excellence. Leland Melvin, the agency's associate administrator for education, is the keynote speaker today at the inaugural STEM Summit in St. Louis. The summit is sponsored in part by LEGO Education. NASA and the maker of the iconic building bricks have partnered on a number of events in recent years to encourage hands-on creativity as an avenue for learning STEM principles."

Students to Experience Free-Fall for Physics Experiment

"A team of current, past and future University of Central Florida students will float around in weightlessness like astronauts this month as part of a physics experiment that could provide valuable information for future trips to the Moon or asteroids. UCF Associate Professor Josh Colwell is leading a team of students on a Zero-G flight on a specially modified Boeing 727 on Nov. 20. The students will be manning several experiments during the flight, which departs from Titusville municipal airport at 10 a.m."

NASA Space Technology Research Fellowships - Fall 2012 Fellowship Grant

"This call for graduate fellowship applications solicits applications from accredited U.S. Universities on behalf of highly qualified individuals pursuing or planning to pursue Master's (e.g., M.S.) or Doctoral (e.g., Ph.D.) degrees in relevant space technology disciplines at their respective institutions. This call is open to students pursuing advanced degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). The goal of NSTRF is to provide the Nation with a pipeline of highly skilled engineers and technologists to improve America's technological competitiveness. NASA Space Technology Fellows will perform innovative space technology research while building the skills necessary to become future technological leaders."

2011 OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Video Contest

"NASA has opened registration for the 2011 OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Video Contest. Featuring OPTIMUS PRIME, the leader from the popular TRANSFORMERS brand, the contest highlights spinoffs from NASA technologies that are used on Earth. The goal is to help students understand the benefits of NASA technology to their daily lives. Last year's contest was open to students in grades 3-8 and resulted in 76 video submissions from over 190 students in 31 states."

DICE - Dynamic Ionosphere Cubesat Experiment: DICE will map geomagnetic Storm Enhanced Density (SED) plasma bulge and plume formations in Earth's ionosphere. Two identical spinning spacecraft will measure plasma density and electric fields to determine the how and why of variations in ionospheric plasma density that affect the performance of communications, surveillance, and navigation systems on earth and in space.

Just-launched tiny USU satellites studying solar disturbances, Desert News

"The DICE satellites, known as "nanosatellites," are smaller than a toaster. They were put together by students at Utah State University and launched from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Delta rocket that also carried NASA's satellite, known as the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System."

Twin USU Built Small Satellites Delivered to California for Launch Prep

"Two Utah State University completed Dynamic Ionosphere Cubesat Experiment (DICE) satellites have been delivered to the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, for final launch readiness. Cal Poly will place the two National Science Foundation funded miniature spacecraft in an ejection canister and verify that the assembly is ready for launch."

AubieSat-1: "AubieSat-1 is the first student built satellite in Alabama. It is a 1U CubeSat: 1000cm³ in volume and weighing 1.03-kg. It is entirely designed and built and tested by Auburn University undergraduate students, without using components off the shelf. It will study radio wave propagation through the ionosphere and test solar panel protective films. It is part of the ELaNa3 Mission."

Radio Aurora Explorer (RAX): "RAX is a joint venture between the University of Michigan and SRI International. Its primary mission objective is to study large plasma formations in the ionosphere, the highest region of our atmosphere. These plasma instabilities are known to spawn magnetic field-aligned irregularities (FAI), or dense plasma clouds known to disrupt communication between Earth and orbiting spacecraft." Twitter: @RAX_2010 Facebook RAX

Michigan Multipurpose Minisat (M-Cubed): "The objective of MCubed is to obtain a mid resolution image to date of Earth with at least 60% land mass and a maximum of 20% cloud coverage from a single cubesat platform. S3FL is also developing the MCubed bus with the intention of making it a heritage design, thus allowing for future missions to be flown on the same bus." Twitter: @UMCubed Tumblr: M-Cubed

Michigan Exploration Laboratory

M-CUBED and RAX Photos below

MSU satellite orbits the Earth after early morning launch

"Early Friday morning, shortly before 4 a.m. Mountain time, a student-built satellite called Explorer-1 [Prime] roared into the sky on a NASA rocket launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Almost two hours later, the satellite separated from the rocket and starting circling the Earth. Within three hours of launch, ham radio operators in France, England and The Netherlands had reported hearing from the satellite. ... Updates on Explorer-1 [Prime] are available on the Montana Space Grant Consortium Facebook page."

NASA Seeking Student Experiments For Balloon Flight

"NASA is accepting applications from graduate and undergraduate university students to fly experiments to the edge of space on a scientific balloon. This balloon flight competition is a joint project between NASA and the Louisiana Space Consortium (LaSPACE) in Baton Rouge. NASA is targeting fall 2012 for the next flight opportunity for the LaSPACE maintained High Altitude Student Platform (HASP) facility. HASP is a balloon-borne instrument stack that provides an annual near-space flight opportunity for 12 undergraduate and graduate student-built instruments."

MSU's twin satellite to launch Oct. 28 on NASA rocket

"The twin of a Montana State University student-built satellite that was launched in the spring but failed to reach orbit as a result of an anomaly with the TAURUS-XL rocket is scheduled to be launched Friday, Oct. 28, on another NASA rocket. This miniature research satellite - also called Explorer-1 [Prime] in honor of the first successful U.S. satellite - is set to launch between 3:48 and 3:57 a.m. Mountain time on a Delta II rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Maria, Calif. MSU students and faculty members plan to watch from the Air Force base, as well as from MSU's Space Operations Center in Cobleigh Hall, said Dave Klumpar, director of MSU's Space Science and Engineering Laboratory."

NASA, NIA Announce 2012 Student Rover Contest

"NASA and the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) are launching a 2012 undergraduate and graduate level student robotics competition. The RASC-AL (Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage) Exploration Robo-Ops Student Challenge will allow up to eight teams to compete at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) next spring. The prize is $10,000 and a chance to attend the popular analog and robotics testing event, NASA Desert Rats, in fall 2012."

Team America Rocketry Challenge Registration Opens

"Registration for the world's largest student rocket competition is open now through November 30. The Team America Rocketry Challenge will accept up to 1,000 student teams in grades 7-12 from any U.S. school, home school or non-profit youth organization. The 2012 contest rules and registration information are available at www.rocketcontest.org."

The Space Generation Advisory Council Holds Impressive 10th Anniversary Congress

"The Space Generation Congress (SGC), organized by the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC), held its 10th annual event for the first time in the continent of Africa. SGC 2011 was held from September 29 to October 1, 2011, just prior to the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Cape Town, South Africa. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, SGAC organized and executed their biggest event since their foundation at UNISPACE III. With a 30% increase in the number of delegates since last year, SGC 2011 brought together 130 students and young professionals from 42 countries and six continents."

NASA Announces Two National Student Science Competitions

"NASA is offering students the opportunity to compete in two microgravity challenges: "Dropping In a Microgravity Environment," or DIME, and "What If No Gravity?" or WING. DIME is a team competition for high school students in the ninth through 12th grades. WING is a competition for student teams from the fifth through eighth grades. Both are project-oriented activities that last throughout the school year for the selected teams."

YouTube SpaceLab Lifts Off With Lenovo Aboard

"Six regional finalists will gather in Washington, D.C., in March 2012 to experience a ZERO-G flight and receive other prizes. From them, two global winners, one from each age group, will be announced and later have their experiments performed 250 miles above Earth and live streamed on YouTube. Additionally, the global winners will get to choose a unique space experience as a prize: either a trip to Tanegashima Island, Japan, to watch their experiment blast off in a rocket bound for the ISS, or once they are 18 years old, a one-of-a-kind astronaut training experience in Star City, Russia, the training center for Russian cosmonauts."

