Orbital Space Challenge to Place Experiments on the Moon – Proposals Due 27 Mar 2023
Orbital Space is inviting innovators from all over the world to submit ideas for experiments or tests that could be conducted on the Moon. The purpose of this competition is to encourage and empower individuals or teams to develop, design and conduct scientific experiments or technology tests to be carried to the surface of the…
Registration for Spring 2023 Aerospace Robotics Competition Open (Until Feb 1, 2023)
The Aerospace Robotics Competition is a high school drone competition. Teams are asked to carry out a variety of design tasks from designing autonomously released mechanisms to developing flight plans and executing them on the drone. The Fall competition required the drones’ use of machine vision to identify and pop in proper sequence color balloons…
NASA HAB College Student Opportunity: Deadline Dec 2, 2022
Student teams from community colleges and universities are invited to develop experiments to fly to the edge of space on a NASA high-altitude research balloon. The annual project, supported by the NASA Balloon Program Office and the Louisiana Space Grant Consortium, provides near-space access for 12 student experiments. Q&A Teleconference on Nov 14, 2022Letter of…
NASA Student Launch Proposals Due Sept 19, 2022
Each year, NASA sponsors a year long, student launch challenge for colleges and middle / high school students. Students need to design, build and fly a high powered rocket that reaches an altitude between 4,000 and 6,000 feet. (This would be considered a Level 1 HPR using Tripoli or NAR classifications – well within the…
NASA TechRise Student Challenge Proposals Due Oct 24, 2022
Want to design and build an experiment to fly on a NASA High Altitude Balloon? This years challenge is open to sixth through 12th graders. Sixty winning teams will each be awarded $1500 to build their experiment during the Spring semester and fly it next Summer. Full details can be found at: https://www.futureengineers.org/nasatechrise
Application Window for NASA DEVELOP Program Opens Today (Aug 29) through Oct 7, 2022
DEVELOP conducts feasibility studies that bridge the gap between Earth science information and society. These projects help both participants and partners learn more about using geospatial information. Projects address priorities and concerns in nine thematic areas: Agriculture, Climate, Disasters, Ecological Forecasting, Energy, Health & Air Quality, Urban Development, Water Resources, and Wildfires. Three times a…
Check out the GLOBE Program
The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program provides students and the public worldwide with the opportunity to meaningfully contribute to our understanding of the Earth system and global environment. As an international science and education program, GLOBE is dedicated to supplying the STEM professionals of tomorrow with the scientific knowledge necessary…
Three Weekly Space / CubeSat / STEM Newsletters Worth Your Subscription
NASA STEM Express https://www.nasa.gov/stem NASA STEM express is the best way to keep up-to-date with the numerous STEM resources offered by NASA as well as challenges and funding opportunities through NASA and related organizations. Subscribe here: https://www.nasa.gov/stem/express The Orbital Index http://orbitalindex.com/ Orbital Index is a great way to keep track of upcoming and recent cubesat…
Space and CubeSat Lesson Plans from The Aerospace Corporation
The Aerospace Corporation, a non-profit, federally funded research and development center committed exclusively to space enterprise, has developed resources for teaching space in the classroom including slide packages, video, student worksheets and lesson plans on a variety of topics. To view and download, visit: https://aerospace.org/stem/teacher-resources Of special interest, is their CubeSat Mission Brief. In this…
Educational Passages — Build and Launch Your Own Ocean-going Probe
Educational Passages sells a 5-foot mini-sailboat kit loaded with sensors and a satellite transmitter. After building and launching the boat, students can track its progress (as well as that of other boats) on the organization’s webpage. Should your school not be near a coastal location, they will connect you with others who will launch your…
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) & National Weather Services (NWS) Educational Portals
NOAA, like NASA, offers a wealth of resources for STEM teachers. Their portal can be found at: https://www.noaa.gov/education Information on their weather satellites can be found at: https://www.noaa.gov/satellites The National Weather Service is part of NOAA, but maintains a separate educational portal at: https://www.weather.gov/education/ Information on their weather balloons can be found at multiple URLs,…
Registration Now Open for 2022 International Space Apps Challenge
The International Space Apps Challenge 2022 runs October 1-2, with registration open now. https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/ Join NASA and 11 other space agencies in a truly international hackathon “for coders, scientists, designers, storytellers, makers, builders, technologists, and others in cities around the world, where teams engage with NASA’s free and open data to address real-world problems on…
ARRL’s Intro to Radio / Learn to Solder Kit
The best way to learn to solder is to use a learn-to-solder project, typically a simple circuit board with 5 to 10 components, well spaced out. Many are blinking light badges. You can find them on Amazon. I’m partial to those offered by SparkFun. The ARRL has a learn-to-solder kit that is actually useful: a…
Learn How NASA Creates Those Amazing Deep Space Images
Interested in learning how NASA creates false-color deep space images from the Hubble and Webb telescopes? Now you can create your own images using their image datasets and software. You can even control one of their Earth-based telescopes! Visit the Astrophoto Challenges for details: https://mo-www.cfa.harvard.edu/OWN/astrophoto/index.html
Presenting at Satellite Educators Association Conference July 29
The Satellite Educators Association (sated.org) are STEM teachers who use real-world satellite data in their classrooms. I’ll be presenting “Classroom Activities with the AMSAT Functional CubeSat Simulator” on July 29 at their 35th annual conference in LA and on Zoom. Registration ends July 22.
