Building the Foundation for the Next Era of Exploration

This year, NASA celebrates 50 years of exploring exciting frontiers that have led to new horizons of opportunity. As NASA implements the U.S. Space Exploration Policy, carrying humans back to the Moon, on to Mars, and beyond, the Agency is also working to lay the educational groundwork that will make this ongoing journey possible.

NASA aims to inspire and engage the next generation of scientists and engineers who will continue the Agency’s missions in decades to come.

NASA is embarking on a program of exploration that will continue for decades, requiring the dedication and ingenuity of scientists and engineers today and for generations to come. To ensure those future explorers will be ready to continue the journey, NASA is working with one of its most important partners—educators.

The Agency recognizes the importance of educators’contributions in making our work possible, and is dedicated to supporting them in the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). NASA provides formal and informal educators unique resources and development opportunities to strengthen the overall teaching of STEM subjects. In the summer of 2007, Mission Specialist and Educator Astronaut Barbara R. Morgan captured students’ imaginations as she flew to space aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on an assembly mission to the International Space Station (ISS). In the winter of 2008, Mission Specialists and Educator Astronauts Ricky Arnold and Joe Acaba are journeying to the ISS to perform spacewalks during mission STS-119. Several exciting education activities are planned around the mission.

NASA also aims to attract and retain students in STEM disciplines through a progression of educational opportunities for students, teachers, and faculty, and to build strategic partnerships and links between formal and informal education providers that promote STEM literacy and awareness of NASA’s mission. The Office of Education promotes education as an integral component of every major NASA research and development mission. NASA, with industry and university engineers and scientists, is sharing knowledge and experience with students and educators as they study Earth and the universe using the latest aerospace research methods.

These efforts are accomplished through collaboration among NASA’s Office of Education, Mission Directorates, and Field Centers, as well as other Federal agencies engaged in education activities, and various public and private partners. NASA’s Office of Education is committed to providing opportunities for all students to explore and experience unique space and aeronautics content, to interact with innovative engineers and scientists, and to see state-of-the-art facilities. The Agency remains committed to engaging underrepresented and underserved communities of students, educators, and researchers.

As NASA Administrator Michael Griffin explained, “The greatest contribution that NASA makes in educating the next generation of Americans is providing worthy endeavors by which students will be inspired to study difficult subjects like math, science, and engineering, because they too share the dream of exploring the cosmos.”

Engaging Students in the Digital Age

NASA aims to continue contributing to the development of the Nation’s STEM workforce of the future by identifying and developing the critical skills and capabilities needed to support the U.S. Space Exploration Policy. Reaching today’s students calls for meeting them where they congregate, and often that is through digital and electronic environments.

NASA Student Opportunities podcasts feature interviews with students who have had the experience of working with NASA through the Agency’s many learning activities.

In 2007, a team at Marshall Space Flight Center began the process of researching new ways to engage students using technology. The team reviewed research regarding podcasts, which are media files that are distributed over the Internet for playback on personal computers or portable devices, such as an MP3 player or cell phone. Research showed that the demographic most likely to download a podcast is between 18 and 24 years of age (Nielsen Analytics, April 2006), that 29 percent of Americans who have listened to or viewed a podcast are between 12 and 24 years of age (Arbitron/Edison Media Research, March 2007), that nearly half of Gen X and Gen Y (ages 14-43) download podcasts at least once a week (Forrester, February 2007), and that roughly half of teenagers own an iPod or other portable digital music player (Arbitron, July 2006). The team reviewed multiple styles of podcast, ultimately settling on an interview-style format where a student is interviewed about their experiences supporting NASA missions.

The resulting NASA Student Opportunities podcast series debuted in February 2007 and provides timely information to students on experiences of their peers, while also promoting future educational opportunities. The weekly podcasts are radio-style shows that feature interviews with students who have participated in NASA learning opportunities. These shows allow potential participants to hear first-hand what it is like to be a student member of a NASA team, and the free podcast also provides up-to-date information on approaching application deadlines.Forty-two episodes of NASA Student Opportunities were created between February and December 2007, and as of March 2008, about 650,000 downloads have been collectively logged.

Teams Face Off at NASA in Future City Competition

Middle school students from across the country competed in a NASA-sponsored event on designing futuristic city concepts.

The bright and fertile minds of middle school students across the United States have cultivated their visions of what future cities must look like in order to support humankind’s growing infrastructure needs. During February 2008, they put their conceptualizations to the test in a competition focused on nanotechnology.