Keith's note: In the very near future NASA, Google, and computer manufacturer Lenovo are set to announce an interesting educational project. As I understand the gist of the effort from various sources, students will be asked to come up with ideas for experiments that can be performed on the ISS and submit a video via YouTube that describes their idea. Winners will be selected and the experiments described in the videos will actually be performed aboard the ISS. This is an interesting way to get novel ideas onboard the ISS - and possibly to spark careers. Moreover, it is a way to show that the ISS has utility beyond the experiments proposed by a small cadre of insiders.

Fifth Annual Conrad Foundation Spirit of Innovation Challenge

"Today, Nancy Conrad, founder and chairman of the Conrad Foundation, officially launched the 2011-2012 Spirit of Innovation Challenge to encourage students to create technologies and products that solve global issues. For the past four years, the Innovation competition has helped transform the way science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) is being embraced by high school students."

Lockheed Martin renews support for the Spirit of Innovation Challenge

"Lockheed Martin believes the competitive success of our nation depends on an innovative and technically adept workforce that understands the value of collaborating to solve 21st century challenges," said Dr. Ray O. Johnson, Lockheed Martin senior vice president and chief technology officer"

PSU in Space: Experiments underway on the International Space Station

"The goal of this series of experiments is to test how fluid in specially shaped conduits behaves in zero gravity. The scientists on Earth - at PSU and at the University of Bremen - are manipulating the fluid movement to see at what point bubbles form. Formation of bubbles decreases fuel efficiency, and is particular to zero-gravity situations. Fuel tanks on spacecraft are designed in a way that minimizes this occurrence, but these experiments may shed light on how tanks might be designed smaller - a logistical advantage in sending any kind of craft into space, according to Bob Green, one of the NASA scientists working temporarily at PSU."

Student Plant Experiment Takes Root on International Space Station and In Classrooms, NSBRI

"A unique science project designed to sow the excitement of scientific discovery in students is sprouting this week aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The Plants in Space project will allow students and teachers to examine root growth in microgravity and compare the results with those from plants used in their own ground-based experiments. The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) is funding the project, which began Tuesday when ISS astronauts planted Brassica rapa (Wisconsin Fast Plants(R)) seeds during the first of four scheduled five-day trials. A free, downloadable teacher's guide provides information about the project and the equipment needed by educators and students to design and conduct experiments in their classrooms."

The Challenge Is On: Robot Prize Competition Registration Opens

"NASA and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Mass., are seeking teams to compete in a robot technology demonstration competition with a potential $1.5 million prize. During the Sample Return Robot Challenge, teams will compete to demonstrate a robot that can locate and retrieve geologic samples from a wide and varied terrain without human control. The objective of the competition is to encourage innovations in automatic navigation and robotic manipulator technologies. Innovations stemming from this challenge may improve NASA's capability to explore a variety of destinations in space, as well as enhance the nation's robotic technology for use in industries and applications on Earth."

NASA Centennial Challenges 2012 Sample Return Robot Challenge, NASA IPP

Students Build Planet-hunting Miniature Satellite

"Most college finals end up in a stack on a professor's desk. For one group of MIT students, however, their three-semester long project has a slightly different destination - outer space. The final in this case is an exoplanet-finding "CubeSat" - a small, rectangular satellite that's about as long as a skateboard and as heavy as a bowling ball. Over the course of three semesters, MIT students have developed parts of the mission from initial concepts to functioning hardware, aiming for launch in 2012."

During the season of gift-giving, many youngsters may have had toy rocket ships on their wish-lists. In this eye-to-eye interview, we learn how one boy didnt send a letter to the North Pole to get a rocket, rather to the NIH to fund a rocket. We talked to Terence Boylan, who with his friend Bruce Cook, asked for an NIH grant back in April of 1957. Since Terences father was a physician and medical researcher at the University of Buffalo, the nine-year-old thought NIH was the place to go for money. Dr. Ernest Allen received Terences letter, and helped reward the youngsters request with ten dollars.

Written Testimony by Nancy Conrad, Founder and Chairman, Conrad Foundation

"The Conrad Foundation's Spirit of Innovation Awards (SOIA) presents high school student participants with a very broad challenge: create an innovative product that can be used to address a real-world problem with a real-world solution which can ultimately be viable in the commercial marketplace. The competition is free of charge to students in the United States and is also open at no cost to international students. These students are given a blank slate within several major categories that can include clean energy, aerospace exploration, and health and nutrition. But they're not just asked to complete a science project: they are required to conduct research to determine their creation's potential market impact and develop a full business plan."

- House Hearing: STEM in Action: Inspiring the Science and Engineering Workforce of Tomorrow
- Live hearing 10 am -12 pm EDT

NASA Seeks Undergraduates To Fly Research In Microgravity

"NASA is offering undergraduate students the opportunity to test an experiment in microgravity as part of the agency's Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program. The program is accepting proposals for two different flight experiences in 2012. Teams interested in conducting student-driven research should submit a letter of intent by Sept. 14. This step is optional, but serves as an introductory notice that a team plans to submit a proposal for the competition. Proposals for student-driven experiments are due Oct. 26, and selected teams will be announced Dec. 7. The actual flight experience will take place in June 2012."

"Studying space and the physical sciences at Singularity University provoked significant thought and consideration. In the belief that experience is the best method of learning, many of the students felt it necessary to experience lunar and Martian gravity, and weightlessness to better understand space and space exploration. ZERO-G made this experience possible. From the first seconds of experiencing reduced gravity, the surreal experience left an indelible mark of excitement and happiness on each participant. Moving into weightlessness, we finally understood what it exactly feels like to be in space," said Carlo Bellini, Graduate Studies Program Participant, Singularity University." More

Tor/Forge Books and NASA Jointly Announce Publishing Collaboration

In an effort to educate and encourage math and science education Tor/Forge Books, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, and NASA have embarked on a collaboration to publish a series of science based, commercial fiction books, referred to as "NASA inspired Works of Fiction" around concepts pertinent to the current and future work of NASA. NASA will allow existing and new Tor/Forge authors to team up with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's (GSFC) Subject Matter Experts (SME) to create scientifically accurate and entertaining novels in a distinctly unique way.

Tor/Forge and NASA hope that pairing scientists and engineers with the imprints' award-winning roster of writers will raise awareness and inspire the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), in line with the President's Technology Agenda. They also hope to contribute towards the goal of attracting and retaining students in the above fields, thereby strengthening NASA and the nation's future workforce in a compelling manner. More

It is not unusual for college students to take lessons learned in the classroom and see how they can be applied out in the real world. But for some exceptional students, their efforts this summer are literally "out-of-this-world" as they live a 10-week hands-on research or engineering experience interning at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Md., just outside of Washington, D.C.

University of Wisconsin students topped two other university teams to win the 2011 NASA eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge - a competition to design and build a space habitat. The team will now take its inflatable space loft to NASA's annual Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS) field test in Arizona in September. It will be tested as part of a simulated astronaut mission to an asteroid.

The NASA Minority Innovation Challenges Institute (MICI) is offering opportunities for minority serving institutions to apply for a $5,000 grant to enter the 2012 University Student Launch Initiative (USLI) or Lunabotics Mining Competition. Applications for both competitions are due June 30.