Inexpensive Radio Astronomy Kit Now Available
Inexpensive radio astronomy kits are now available from NASA’s Radio JOVE Project
NV STEAM 2022 Videos Available
Videos of the Zoom sessions of the 2022 NV STEAM conference are now available. The annual conference is for Nevada STEM / STEAM K-12 teachers, but is relevant for all educators. This year’s focus was on Design Based Learning.
NASA TechRise Winners Announced
The NASA TechRise program challenged middle and high school students to design and build experiments for either a high altitude balloon or a suborbital rocket. Today the 57 winning teams were announced here: https://www.futureengineers.org/nasatechrise Note sometime in the future, clicking on the student’s project name will display a page displaying information regarding the project. So…
Reminder: Cubes in Space Proposals Due Feb 4, 2022
Cubes in Space is the only global STEM program for students 11-18 years of ageproviding suborbital and high altitude balloon flight opportunities on NASA missions. Homeschooled students, after-school, and out-of-school clubs are eligible. Students propose and create experiments that must fit into a 4cm cube. Free courseware to support the program is available.
JPL University Crowdsourcing Initiative
The JPL University Crowdsourcing Initiative (JUCI) offers access to relevant JPL challenges to which universities can propose to participate in as part of their student’s educational experience. Students volunteer their services to solve the challenges. JPL JUCI students support real-world space science challenges with JPL as coach. Details here: https://scienceandtechnology.jpl.nasa.gov/opportunities/academic-partnerships/juci
Spaceport Academy – Free Online Learning for Space Exploration and Technologies
Spaceport.academy is a free online learning website focusing on space exploration and space technologies. Clicking the Mind Map link reveals how the lessons are organized by track: Space Science, Biology in Space, Space Applications, Robotics, and Engineering. The Engineering track contains numerous lessons relevant to cubesats. When you register, please consider joining the QMR-KWT Space…
2021 Open Source CubeSat Workshop End of this Week – Dec 9 & 10
Libre Space Foundation, creators of the SatNOGS network of satellite tracking stations, is conducting their fifth workshop this week. It’s online and free. Details at: https://events.libre.space/event/5/overview
Reminder: Only 5 days left to submit proposal for NASA Techrise Student Challenge
Sixth to 12th-grade schools are invited to develop an experiment for a NASA flight on either a suborbital rocket or a high-altitude balloon. Proposals are due 3 Nov 2021. Visit https://www.futureengineers.org/nasatechrise for proposal details as well as instructional materials.
AMSAT Virtual Space Symposium this Saturday Oct 30, 2021
AMSAT’s annual symposium will again be held virtual this year. Members can register on the AMSAT website’s member portal. Non-members can watch the presentation on their YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/RTvcceM7Tz0 Tentative Schedule 9:00am CDT – Opening Remarks9:15am CDT – 2:00 pm CDT – General Presentations2:00pm CDT – 3:00 pm CDT – AMSAT Education / CubeSat Simulator3:00pm…
Registration open for Caltech Space Challenge 2022 for undergrad and grad students
The Caltech Space Challenge brings 32 talented and highly-motivated students to the Caltech campus to participate in a week-long space mission design competition (March 21-25, 2022). The participants are split into two teams and both teams work under the mentorship of experts from industry, NASA and academia to design their mission concept from scratch to…
Grants available from the ARDC foundation
Amateur Radio Digital Communications is a private foundation with significant ability and desire to support Amateur Radio and digital communication science and technology. They are expected to award more than $6-million in 2021 grants to schools and 501(c)(3) organizations such as radio clubs. Grants have been made for things like educational programs, repeater equipment upgrades,…
For our European students: Only one month left to submit your Mission Space Lab experiment.
Mission Space Lab is part of the European Astro Pi Challenge, an ESA Education project run in collaboration with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, which gives students and young people the amazing opportunity to conduct their own scientific experiments on the International Space Station. Teams of 2-6 young people, aged 19 and under, design and program…
Reminder: NASA Space Apps Challenge this weekend – Oct 2-3, 2021
The NASA International Space Apps Challenge (Space Apps) is an international hackathon for coders, scientists, designers, storytellers, makers, builders, technologists, and others in cities around the world, where teams engage the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) free and open data to address real-world problems on Earth and in space. Go to https://www.spaceappschallenge.org for details.