Over 30,000 students from 1,000 schools in 40 regions participated in the 16th annual National Engineers Week Future City Competition, dreaming up the most practical application of built-in nanotechnologies to monitor parts of a city’s infrastructure. Small, tightly knit teams of students, along with their teacher and engineer mentors, first created their future city digitally, using SimCity 3000 software. They then transformed their ideas into reality by sculpting a large table-top model using recycled materials that cost no more than $100. Each team was judged for their models, an essay, and a presentation that defended their approach to resolving monitoring issues for tomorrow’s cities using nanotechnology. The winning team was from Heritage Middle School, in Westerville, Ohio.

STS-118 Provides Space Harvest for Classrooms

NASA’s education quest was taken to new heights in August 2007 as Mission Specialist and Educator Astronaut Barbara R. Morgan made her first flight into space. NASA flew two education payloads aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour on mission STS-118 as part of NASA and the International Technology Education Association’s Engineering Design Challenge for students. As part of the challenge, students in grades K-12 planned, designed, and built their version of a lunar plant growth chamber. They validated their chambers using space-exposed seeds and Earth-based control seeds.

As of spring 2008, over 30,000 sets of Earth and space seeds were distributed to classrooms nationwide that registered for the Engineering Design Challenge.

The first payload consisted of two small, collapsible plant growth chambers and the associated hardware to conduct a 20-day plant germination investigation. During the investigation, crewmembers maintained the plants and captured images of plant growth.

Approximately 10 million basil seeds made up the second payload. The seeds flew into space in SPACEHAB, a pressurized, mixed-cargo carrier that supports various quantities, sizes, and locations of experiment hardware; remained throughout the mission; and returned to Earth, having stayed on the shuttle during the entire mission. After the mission, the seeds were distributed to students and educators as part of the Engineering Design Challenge.

Working under the supervision of their teachers, students designed, built, tested, redesigned, and rebuilt models that met specified design criteria. As they improved their designs, students employed the same analytical skills as engineers. The design challenge culminated in the classroom, with each student team preparing a poster that described the process and results of their work.

Some students were treated to a special day in November 2007, when NASA, the U.S. National Arboretum, the U.S. Department of Education, and The Herb Society of America hosted an out-of-this-world school field trip to the U.S. National Arboretum, in Washington, DC, as part of International Education Week.

Seventy-two students from the Arlington Science Focus School, in Arlington, Virginia, presented to a panel of experts the lunar plant growth chambers they created as part of the Engineering Design Challenge. The panel included engineers, plant specialists and STS-118 crewmembers Scott Kelly, commander; Barbara R. Morgan, educator astronaut and mission specialist; and Dave Williams, Canadian Space Agency mission specialist.

These Virginia students used their design chambers to grow cinnamon basil seeds that were flown during the STS-118 mission. The soil for the seeds came from a unique source—the Washington Nationals ballpark. Arcillite, a claylike substance used in ballpark field maintenance, provides optimal growing conditions in a growth chamber.

As of spring 2008, over 30,000 sets of Earth and space seeds were distributed to classrooms nationwide that registered for the Engineering Design Challenge. Attendees at professional teacher conferences in 2008 such as the National Science Teachers Association Conference, in Boston, were also given the opportunity to register for the Engineering Design Challenge and receive seeds from space.

International Space Station as Educational Resource

As of spring 2008, over 30,000 sets of Earth and space seeds were distributed to classrooms nationwide that registered for the Engineering Design Challenge.

The ISS is the largest and most complex space vehicle ever built. Planned for completion in 2010, the space station will provide a home for laboratories equipped with a wide array of resources to develop and test the technologies needed for future generations of space exploration.

In 2006, NASA asked a range of Federal agencies with responsibilities in education to participate in the ISS Education Coordination Working Group, charged with developing a strategy for using the ISS as an educational asset. The initial report from the task force, delivered in December 2006, affirmed that there was serious interest on the part of Federal agencies in use of the ISS.

NASA’s report, “An Opportunity to Educate: ISS National Laboratory,” presents a plan to validate the task force’s strategy for using ISS resources and accommodations as a venue to engage, inspire, and educate students, teachers, and faculty in the STEM areas. Information about current NASA and non-Agency programs aimed to increase STEM achievement is included in the report. For the demonstration phase of the plan, 11 organizations submitted varied candidate demonstration projects which cover STEM subjects and convey the possibilities inherent in the ISS National Laboratory concept.

In June 2008, the document was finalized and submitted to Congress.

‘Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award’ Winners

Michael Hakimi and Talia Nour-Omid from Los Angeles won first prize in the “Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award” competition at the X PRIZE Cup in October 2007 and were honored in January 2008. Their winning idea was a device to monitor a human’s vital signs while in space. (From the left: Michael Hakimi; Dr. Bernice Alston, deputy assistant administrator for planning, policy, and evaluation, NASA Office of Education; Talia Nour-Omid; and Doug Comstock, director of NASA’s Innovative Partnerships Program.)