The second series of flights in ESA's 'Fly Your Thesis!' programme concluded recently. After many months of preparation, the 10-day campaign culminated with four student experiments making three parabolic flights aboard the Airbus A300 Zero-G aircraft. Four student teams, from the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, were selected for this rare opportunity to conduct their own experiments during ESA's 54th Parabolic Flight Campaign. The students arrived at the Novespace facilities in Bordeaux, France, on 16 May, and began to unpack their experiment racks. Over the next three days, they loaded the racks onto the aircraft and prepared for flight. Following a weekend break, the excitement mounted as they were given their flight suits. More

Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from around the globe tested their robot designs in a challenge at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida from May 26-28. During the competition, teams remotely controlled excavators, called lunabots, to determine which could collect the most simulated lunar soil during a specified timeframe. The first place mining competition team was Laurentian University in Ontario, Canada. The Joe Kosmo Award for Excellence winner was the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.

The three competing universities are (1) Oklahoma State University; (2) University of Maryland; and (3) University of Wisconsin. All three have been in a year-long design, build, and test curriculum that produced this product. It has been a great inspiration and learning experience for these teams. Please join us for the competition. NASA JSC will have each team set-up, deploy, evaluate, and take down 3 consecutive weeks.

Media coverage time slots:

- Oklahoma State (6-10 Jun 2011): 9 Jun (Thursday) 2:00 - 4:00 pm Media Event
- University of Maryland (13-17 Jun 2011): 16 Jun (Thursday) 2:00 - 4:00 pm Media Event
- University of Wisconsin-Madison (20-24 Jun 2011): 23 Jun (Thursday) 2:00 - 4:00 pm Media Event

Websites:

- X-Hab sites: 2011-X Loft : http://www.spacegrant.org/xhab/2011
- 2012: http://www.spacegrant.org/xhab/
- HDU Public site: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs/hdu_project.html

Chirag Parikh & Phil Larson: Earlier this month, we were honored to be invited to the Team America Rocketry Challenge held about 50 miles outside Washington, DC. There, hundreds of middle- and high-school students were participating in a model rocketry competition sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association.

As two guys with aerospace in our blood, we know firsthand the excitement and adrenaline rush of launching model rockets. For many youngsters--us among them--model rocketry is a rite of passage that springboards early dreamers to become the engineers and aerospace professionals of tomorrow. They will be the ones designing, building, and operating the next-generation rockets that launch astronauts into space, probes into the farthest reaches of our solar system, and Earth-orbiting satellites that touch every facet of our daily lives.

Competitions like the one we attended this month help embed in students the qualities necessary to succeed, such as creative thinking, problem solving, and teamwork. Each three- to 10-person team was challenged to design and build a rocket to climb exactly 750 feet during a 40- to 45-second flight. The payload, a raw egg, had to return to the ground by parachute undamaged.

Full post at OSTP with photos

The top six teams competing in the first "RealWorld-InWorld NASA Engineering Design Challenge" showcased their creative ideas for a panel of expert judges, fellow teams and others on April 14, 2011. The forum, held in a virtual online space, was the culmination for this year's "RealWorld-InWorld NASA Engineering Design Challenge." The challenge gives high school students a unique opportunity to work with university students to solve authentic NASA-inspired, design-based engineering problems using 21st century technology tools and skills.

When Space Shuttle Endeavour makes its final trip into space it will be under the watchful eye of a high altitude balloon built and flown by students and volunteers from across the U.S. This will be the second flight of a camera-equipped payload, the first having been successfully flown during in February 2011 when images were obtained of Space Shuttle Discovery's launch from a vantage point of over 100,000 feet.

A team from Rockwall-Heath High School in Heath, Tex., took first place at the ninth annual Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) finals Saturday afternoon, besting 99 teams from across the country to earn the title of national champion. Rockwall-Heath joined more than 600 participating teams in September 2010 on a journey that included rocketry design, simulated flights and test launches. Sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association and the National Association of Rocketry, the contest encourages students to prepare for careers in the aerospace industry, which is working to boost the pipeline of students with science, technology, engineering and math skills. More

Airlines can not afford to fly with empty seats very often - and Space Shuttle orbiters can't leave valuable payload capacity "on the ground." Costing hundreds of millions of dollars per flight, NASA filled extra space in the shuttle's cargo bay using the Shuttle Small Payloads Project (SSPP). Hooks and power buses built into the shuttle bays allowed hundreds of small, modular experiments and technology test units to make the best use of missions that didn't need all 50,000 pounds of payload capacity. Between 1982 and 2003, more than 200 of these projects, including Get-Away Special (GAS) Cannisters, Hitchhikers and Spartans, flew in 108 missions.

"There has never been a robot competition like this. ESA is launching the Zero Robotics competition for students, asking them to create rival programs to control miniature satellites. The final tournament is set for the International Space Station! This fight is not about muscles and weapons, but about brains, intelligence and agility. These small, bowling-ball-sized spherical satellites are Spheres - Synchronised Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites. They are already used by NASA inside the Space Station to test sets of instructions for spacecraft performing autonomous rendezvous and docking." More

Space Shuttle Endeavour's Final Launch Inspires Hands-on Public Engagement

"When Space Shuttle Endeavour makes its final trip into space it will be under the watchful eye of a high altitude balloon built and flown by students and volunteers from across the U.S. This will be the second flight of a camera-equipped payload, the first having been successfully flown during in February 2011 when images were obtained of Space Shuttle Discovery's launch from a vantage point of over 100,000 feet. This balloon mission will be conducted by Quest for Stars, a non profit educational organization, in coordination with the Challenger Center for Space Science Education and the Coalition for Space Exploration."

Students and educators nationwide will have the opportunity to interact with NASA engineers and scientists through two newly developed NASA flight initiatives. The programs, developed at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, are designed to give students and educators hands-on flight experiences using NASA sounding rockets and scientific balloons.

Challenger Center for Space Science Education (Challenger Center), the nation's premier provider of science education inspiration, is marking its 25th anniversary with the launch of its "Challenger Changed My Life" program to highlight its life-transforming benefits for students. The non-profit organization was founded on April 24, 1986 in tribute to the seven fallen astronauts of the Challenger Space Shuttle and their education mission. With the ongoing support of the astronauts' families, NASA, leading scientists, business leaders, educators and the nation, Challenger Center continues its vital role in STEM (science technology, engineering, and mathematics) education. Since its creation, its nationwide network of Challenger Learning Centers has served more than 4,000,000 students with simulated space missions and powerful STEM-focused learning experiences.

"Physics teachers from Bergen County Technical High School - Paramus campus, NJ, along with Project Aether's Ben Longmier (www.ProjectAether.org), hold a physics lesson from 75,000 ft. With coordination from the FAA, the high school student high altitude weather balloon was released from the NASCAR Pocono Raceway on Apr 8 at 11:15am." More.

We need your vote! The annual Spirit of Innovation Awards is kicking off a two-week People's Choice competition (http://www.conradawards.org/competition) that challenges high school students to solve real-world problems by creating commercially viable science and technology based products. 27 teams of high school students have created unique inventions in the categories of aerospace exploration, clean energy, and cyber security. From Space Sleeping Pods to Solar Wind Power Generators to Parabolic Stoves and mobile apps that signal for help during times of duress, the 2011 Spirit of Innovation Awards high school student competitors have risen to the challenge and need your vote.