NASA Space Apps Challenge – Oct 2-3
10th annual NASA Space Apps Challenge Registration is open for the 10th annual NASA Space Apps Challenge. “NASA is inviting coders, entrepreneurs, scientists, designers, storytellers, makers, builders, artists, and technologists to come together in a global, virtualhackathon the weekend of October 2-3, 2021. During a period of 48 hours, participants from around the world will…
Write Your Code Like NASA Does
Make Magazine recently published a video by Allyson Aberg highlighting 3 guidelines from JPL’s “Rules for Developing Safety Critical Code”. Worthwhile to watch the video for it contains more information than the written text. The guidelines can be found at: http://pixelscommander.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/P10.pdf Pixelscommander has applied these guidelines to JavaScript in this post. A more detailed document…
Update on CTE Mission: Cubesat Finalists
The five finalists are in the final two weeks of preparation and testing before taking flight on high altitude balloons or drones stating April 23. Learn more about their missions and read their blog entries at: https://www.ctemissioncubesat.com/finalists/
ScienceHeads.org HAB6 Balloon Flight
On Saturday, February 20, 2021, ScienceHeads (a STEM education group out of Lake Forest, CA, US) launched and successfully recovered their sixth high altitude balloon (HAB). It carried a flight recorder that I built, as well as several radios for tracking and seeds for student experiments. I was member of the recovery team chasing the…
Finalists in CTE: CubeSat Challenge Announced Today
“What impressed us most about the mission proposals was students’ enthusiasm to take on complex and ambitious projects — many of which focused on issues similar to what our national space missions are currently tackling.”— Scott Stump, Assistant Secretary for Career, Technical, and Adult Education at the U.S. Department of Education Scott Stump’s quote says it…
An Exciting Virtual Balloon Launch by ScienceHeads.org
While checking the status of my Palm Desert balloon tracking station on aprs.fi, I noticed the balloon KM6HCB-11 was traveling overhead. With the help of Google, I discovered it was launched by Science Heads, a Southern California STEM organization for middle and high school students. And I could participate remotely from La Jolla. Because of…
Arduino EDUvision on YouTube
This is embarrassing, but I just learned that arduino.cc (the mothersite) has a STEAM channel on YouTube. Season 2 focus was on the Internet of Things (IOT). Check it out at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT6rF_I5kknPWSLv9uU3Kc0v9-1q4IymY
94 CTE Mission CubeSat proposals received
When submissions closed on October 16, CTE Mission: CubeSat had received 94 mission proposals from schools across the United States. The teams proposed a range of thought-provoking CubeSat projects, such as tracking changes to Earth’s magnetic field, assessing the environmental impact of pandemic lockdowns, and studying space debris. During two CTE webcasts, Robert Twiggs, co-inventor…
Magnitude.io Webcast on High Altitude Balloons (HAB)
As part of the CTE: Mission CubeSat Challenge Program, Magnitude.io conducted a very informative webcast outlining the details of planning, launching and tracking a high altitude balloon (HAB). Highly recommended. Watch the video here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xEjkH6-O_IB82LlpEFltDetJx49A9A94/view Please let me know if the link is no longer valid.
Cubes in Space registration opens Nov 6, 2020
The Cubes in Space program engages high school students and teachers from around the world to design unique experiments, that must fit into a 40mm cube, to be launched into space on a NASA sounding rocket or a high-altitude balloon. Details at https://www.cubesinspace.com/
HobbySpace.com
Your webguide to space hobbies and activities. Its mission: “To prove to you that everyone can participate in space exploration and development in one way or another.” Don’t let the name fool you – it’s more than model rockets. This site is a wealth of information and projects at all levels. Check out HobbySpace.com.
Water Bottle Rockets
I never thought much about water bottle rockets until I viewed a YouTube video on their use in Shields Lab’s virtual summer camp. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Zqx5QCe5b41CcZeWL003g The camp uses Adafruit’s Circuit Playground Express for numerous coding projects and on day 5, the “launch” the CPEx as a flight recorder on a bottle rocket. Since many schools will…
New US Dept of Education Program
The US Department of Education announced a new education program that invites high school students to design and build CubeSat prototypes. Details can be found here: https://www.ctemissioncubesat.com/ A virtual information session was held on September 1, 2020. Zoom recording available on their website.
XinaBox – Modular Components
One of the sponsors of the CTE Mission CubeSat challenge is XinaBox.cc. They developed a unique system of arduino based components, sensors and radios for the STEM/STEAM market. The components “snap” together forming a rigid stable platform for experimentation. Their system is much faster to assemble than traditional breadboarding or even 4-wire systems such as…
Fredric Raab 