On January 18, 2008, at NASA Headquarters, NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale recognized the first winners of the “Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award” during the unveiling of a traveling exhibit titled “Spirit of Innovation.”

To compete for the $10,000 award, high school students were challenged to create concepts that could accelerate the personal space flight industry through graphical representations, technical documents, and business plans. Winners were chosen during the X PRIZE Cup, administered by the X PRIZE Foundation under an educational grant from NASA, in New Mexico, October 2007.

The first-place team, “Michael and Talia” from Los Angeles, helped unveil the traveling exhibit that features their winning entry. The exhibit also showcases the 2007 competition, which was held at the X PRIZE Cup at Holloman Air Force Base, in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Michael Hakimi and Talia Nour-Omid developed an idea for a device that would effectively monitor all of a human being’s vital signs while in space. The winning team received a $5,000 grant for their school and a trophy presented by Nancy Conrad, wife of the late Apollo astronaut Pete Conrad and creator of the prize, and Erik Lindbergh, X PRIZE Foundation Trustee, great-grandson of Charles Lindbergh and designer and sculptor of the First Prize trophy.

NASA’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research

NASA awarded more than $17 million to institutions nationwide to help make significant contributions to the research and technology priorities of the Agency. The selections were part of NASA’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). The EPSCoR is designed to assist states in establishing an academic research enterprise directed towards a long-term, self-sustaining, and competitive capability that will contribute to the states’ economic viability and development. EPSCoR enables continuing education, training, and workshops important to NASA’s mission. The program assists in developing partnerships between NASA research assets, academic institutions, and industry.

A total of 23 proposals were selected for funding, representing: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, and West Virginia. Winning proposals were selected through a merit-based, peer-reviewed competition. Proposals span the spectrum of NASA research priorities, from developing new wheels for rovers on extra-terrestrial exploration, to new batteries and fuel cells, to developing new bonding materials that will enhance aircraft safety.

Montana Launches into the Future

Explorer-1 was launched 50 years ago, on January 31, 1958, after the Soviets sent up Sputnik on October 4, 1957. The U.S. satellite observed the Van Allen radiation belt around Earth, a discovery said to be the first major scientific breakthrough of the space age. Montana State University (MSU) students who only know about the Cold War from history books, plan to launch a satellite to commemorate the Nation’s first successful satellite.

MSU students from a variety of disciplines have been building a namesake of Explorer-1 for nearly 3 years. They hope to launch the Explorer-1 (Prime) in December 2008.

Explorer-1 (Prime) is being built by the Space Science and Engineering Lab and its students for the Montana Space Grant Consortium. The satellite—an aluminum cube that measures about 4 inches per side—will hold instruments to detect radiation and a power supply to run those instruments. It will also contain one of the original Van Allen Geiger tubes that Dr. James Van Allen provided to MSU a few months before he died.

Once the satellite is completed, it will be sent to California Polytechnic State University to be placed in a container with two other satellites the same size. The container will then be mounted on a rocket and launched into space. Ham radio operators from all over the world should be able to track it during its 4-month orbit about 440 miles above them, making one orbit around the Earth every 90 minutes.

Students Navigating the Moonscape

Each year, students compete in the lunar rover challenges, hosted by the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, in Huntsville, Alabama.

Each year around April, a half-mile of paths at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, in Huntsville, Alabama, transform into a harsh lunar landscape. The course tested the engineering savvy and physical endurance of about 400 high school and college students on 68 teams who converged in April 2008 for NASA’s 15th annual Great Moonbuggy Race.

The students, hailing from 20 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, India, and Germany, raced lightweight moonbuggies they designed, based on the original lunar rovers first used during the Apollo 15 Moon mission in 1971. They faced 17 unique course obstacles, built of plywood and old tires, and covered with 20 tons of gravel and 5 tons of sand that had been shaped into Moon-like ridges, craters, sandy basins, and lava-etched “rilles.”

The race challenged students to design a vehicle that addresses a series of engineering problems similar to those faced by the team that designed the original Apollo-era lunar rover. The basic challenge—maximizing durability while minimizing mass—will apply to the next lunar vehicles, meaning that students will be working to solve this challenge for the moonbuggy race at the same time NASA engineers are working on similar problems.

Student innovators from the University of Evansville, in Evansville, Indiana, sped past 23 teams from around the globe to win the college division of the race. The Evansville team posted the day’s fastest race time, completing the harrowing course in just 4 minutes and 25 seconds. Finishing in the top three along with Evansville were second-place winners from Murray State University, in Murray, Kentucky, and third-place racers representing Canada’s Carleton University, in Ottawa, Ontario.