For the second consecutive year, high school students from across Australia joined in a competition to obtain scientifically useful (and aesthetically pleasing) images using the Gemini Observatory. The 2010 winning student team suggested that Gemini focus on an interacting galaxy pair which, they assured, "would be more than just a pretty picture." The spectacular result of this contest, organized by the Australian Gemini Office (AusGO), can be seen at http://www.gemini.edu/node/11625

Eighty students from community colleges in 28 states and Puerto Rico have been selected to travel to a NASA center to develop robotic rovers. The National Community College Aerospace Scholars program encourages students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

Keith's note: This photo was taken during the STS-133 mission. Shuttle and ISS crew members pose with a printout of one of the photos taken of the Discovery's ascent into space by the Robonaut-1 balloon flown by Quest for Stars in collaboration with the Challenger Center for Space Science Education. Larger view.

- Video: Robonaut-1: Time Lapse View: Entire flight from Liftfoff to Touchdown
- Educational Balloon Provides Space Shuttle Launch Images and Video From Over 110,000 feet
- First Photos: Shuttle Discovery's Trail Into Space As Seen from Over 70,000 Feet in a Balloon

Engineering students from around the world will be flocking to Berchtesgaden amid the Bavarian Alps in July for ESA's navigation summer school. It's a picturesque choice, but also a practical one: the only place in the world where Galileo is already fully realised.

"After eight weeks of exercises and classroom activities, 4000 children from more than 25 cities worldwide are about to conclude their 'Mission X: Train Like an Astronaut' challenge that promotes healthy nutrition and regular exercise. Acrobatic space somersaults and climbing martian mountains are some of the fun activities - inspired by astronaut training - performed by children and teachers from Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom and the USA. This has helped pupils aged 8-12 years to understand the importance of staying fit for astronauts and children alike, in space as on Earth." More.

Two satellites designed and constructed by students at the Cockrell School of Engineering successfully separated in space March 22, completing the most crucial goal of the mission since its Nov. 19 launch and making them the first student-developed mission in the world in which satellites orbit and communicate with each other in real-time.

NASA senior officials led a high-voltage education forum Tuesday in New York City to mentor and encourage young people, especially girls, to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) studies and careers. New York middle school and high school students from the Women's Academy of Excellence; the Promise Academy; the New York City Housing Authority; and the General D. Chappie James Middle School of Science attended the event at the Stephen Weiss Studio in Greenwich Village.

NASA has selected four high school teams as finalists in the 2011 Balloonsat High Altitude Flight competition. The winning teams' experiments will be launched on a NASA helium weather balloon between May 18 and 20. Because balloon flights are weather-contingent, the exact flight day will be announced that week. The weather balloon will be sent into the stratosphere, a near-space environment at an altitude of approximately 100,000 feet. The selected high school teams and their experiments are:

"Whether or not you remember the winter of 2011 as unusually cold or snowy, an adventurous team of experts will remember its intense heat, as they searched for microbial life between sand dunes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They were searching for simple life forms that also may exist on other planets. The United States team consisted of teachers Mike Wing and Lucinda Land, NASA space scientists Chris McKay and Jon Rask, and education specialist Matthew Reyes. Together, they embarked on a high adventure desert expedition from Feb. 18 - Mar. 4 with UAE students and teachers as part of a NASA education program, called Spaceward Bound. Developed at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., Spaceward Bound's mission is to train the next generation of space explorers. Led by the U.S. team, local students and teachers from the Emirates were given real planetary research experience using remote, extreme environments in the UAE deserts as analogs for Mars and Saturn's moon, Titan." More

ESA: Four teams of university students will develop and perform experiments in hypergravity during ESA's second 'Spin Your Thesis!' campaign. The students will use the Large Diameter Centrifuge facility at ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Experts from ESA's Education Office, ESA's Technical Directorate and the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA) finally selected four teams.

Poster presented at the 42nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference by N. G. Moss, T. M. Harper, M. B. Motta, A. D. Epps

"While some candidate craters were observed that appeared in LROC data but not in Lunar Orbiter data, these were all very near the edge of discernable feature size and are almost certainly explained by various differences between the images (e.g. sun angle or viewing geometry). While our initial search did not find any discernable new cratering, we have shown that data from the original analog Lunar Orbiter tapes, as recovered by the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery project, possesses the characteristics necessary to discern new craters at reasonably small sizes. If the entire Lunar Orbiter data set was recovered in this manner it may be possible for future researchers to apply automated methods to detect changes with much better chances of success." More

Poster presented at the 42nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference by A. Epps, M. Sandler

"The goal of the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) is to digitize and archive the magnetic tape records generated by the five Lunar Orbiter spacecraft in the mid-1960s. The readout scanners utilized onboard the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft employed a phosphor-covered anode bombarded by an electron beam to focus a spot of light on 70mm film developed onboard the spacecraft. This light was modulated by the density of the image and read by a photomultiplier tube. Each individual pass of this scanning procedure across the 70mm film produced a thin strip of a larger image, referred to as a "framelet". The product of the spacecraft's readout system was a video waveform that was modulated and transmitted to three DSIF stations and recorded onto 2-inch magnetic tape via Ampex FR-900 data recorders. This document discusses the process by which these video signals were converted into digital images." More

U.S. high school students are invited to participate in NASA's Interdisciplinary National Science Program Incorporating Research Experience, or INSPIRE, through an online learning community. INSPIRE is designed to encourage students in ninth through 12th grades to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Applications are being accepted through June 30. NASA will make selections for the program in September. The selected students and their parents will participate in an online learning community with opportunities to interact with peers, NASA engineers and scientists. The online community also provides appropriate grade level educational activities, discussion boards and chat rooms for participants to gain exposure to careers and opportunities available at NASA.

NASA has announced the winners of the 2010 NASA OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Award. The contest encouraged students to produce short, creative videos about their favorite technology from NASA's Spinoff 2009 Publication. NASA collaborated with Hasbro using the correlation between the popular TRANSFORMERS brand, featuring its leader OPTIMUS PRIME, and spinoffs from NASA technologies created for aeronautics and space missions used here on Earth. The goal was to help students understand how NASA technology 'transforms' into things used daily.

Robonaut-1 Balloon Mission Live Video and Mission Updates

"If all goes according to plan a balloon with a student-oriented payload will photograph Space Shuttle Discovery as it climbs into space from an altitude of 100,000 feet. There will also be live streaming video from the balloon itself during the mission - sent back by two regular smartphones running Google's Android operating system. Co-sponsored by the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, this mission is one in a series of flights conducted by Quest for Stars, a California-based non-profit educational organization that uses off-the-shelf hardware and a little ingenuity to allow students to place experiments at the edge of space at exceptionally low cost. Quest for Stars and the Challenger Center for Space Science Education have now joined together to promote the use of these low cost delivery systems. This mission will be the first of what is hoped to be many future collaborations." More information

The Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC) will be held February 28 - March 2, 2011, at The University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida. A new generation of space vehicles capable of economically delivering payloads and researchers is coming on line. These vehicles will revolutionize space access by providing frequent, low-cost access to space and the capability to carry research and education crew members. They will also carry experiments for technology demonstrations, for scientist in-the-loop research, and for educational/public outreach demonstrations. More info.

The NASA Minority Innovation Challenges Institute, also known as MICI, is offering free interactive video sessions which guide undergraduate and graduate students through the step-by-step process of applying for a NASA internship. Applications are due March 1, 2011. The video sessions also provide information about scholarships, fellowships, and other NASA opportunities. More info.

The First Undergraduate Planetary Science Research Conference will be held on Sunday, March 6, 2011 from 9:00 am to 5:00pm, in association with the 2011 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), The Woodlands, TX. Undergraduate students currently conducting research in planetary sciences, astrobiology and lunar sciences are eligible. More info.

