On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the historic first moon landing, NASA is seeking ideas from the public, academia, and industry about how to analyze and catalog notes from spaceflight pioneer Wernher von Braun into an electronic, searchable database or other system.
Von Braun was the first director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and a key figure in the development of the Saturn V rocket and NASA’s Apollo program. NASA has a full collection of “Weekly Notes” von Braun wrote during the 1960s and 1970s. These notes were used to track programmatic and institutional issues at Marshall, and are considered by many historians to be a valuable source of data.
NASA has issued a request for information and is looking for concepts that will provide an innovative resource for agency engineers and scientists, as well as researchers in academia and industry. For more information regarding this request for information, please visit http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/somd/home/von_Braun_RFI.html
Filed under: K-12, NASA, Research, STEM, Science, Student Opportunities | Tags: Recycling
Join the Waste Limitation Management and Recycling Design Challenge and create a Sustainable Water Recycling System for the moon. The WLMR-DC is for students in grades 5-8. 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 and report results to NASA in February 2010. The winning team will earn a trip to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Entries are due Feb. 1, 2010.
For more information and contest rules, please visit http://wlmr.nasa.gov/
Filed under: K-12, NASA, Research, STEM, Science, Student Opportunities | Tags: Microgravity, Physics
NASA’s Dropping In a Microgravity Environment, or DIME, allows students in high school and in middle school to design and build an experiment that will be operated in a NASA research drop tower. This will put the students’ experiment in microgravity, just as if it were in space.
New for school year 2009-10 will be a two-part DIME with separate competitions for high school teams and teams of students in grades 6-9. Four teams in the high school DIME competition will be invited to visit NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, and operate their experiment in the drop tower. Four additional teams will send their experiment to Glenn for the drop tower staff to operate it. Teams comprised of students in grades 6-9 will compete for the opportunity to build an experiment to be operated in the same drop tower by NASA drop tower staff.
Proposals are due on Nov. 2, 2009. Competition selections will be announced in mid-December and drop tower operations will be conducted in April 2010. The DIME competition is funded by NASA’s Teaching From Space program.
For more information about this opportunity, visit http://spaceflightsystems.grc.nasa.gov/DIME.html
Filed under: Cool Science, NASA, Science, Webcasts | Tags: Space Shuttle, Space Shuttle Endeavour, STS-127
The Space Shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to launch on Saturday, July 11 at 4:39pm PST. You can watch the launch preparations and the shuttle liftoff live on NASA TV at the following URL: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
Portland opregon residents may also watch the launch at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). OMSI will be showing the lift-off in the planetarium live via satellite on NASA TV beginning at 4:00 p.m., with the shuttle’s launch scheduled at 4:39 p.m. PDT. Admission for the televised launch is free.
The 16-day mission will feature five spacewalks and complete construction of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory. Astronauts will attach a platform to the outside of the Japanese module that will allow experiments to be exposed to space. STS-127 is the 127th space shuttle flight, the 29th to the station, the 23rd for Endeavour and the third in 2009. Seven flights to the station remain before the shuttles retire in 2010.
The STS-127 crew members are Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Tim Kopra and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette. Kopra will join the space station crew and replace Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. Wakata will return to Earth on Endeavour to conclude a three-month stay at the station.
For more information about the STS-127 mission, including images and interviews with the crew, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/news/
For more information about the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory, visit http://kibo.jaxa.jp/en/about/kibo/
To view sighting opportunities for both the shuttle and ISS during the 16-day scheduled mission, visit the following link: http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/
Please note that the shuttle lift-off date and time is subject to change by NASA.
SPACE STATION APPEARING NATIONWIDE OVER JULY 4 WEEKEND
As America celebrates its 233rd birthday this holiday weekend, there will be an extra light in the sky along with the fireworks. Across the country, Americans will be treated to spectacular views of the International Space Station as it orbits 220 miles above Earth.
Many locations will have unusually long sighting opportunities of as much as five minutes, weather permitting, as the station flies almost directly overhead. To find out when to see the station from your city, visit: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings
Filed under: Blogroll, Cool Science, Higher Education, K-12, NASA, Science, Student Opportunities, Teacher Opportunities | Tags: STS-125, Twitter
Advance registration is required.
NASA will host a Tweetup with space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-125 crew July 21 at the agency’s headquarters building in Washington. The astronauts will discuss their recent servicing mission to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
A Tweetup is an informal meeting of people who use the social messaging medium Twitter. This Tweetup is an opportunity to meet and speak with the STS-125 crew and the staff behind the tweets on @NASA. Plus, you’ll get to mingle with other space-exploration-minded Tweeps.