SAN FRANCISCO (Feb. 8, 2011) - Officials with The Conrad Foundation today announced 27 high school teams will compete in the finals for the 2011 Spirit of Innovation Awards. The annual competition, presented by Lockheed Martin Corporation, challenges students to solve real-world problems by creating science and technology based products that can be introduced to the marketplace.

This year's competition challenges students to develop new ideas in the areas of aerospace exploration, clean energy and cyber security. The finalist teams in each category include:

NASA has selected 20 small satellites to fly as auxiliary cargo aboard rockets planned to launch in 2011 and 2012. The proposed CubeSats come from a high school in Virginia, universities across the country, NASA field centers and Department of Defense organizations. CubeSats are a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites are approximately four inches long, have a volume of about one quart and weigh 2.2 pounds or less.

Leland D. Melvin, NASA Associate Administrator for Education: "As an astronaut, I have a deep connection to the honor and legacy that the Challenger Center for Space Education represents. A theme is evident in both the Challenger Center's mission and the President's Day of Remembrance remarks: triumph from tragedy. These words exemplify the resilience, purpose, and optimism that led to the creation of the Challenger Centers. The Challenger Centers and NASA also have similar values in terms of education, and these goals align with my own personal commitment." More

In the constellation of Ophiuchus, above the disk of our Milky Way Galaxy, there lurks a stellar corpse spinning 30 times per second -- an exotic star known as a radio pulsar. This object was unknown until it was discovered last week by three high school students. These students are part of the Pulsar Search Collaboratory (PSC) project, run by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, WV, and West Virginia University (WVU). More

"What does your high school resume look like? Were you the head of your class? Did you make the honor roll? Did you team up with your sister to create a NASA-approved granola bar named the Solar Flare and win a Spirit of Innovation Award for it? Shannon and Mikayla Diesch did and MTV Geek was lucky enough to talk to the Battle Creek, Michigan sisters about their experience as innovators and award winners in anticipation of this year's competition. The Spirit of Innovation Awards is a national competition in which teams of high school students from around the country put their mathematical, scientific and engineering skills to the test in an attempt to create new products that can change the way people live." More at MTV Geek News

No Boundaries, a USA TODAY education initiative in collaboration with NASA, encourages students to explore careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Students explore STEM careers through stimulating project-based learning and team competition. No Boundaries targets students in grades 7-12 and is designed as a team-centered cooperative learning project. No Boundaries is cross-curricular and requires minimal teacher preparation. It aligns to national standards and includes assessment rubrics. Students who submit their final No Boundaries career presentation projects to the 2011 National No Boundaries Competition are eligible to win up to $2,000 in cash awards for themselves and $500 for their teacher or sponsor. They will receive VIP passes to visit a NASA facility. Winners may be asked to present their work to NASA. For more information, visit the competition website. Link to the NES Virtual Campus home page.

AO Number (Required in subject line of email application): 823. Desired Number of Participants: 1 Background Information: The Deep Space Network (DSN) is composed of three spacecraft tracking centers in California, Spain and Australia. Each center tracks spacecraft up to the far reaches of space 24 hours/7-days/week and is manned by human operations. Some of the protocols and operations concepts are shared by other space agencies. The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) promotes the use of shared approaches and protocols to enable spacecraft operations support across agencies from multiple countries.

AO Number (Required in subject line of email application): 799. Desired Number of Participants: 1 Background Information: The Deep Space Network tracks over forty spacecraft from three geographically separate sites in Goldstone California, Canberra, Australia and Madrid, Spain.

NASA and 14 international space agencies are challenging students to complete a nutrition and fitness program known as "Mission X: Train Like an Astronaut." Approximately 3,700 students from more than 25 different cities worldwide are participating in this six-week pilot project.

NASA's Human Research Program is sponsoring the U.S. component of the international challenge that began Tuesday. Teams of students between eight and 12 years old will learn principles of healthy eating, exercise and compete for points by finishing training modules. Students also will practice scientific reasoning and teamwork while participating in hands-on training that targets strength, endurance, coordination, balance and spatial awareness. The exercises will involve the same types of skills astronauts learn during training for spaceflights.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Summer High School Internship Program (JPL SpaceSHIP) is an 8-week internship designed for high school students, age 16 or older, who have demonstrated a strong interest in and aptitude for science, technology, engineering and/or mathematics (STEM). One of JPL SpaceSHIP's objectives is to encourage pre-college students who have been traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields to consider such fields for their careers.

On Jan. 11, 2011, Google launched the inaugural Google Science Fair. Google has partnered with CERN, National Geographic, Scientific American and the LEGO Group to create this new STEM competition. This is a global competition open to any student aged 13-18, and students may enter as individuals or as teams of up to three. There is no entry fee. Registrations and submissions will be made online. The Science Fair will culminate in a celebratory event at Google headquarters in California in July 2011, where finalists will compete for internships, scholarships and prizes in front of a panel of celebrity scientist judges, including Nobel Laureates and household names. Submissions are due by April 4, 2011. To sign up for free resource kits for your classroom or school, please visit the Global Science fair website at http://www.google.com/sciencefair.

NASA is inviting student teams to design and build experiments the agency will fly into the stratosphere, a near-space environment, more than 100,000 feet above the Earth. NASA's second annual Balloonsat High-Altitude Flight competition is open to student teams in ninth to 12th grades from the United States and its territories. Each team of four or more students must submit an experiment proposal to NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland by Feb. 11. Student teams may propose experiments on a wide range of topics, from bacteria studies to weather observations.

Applications are now being accepted for the Achieving Competence in Computing, Engineering and Space Science project, also known as ACCESS. This 10-week, paid internship at NASA centers around the U.S. is designed for undergraduate and graduate students with disabilities. Applicants should have strong backgrounds in science, a GPA of 3.0 or higher, and a desire to pursue technical careers. Students who are chosen will work with scientists and engineers in an area compatible with their skills and interests. Applications for placement at NASA are due Feb. 11, 2011. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/programs/descriptions/Achieving_Competence.html. Please e-mail any questions about this opportunity to Laureen Summers at lsummers@aaas.org.

Caltech's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships, or SURF, project introduces undergraduate students to research under the guidance of seasoned mentors at Caltech or NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Students experience the process of research as a creative intellectual activity and gain a more realistic view of the opportunities and demands of a professional research career. SURF is modeled on the grant-seeking process. Students collaborate with potential mentors to define and develop a project and to write research proposals. Caltech faculty or JPL staff review the proposals and recommend awards. Students work over a 10-week period in the summer, mid-June to late August. At the conclusion of the project, they submit a technical paper and give a SURF Seminar Day oral presentation. All application materials must be received no later than Feb. 22, 2011. For more information, visit http://www.surf.caltech.edu/. Please e-mail any questions about this opportunity to the Caltech Student-Faculty Programs office at sfp@caltech.edu.

N. G. Moss¹ and T. M. Harper², M. B. Motta³, A. Epps^4
1LOIRP Project P.O. Box 375 Moffett Field, CA 94035, Neulynm-at-yahoo.com, ² LOIRP Project P.O. Box 375 Moffett Field, CA 94035, travis.martin.harper-at-gmail.com. ³ LOIRP Project P.O. Box 375 Moffett Field, CA 94035. Mbmotta-at-yahoo.com., ⁴Skycorp, Building 596, NASA Ames Research Park, Moffett Field, CA 94035, Austin.epps-at-gmail.com

Submitted to 41st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference:

Introduction: In 1966 and 1967 NASA sent five Lunar Orbiters to photograph nearly the full surface of the moon. Each orbiter launched took images of different areas of the moons surface, or very high resolution images corresponding to lower resolution images previously taken. Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) is one of the several projects using these images for research. We are in possession of 1,478 2" original analog tapes from 3 Deep Space Network ground stations. We have taken hundreds of those analog tapes and converted them to digital form; with the majority of them being from Lunar Orbiter II which took images with .8 to 1 meter resolution.

With them in digital form we are able to assemble the framelets in high quality and overlay them with Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Narrow Angle Camera (LROC_NAC), which has a similar resolution of .5 to 1 meter. The overlays enable us to compare the two images looking for change, specifically new craters. The finding of new craters will help us determine the age of older craters by looking at the baseline color of the regolith from known dates between the Lunar Orbiter and LROC images. The craters found per unit area will also provide a boundary on the current small body population of the inner solar system.

Full paper

NASA has selected 101 of its high-performing interns and fellows for the agency's Student Ambassador Program. The students will represent NASA at a variety of education and outreach events at schools and universities to help inspire future students interested in science, engineering, mathematics and technology, or STEM, opportunities.

Each summer, the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) brings a dozen highly motivated college students to Baltimore, Maryland, for a Space Astronomy Summer Program. The Space Telescope Science Institute is the scientific operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope and for the future James Webb Space Telescope. The Space Astronomy Summer Program runs ten weeks, from mid-June to mid-August, and is designed for upper division undergraduates with a strong interest in space astronomy. Students work individually with STScI researchers and staff on research projects that might include data reduction and interpretation, software development, scientific writing, preparing data for public releases. The program affords students the opportunity to attend lectures on a variety of exciting topics related to space astronomy, the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. The Space Astronomy Summer Program provides students a fun educational experience within a team spirited environment. Students will receive a stipend of $5200 for the summer and housing assistance. More information

The 2011 Undergraduate Research Associates in Astrobiology Program is a 10-week program for undergraduate students interested in working with scientists whose research adds to the current body of astrobiology knowledge. Each research associate (RA) will participate in a specific research program, working directly with one of our Team scientists at Goddard Space Flight Center. The RA will work closely with the mentor to conduct a well-defined investigation, reduce data, and produce an end-of- program presentation. The presentation will demonstrate the knowledge gained over the course of the summer, and will be given in an oral forum during the last week of the program. As a group, the RAs will meet with a different GCA Team member each week to learn more about his/her respective area of research, and to gain a broader view of Astrobiology.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Headquarters has released a solicitation, entitled NASA Space Technology Research Fellowships (NSTRF) - Fall 2011 Fellowship Start, on December 29, 2010. The solicitation is available by opening the NASA Research Opportunities homepage at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/, selecting "Solicitations," then selecting "Open Solicitations," and, finally, selecting "NSTRF11." Go directly to the NSTRF11 page on NSPIRES here. NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT) seeks to sponsor U.S. citizen and permanent resident graduate student researchers who show significant potential to contribute to NASA's strategic goals and missions.

The Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program provides a unique academic experience for undergraduate students to successfully propose, design, fabricate, fly and evaluate a reduced-gravity experiment of their choice over the course of four to six months. The overall experience includes scientific research, hands-on experimental design, test operations and educational/public outreach activities. A flight opportunity targeted for community college and minority students is available in June 2011. There will be a webinar broadcast live from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, on Jan. 12, 2011, at 3 p.m. EST that explains how to apply. Students and faculty may ask questions, download applications and view other related videos. Visit http://nasamici.com/reduced-gravity.html to learn how to register for this free webinar. Please e-mail any questions about this event and registration to mary@nasamici.com.

NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) Small Spacecraft Division has a requirement for mission operations and ground support services and associated research and development of technologies and processes critical to support flight missions. This requirement includes development of documentation such as Mission Operations Plan and Procedures, Test and Verification Reports, Space to Ground Segment Interface Control Documents, and Mission Review presentations, support to project development and management, and advanced payload and aerospace technology development. The anticipated period of performance is approximately 21 months (through September 15, 2012).

WHAT: Middle- and high-school teams have built unique devices to compete in the "Ping-Pong Ball Climb Contest," the 13th annual Invention Challenge hosted by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., on Friday, Dec. 10.

The objective is to create a device capable of lifting an officially supplied ping-pong ball from near the ground and cause the ball to touch and hold against a ceiling located 2 meters (about 6.6 feet) above ground. The winner will be the team whose device accomplishes this task in the fastest time.

The NASA Academies offer a ten-week summer experience for college students with emphasis on immersive and integrated multi-disciplinary exposure and training. Activities include laboratory research, a group project, lectures, meetings with experts and administrators, visits to NASA centers and space-related industries, and technical presentations. Students learn how NASA and its centers operate, gain experience in world-class laboratories, and participate in leadership development and team-building activities.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen to inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology, today announced NASA has awarded a five-year agreement to FIRST to provide support for hand-on robotics competition events to address the critical shortage in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields that the nation is facing. The multi-year cooperative agreement, worth up to $20 million, was granted by NASA through the year 2014.

NASA and the National Institute of Aerospace have launched a new planetary rover engineering competition called the Exploration Robo-Ops Student Challenge. This competition challenges university teams to design and build a planetary rover. Teams will then demonstrate their rover's capability to perform a series of competitive tasks at the Rock Yard of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston in May 2011.

Student teams at graduate and undergraduate levels are eligible to compete. Teams must submit a Project Plan Proposal by Dec. 15, 2010. The project plans will be reviewed, and up to ten qualifying teams will be announced no later than Dec. 23, 2010.

Few NASA projects in recent years have captured the public's attention like the Mars rovers. Now researchers are hoping the chance to design a future rover may capture university students' interest.

NASA and the National Institute of Aerospace or NIA in Hampton, Va., have launched a new planetary rover engineering competition called Exploration Robo-Ops Student Challenge. University teams are eligible to win as much as $10,000 for designing and building a planetary rover, then demonstrating its capability to perform a series of tasks at the NASA Johnson Space Center's Rock Yard in Houston, Texas.

"NASA is excited to sponsor this competition that lets us see students' creative solutions to real engineering problems," Pat Troutman, Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts-Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) sponsor at NASA's Langley Research Center. "This challenge gives NASA the benefit of student innovation in robotic operations, but it also gives the students a chance to excite the public and others about their mission." Graduate and undergraduate engineering teams with a faculty advisor are eligible to compete. Teams are required to submit a project plan proposal by Dec. 15. Up to 10 qualifying teams to be announced Dec. 23 will move on to the building phase of the competition. Those teams' rovers will then compete against one another at the 2011 RASC-AL Robo-Ops Forum in May next year.

A Space Act Agreement signed between NASA's Remote Sensing Earth Science Teacher Program (RSESTeP) and the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) will allow certified Earth science teachers nationwide to continue to bring NASA Remote Sensing resources into their classrooms.

RSESTeP, located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, provides science teachers the opportunity to expose students in 4th through 12th grades to NASA cutting edge resources and technologies. Members of the AMA can now partner with local schools to fly NASA remote sensing payloads, collecting Earth science data needed to complete classroom projects.

The Real World Design Challenge is an annual competition that provides students in grades 9-12 the opportunity to work on real-world engineering challenges in a team environment. Student teams are asked to address a challenge that confronts our nation's leading industries. Students use professional engineering software to develop solutions and generate presentations that convincingly demonstrate the value of their solutions. The RWDC provides students with opportunities to apply the lessons of the classroom to the technical problems that are being faced in the workplace. The deadline for team registration is Nov. 19, 2010. Solutions must be submitted by Jan. 31, 2011. For more information about the challenge, visit http://www.realworlddesignchallenge.org/index.php. Questions about the Real World Design Challenge should be directed to rwdc_support@ptc.com.