The event will include a one-hour “meet and greet” session, followed by a presentation and a question and answer period with the astronauts. Scott Altman commanded the STS-125 crew, which included Pilot Gregory C. Johnson and Mission Specialists Megan McArthur, John Grunsfeld, Mike Massimino, Andrew Feustel and Michael Good. Massimino is known as @Astro_Mike to more than 500,000 people who followed the mission on Twitter.
Space is limited and advance registration is mandatory. Submissions will be accepted on this Web page beginning at 10 a.m. EDT on July 1. The Tweetup can accommodate 190 people, and the spots will be allocated based on the order of registration. Once capacity for the event is reached, submissions no longer will be accepted. Those who successfully register will be notified by email prior to the event. Registrations are limited to two people per entry. If you can’t make this Tweetup, don’t despair; NASA is planning others in the near future at various agency locations.
NASA Headquarters is a secure federal facility. On the date of the Tweetup, participants must bring valid government-issued photo identification (driver’s license or passport). Those without proper identification cannot be admitted.
Have a question? Need more information? Help is available by sending an email to HQ-twitter@mail.nasa.gov.
Head to the following website on July 1 at 10amEST to register for this tweepup event! http://www.nasa.gov/collaborate/tweetup.html
Filed under: Cool Science, Higher Education, NASA, Science, Student Opportunities
As you may know, the NASA Student Ambassador Virtual Community (intern.NASA.gov) includes several social networks established for “NASA Interns.” The sites are currently under development. You can now use the chosen networking sites (documented below) to communicate with the NASA Higher Education Community, scientists, engineers, mentors, and fellow interns! Join the following communities to become part of the network!
Officially sanctioned NASA online networking websites:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Nasa-Interns/1325509785
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nasa-interns/12/638/865
http://www.myspace.com/nasainterns
https://twitter.com/NASAInterns
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasainterns/
http://www.youtube.com/NASAInterns
Filed under: Biology, Funding, Higher Education, Research, Science, Student Opportunities, fellowships
The National Space Biomedical Research Institute seeks solutions to health concerns facing astronauts on long missions. This research also benefits patients on Earth. The NSBRI is soliciting applications for its Postdoctoral Fellowship program.
The NSBRI’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program provides support for Postdoctoral Fellows in any U.S. laboratory carrying out space-related biomedical or biotechnological research. The program is open to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or persons with pre-existing visas obtained through their sponsoring institutions that permit postdoctoral training for the project’s duration. Funding is for a two-year period with an option for a third year of support.
Interested applicants are asked to submit a Notice of Intent by July 7, 2009. (NOI is not required.) Applications are due Aug. 4, 2009.
For detailed information on the application process, visit http://www.nsbri.org/Announcements/rfa09-01.html
Filed under: Aeronautics, Astronomy, Conference, Environmental Science, NASA, Professional Development, Science
Join the Satellite Educators Association for an education conference being held Aug. 13-15, 2009, in Los Angeles, Calif. The annual conference is for educators interested in discovering ways to use satellites and related technologies in the classroom. Participants learn ways to help students appreciate and understand the complex interrelationships among science, technology, individuals, societies and the environment. Conference attendees also learn to develop and apply inquiry and technology skills to study authentic questions and problems.
The conference is sponsored by California State University Los Angeles, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA, Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing, Lockheed-Martin and Northrop Grumman.
For more information, visit http://www.sated.org/index.html
Filed under: Astronomy, Educational Materials, K-12, NASA, Professional Development, STEM, Science, Teacher Development, Teacher Opportunities, Workshop
Afterschool Universe is a hands-on astronomy program targeted at middle school out-of-school-time settings. It explores basic astronomy concepts through hands-on activities and focuses on a journey through the universe beyond the solar system.
A free, 2-day training workshop is being held on July 23-24, 2009 at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. This training will prepare participants to lead the program or train others to do so. All attendees who complete the training will receive a printed and bound copy of the program manual at the end of the workshop. Most of the materials to run the program are easily available at grocery stores and craft supplies stores. A free kit of a few materials that need to be ordered from specialized retailers is given to those who commit to run the program for the target audience (approximately a $50 value). Workshop attendees also receive access to a password-protected Web site that has additional resources to help with the implementation.
Registration for this training session is due July 17, 2009. Register by visiting http://universe.nasa.gov/au/register.html
For more information about the program, visit http://universe.nasa.gov/afterschool/