A closed-loop recycling system is an important component to exploring space. Join host Kathy Kaiser-Holscott from the Central Operation of Resources for Educators and presenter Jay Garland from NASA's Kennedy Space Center for an hour-long, free webcast on Nov. 10, 2010, at 4 p.m. EST. This webcast will focus on the Waste Limitation Management and Recycling Design Challenge for students in grades 5-8. Learn how to help NASA prepare for future exploration by designing a simulated system to reuse water in space. For more information and to view the webcast, visit http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/programs/national/dln/index.html. If you have any questions about the webcast, please mail them to Renee Elias at nasa_renee@lcjvs.net.

NASA will hold a media teleconference at 10:30 a.m. PST on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2010 to discuss the Organism/Organic Exposure to Orbital Stresses, O/OREOS and Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite, or FASTSAT -- scheduled to launch Nov. 19, 2010 on a Minotaur IV launch vehicle from the Alaska Aerospace Corporations Kodiak Launch Complex on Kodiak Island, Alaska.

The goal of the O/OREOS mission is to demonstrate the capability to conduct low-cost astrobiology science experiments on autonomous nanosatellites in space. Scientists will apply the knowledge they gain from O/OREOS to plan future experiments in the space environment to study how exposure to space changes organic molecules and biology. These experiments will help answer astrobiologys fundamental questions about the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the universe.

Community college students in a pilot program will take the first steps toward potential technology careers as they develop robotic explorers at NASA field centers. Ninety students from community colleges in 23 states have been selected to travel to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston or the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., for hands on experience with technology development and direct interaction with NASA experts.

This week, the White House Summit on Community Colleges explored how these institutions can support a highly educated and skilled workforce. Concurrently, NASA is preparing for the culmination of the National Community College Aerospace Scholars pilot program. The agency will bring young scholars to join agency professionals Oct. 20-22 to develop rovers to explore the surfaces of other worlds and learn more about actual careers in science and engineering.

NASA and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass., have selected 24 high schools to participate in a new science, technology, engineering, and math education program. The teams will design software to program small satellites aboard the International Space Station. The Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, and Reorient Experimental Satellites, or SPHERES, are three volley ball-sized spherical satellites that fly inside the space station's cabin to test advanced maneuvers for spacecraft, like formation flying and autonomous rendezvous and docking. Each contains its own power, propulsion, computing, and navigation equipment.

"NASA ARC has a requirement for engineering support services for the transition of technical and operational material and knowledge from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to NASA ARC for sustaining engineering and operation of the Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) hardware and software systems. NASA desires to transform the SPHERES small satellite systems resident on International Space Station (ISS) in orbit, into a National Laboratory Facility for use by a wide variety of researchers and educators. To do this, NASA HQs has directed NASA ARC to work with the SPHERES systems developer, MIT, to quickly become capable of maintaining, scheduling, and operating the SPHERES flight and ground systems." More

NASA has announced the award of the Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployers, or P-POD, service contract to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Calif. This new contract is an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity award for five years with a maximum cumulative potential value of $5 million. The award will provide a broad range of P-POD services for NASA's CubeSat program.

CubeSats are a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites are approximately four inches long, have a volume of about one quart and weigh less than 2.2 pounds.

What does a scientist do to visualise a space journey? Build a model, of course. A model of Europe's Rosetta comet-chaser made out of LEGO(R) blocks started out in this small way and has grown into a high-fidelity Rosetta Lander Education Kit. Engineering and art students of the University of Rome gathered yesterday to test the prototype of the Rosetta Lander Education Kit. Not only did they build the LEGO MINDSTORMS comet lander, they also learnt why ESA's mission is travelling all the way to Jupiter's orbit to rendezvous with comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. More.

NASA is challenging U.S. and international undergraduate and graduate student teams to design and build a remote-controlled or autonomous excavator that could be used on the moon. The excavator must be able to collect and deposit a minimum of 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of lunar simulant in 15 minutes.

Design teams must include one faculty advisor from a college or university and two or more undergraduate or graduate students. A group of universities may work in collaboration, and multidisciplinary teams are encouraged.

Selected teams will compete in the Lunabotics Mining Competition at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 23-28, 2011. Teams must apply no later than Feb. 28, 2011. There will be a limited number of teams allowed to compete.

Teams to Design Software for Small Satellites on the International Space Station

WASHINGTON -- NASA is challenging high school teams to design software to program small satellites aboard the International Space Station. The competition centers on the Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites, or SPHERES.

SPHERES are bowling ball-sized spherical satellites used to test maneuvers for spacecraft performing autonomous rendezvous and docking. Three of these satellites fly inside the station's cabin. Each is self-contained with power, propulsion, computing and navigation equipment.

The Zero-Robotics investigation, run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., is designed to inspire future scientists and engineers. The teams are asked to address challenges of satellite docking, assembly and flight formation. The 2010 Zero-Robotics Challenge expands on a limited pilot program performed in fall 2009. This expanded pilot, called HelioSPHERES, will involve high schools from across the country during the 2010 - 2011 academic year. This new education program builds critical engineering skills for students, such as problem solving, design thought process, operations training, teamwork and presentation skills.

NASA is inviting students in grades 5-8 to participate in the 2nd Waste Limitation Management and Recycling Design Challenge. The challenge uses real-world scenarios that meet science and mathematics content standards. Students can participate in a formal, informal or home-school setting. Teams of up to six students will design a water recycling system for the unique environment of the moon. Teams will then test their system on a simulated wastewater stream. Proposals and results are due Feb. 28, 2011.

The winning teams will be announced in May 2011. The top three teams will receive awards. The first place team will receive an expense-paid trip to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During the winning team's visit to Kennedy, students will gain firsthand knowledge about NASA's missions, receive behind-the-scenes tours of NASA's launch facilities, and learn about future aerospace and engineering careers. For more information and contest rules, please visit http://wlmr.nasa.gov/. Questions about the challenge should be directed to Jay Garland at jay.l.garland@nasa.gov.

The National Space Grant Foundation is pleased to announce the X-Hab Academic Innovation Competition. The challenge is for a senior- and graduate-level design course in which students will design, manufacture, assemble and test an inflatable loft that will be integrated onto an existing NASA-built operational hard-shell prototype.

In June of 2011, the NASA-Habitat Demonstration Unit Project will conduct a head-to-head competition for successfully designing and demonstrating an attachable inflatable habitat "Loft" concept, given a list of requirements for the design. Universities may collaborate together on a Project Team. Up to three project teams will be selected for funding. The head-to-head competition will determine the winner that will be awarded additional funds to integrate their design with the HDU-Lab during the August-September 2011 HDU-Hab/Lab integrated field testing.

NASA has announced a second opportunity for small satellite payloads to fly on rockets planned to launch in 2011 and 2012. These CubeSats could be auxiliary cargo on previously planned missions.

CubeSats are a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites are approximately four inches long, have a volume of about one quart and weigh less than 2.2 pounds.

For more information on NASA's Education Strategic Coordination Framework, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/performance/strategic_framework.html

Conrad Foundation & ManSat Limited Expand the Spirit and Innovation Awards program on International Stage

"Officials with The Conrad Foundation today announced ManSat Limited, a global commercial space corporation headquartered on the Isle of Man , has joined with the Conrad Foundation to expand the 2010-2011 Spirit of Innovation Awards program on the international stage. ManSat will sponsor a national competition on the Isle of Man from which one finalist team will participate in the annual awards competition, which gives high school students the opportunity to design, develop and commercialize innovative products that help solve challenges of the 21st century."

NASA has selected nine experiments, designed by students at seven schools, for astronauts to perform on the International Space Station this summer. NASA selected the proposals from among 132 received for the new Kids in Micro-g! Program.

This is the pilot year for the program, a student experiment design challenge geared toward grades five through eight. Its purpose is to give students a hands-on opportunity to design experiments or simple demonstrations for testing both in the classroom and in the station's microgravity environment. The winners were chosen by a team of representatives from NASA's 10 field centers.

NASA: California middle school students using the camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter have found lava tubes with one pit that appears to be a skylight to a cave. The students in science teacher Dennis Mitchell's class at Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, Calif., were examining Martian lava tubes as their project in the Mars Student Imaging Program offered by NASA and Arizona State University. Students in this program develop a geological question, then target a Mars-orbiting camera to take an image that helps answer the question. Mars Odyssey has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2001, returning data and images of the Martian surface and providing relay communications service for the twin Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. See full story

University students and professors from across the country and Puerto Rico will converge on NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia this month to learn how to build small experiments that can be launched on sounding rockets. This is part of a week-long workshop, known as RockOn!, that begins June 19.

The 80 workshop participants will build standardized experiments that will fly on a NASA Terrier-Orion suborbital sounding rocket set to launch between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. EDT on June 24. The 35-foot-tall rocket is expected to fly to an altitude of 75 miles. After launch and payload recovery, the participants will conduct preliminary data analysis and discuss their results.

In addition to the 7 workshop-built experiments, 11 custom-built, self-contained experiments also will fly on the rocket inside a payload canister known as RockSat. The latter experiments were developed at ten universities that previously had participated in a RockOn! workshop.

Dreaming of space, grounded in town, Times of India

"Six talented students from the Somalwar Nikalas and Ramdaspeth branches and three college students from city who have brought laurels to city by making it to the prestigious 'space settlement design contest' organised annually by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) unfortunately would not be able to visit Chicago, USA, for making presentations in the absence of sponsors. The contest is from May 25 to 31. The students and their parents have not given hope and are looking for corporate as well as state support. It is for the second consecutive year that Somalwar students have been selected for the contest organised by NASA's Ames Space Research Centre and National Space Society."

Keith's note: While we're all fighting with one another about space policy, NASA continues to remain an astonishingly powerful motivator around the world. What is it that they understand about what NASA does that we ignore - or have forgotten?

"The Rocket Project: Over the course of the next few months, 8 students assisted, by Tom Atchison and the Rocket Mavericks team will attempt to design, launch and operate a rocket using new Sony® VAIO notebooks." More information

More than 100 student teams from around the globe will drive their specially crafted lunar rovers through a challenging course of rugged, moon-like terrain at NASA's 17th annual Great Moonbuggy Race in Huntsville, Ala., April 9-10.

Some 1,088 high school, college and university students from 20 states and Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany, Bangladesh, Serbia, India and Romania are expected to participate in the race at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va., -- Not much bigger than a child's toy block, two spacecraft designed and built by university students in Kentucky and California will fly in space for a short period this month to gather information that may be applied to future small Earth orbiting space vehicles.

The spacecraft will fly on a NASA suborbital Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket between 6 and 9 a.m.(EST), March 11, from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The backup launch days are March 12 and 13.

Image: CU-Boulder Professor Xinlin Li holds a tiny spacecraft that will carry a CU student-built instrument package into space in 2012 to measure the behavior of so-called "killer electrons" in space that can have negative impacts on spacecraft and astronauts. Image courtesy Emilia Reed, CU-Boulder Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

The University of Colorado at Boulder has been awarded $840,000 from the National Science Foundation for students to build a tiny spacecraft to observe energetic particles in space that should give scientists a better understanding of solar flares and their interaction with Earth's atmosphere.

The three-year grant to CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and the aerospace engineering sciences department involves the development of a 5-pound, loaf of bread-sized spacecraft carrying a miniature instrument package to observe energetic particles tied to "space weather" in the near-Earth environment. CU-Boulder graduate students working with CU-Boulder faculty and LASP scientists and engineers will develop, integrate and test the experiment as well as conduct subsequent mission operations and data analysis.

"NASA/HQ has a requirement for Support Services for the ZERO Robotics competition. The ZERO Robotics competition enables high-school students to participate in the SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold Engage Re-orient Experimental Satellite) program by writing their own algorithms to solve a problem provided by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) team. The pilot program involves two high schools that will compete against each other during a test session that will be conducted aboard the ISS during the winter of 2009-2010. The contractor will support the pilot program to completion and evaluate its results, setting clear and realistic objectives for a potential national program to start in the Fall of 2010 or 2011. The Government intends to purchase the services from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). MIT is uniquely qualified to perform this pilot program and provide support engineering because they created the SPHERES program and hold proprietary ownership of the data." More

Moon Work Design Contest Offers NASA Internships to Winners

"The 2010 NASA Moon Work engineering design challenge seeks to motivate college students by giving them first-hand experience with the process of developing new technologies. To participate in the contest, students will submit their original design for tools or instruments that can help astronauts live and work on the moon. Top-ranked students will be offered a chance to intern with a team from NASA's Exploration Technology Development Program."

ESA's 'Fly Your Thesis!' programme made its successful debut during ESA's 51st Parabolic Flight Campaign, held 25 October to 5 November. Four student teams from five European countries took advantage of this new educational initiative to conduct microgravity experiments on the Airbus A300 'Zero G' aircraft.

'Fly Your Thesis!' was introduced by ESA's Education Office in close coordination with ESA's Directorate of Human Spaceflight in 2008. It provides students with a unique opportunity to perform scientific experiments in microgravity as part of their Masters or PhD theses. The first participants were chosen in January 2009, after a rigorous selection process.

NASA ESMD: Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) was developed by the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) specifically to create a constellation of new capabilities, supporting technologies and foundational research that enables sustained and affordable human and robotic exploration. This competition is one of many projects designed to contribute to our Nation's efforts in achieving excellence in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. Join NASA's mission to bring us to the moon, Mars and beyond by submitting a research paper on one of the four ESMD topics listed below. Your research may be used as the solution to current NASA challenges.

More information

NASA is accepting applications from students at U.S. colleges and universities who want to send their experiments to the edge of space on a high-flying scientific balloon.

The annual NASA project provides near space access for 12 undergraduate and graduate student experiments to be carried by a NASA high-altitude research balloon. The flights typically last 15 to 20 hours and reach an altitude of 23 miles. Experiments may include compact satellites or prototypes.

The experiments are flown aboard the High Altitude Student Platform, or HASP, a balloon-born instrument stack launched from the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility's remote site in Fort Sumner, N.M. The goals of the project are to provide a space test platform to encourage student research and stimulate the development of student satellite payloads and other space-engineering products.

"Welcome to AcademyApp.com. Here students can apply to the NASA Academy at Ames, Glenn, Goddard, and Marshall with a single application. An applicant for Research Associate with the NASA Academy must:

* have a demonstrated interest in space
* have a previous internship or project experience
* be a junior, senior, or first or second year graduate student in Fall 2010
* be in high academic standing (GPA of 3.0 or greater)
* be a US citizen (Note: The NASA Academy at Ames will also consider applicants from Canada.)"