In this NASA Now classroom video, John Connolly, deputy manager of the Exploration Missions and Systems Office, describes the physics and environmental differences engineers must consider when designing crewed exploration missions to destinations in space.
Link to the NES Virtual Campus home page.
NASA is now accepting proposals from U.S. schools, museums, science centers and community youth organizations, individually or working together, to host an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, or ARISS, contact between May 1, 2013 and Nov. 1, 2013. To maximize these radio contact opportunities, NASA is looking for organizations that will draw large numbers of participants and integrate the contact into a well-developed education plan. Radio contacts are approximately 10 minutes in length.
Proposals are due January 28, 2013.
To access more information including dates and times for online information sessions, the planning guide and proposal form, visit https://www.nasa.gov/education/tfs/ariss.
This opportunity to make contact with the International Space Station is an incredible connection to NASA Now: Human Research on the ISS. NASA Now is an Emmy Award winning video series brought to you by NASA Explorer Schools. To access this episode of NASA Now, visit the NES Virtual Campus, http://explorerschools.nasa.gov.
NASA Explorer Schools and the National Science Teacher Association are hosting a 90-minute live professional development Web seminar for educators on Dec. 6, 2012, at 6:30 p.m. EST. Learn about the science of heat transfer and heat dissipation related to NASA vehicles, and receive an introduction to the associated NES lesson, Engineering Design Challenge, Thermal Protection System. In this activity, students are challenged to design a thermal protection system and test it using a propane torch.
For more information and to register online, visit http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/NES3/webseminar16.aspx.
Link to the NES Virtual Campus home page.
The Texas High School Aerospace Scholars project is an interactive, online learning experience. It is highlighted by a six-day internship where selected students are encouraged to study mathematics, science, engineering or computer science by interacting with engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The Texas High School Aerospace Scholars project is open to high school juniors throughout Texas. Applicants must be U.S. citizens and have access to the Internet.
The application deadline has been extended to Dec. 16, 2012.
For additional information on the project and to apply online, visit http://has.aerospacescholars.org/.
Questions about this opportunity should be directed to jsc-aeroscho@mail.nasa.gov.
NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency and their international partners have selected two veteran spacefarers for a one-year mission aboard the International Space Station in 2015. This mission will include collecting scientific data important to future human exploration of our solar system. NASA has selected Scott Kelly and the Russian Federal Space Agency has chosen Mikhail Kornienko.
Kelly and Kornienko will launch aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in spring 2015 and will land in Kazakhstan in spring 2016. Kelly and Kornienko already have a connection; Kelly was a backup crewmember for the station’s Expedition 23/24 crews, where Kornienko served as a flight engineer.
To read more about this mission, visit https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/nov/HQ_12-406_ISS_1-Year_Crew.html.
This mission is an extension to NASA Now: Human Research on the ISS. NASA Now is an Emmy Award winning video series produced by NASA Explorer Schools. To stream or download this and other NASA Now programs, log onto the NES Virtual Campus at http://explorerschools.nasa.gov.
As part of a series of electronic professional development experiences for educators, the NASA Explorer Schools project and the National Science Teachers Association are hosting a 90-minute live professional development Web seminar for educators on Dec. 3, 2012, at 6:30 p.m. EST. In this Web seminar, NASA expert Dr. Sarah Noble will be your tour guide on a stroll through the solar system to find out what’s new with each of our planetary neighbors.
For more information and to register online, visit http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/NES3/webseminar26.aspx.
Link to the NES Virtual Campus home page.
The application deadline is Dec. 28, 2012.
For more information and a link to the application, visit http://www.wish.aerospacescholars.org.
The NASA Explorer Schools project and the National Science Teachers Association are hosting a 90-minute professional development Web seminar for educators on Nov. 28, 2012, at 6:30 p.m. EST. Learn how to use an innovative air traffic control simulator to engage your students as they explore the mathematics involved in the role of an air traffic controller. In the three-plane problem featured in this lesson, the challenge is to change routes and speeds to line up the planes safely, with proper spacing, at a given route intersection.
This seminar will be repeated on Apr. 3, 2013.
You do not have to be part of the NASA Explorer Schools project in order to participate in this professional development Web seminar.
For more information and to register online, visit http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/NES3/webseminar15.aspx.
NASA has opened registration for the 2012 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.
Each student, or group of students, will submit a three- to five-minute video on a selected NASA spinoff technology listed in NASA’s 2011 “Spinoff” publication. Videos must demonstrate an understanding of the NASA spinoff technology and the associated NASA mission, as well as the commercial application and public benefit associated with the spinoff technology.
Participants must register for the contest by Dec. 15, 2012.
Video entries will be posted on the NASA YouTube channel, and the public will be responsible for the first round of judging. The top five submissions from each of the three grade groups (elementary [3rd-5th], middle [6th-8th] and high school [9th-12th]) will advance for final judging. A NASA panel will select a winning entry from each group. The students submitting the winning entries will be the guests of honor at the OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Contest awards ceremony in May 2013. While there, the winners will receive the OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Contest trophy and have the opportunity to meet NASA VIPs, astronauts and actor Peter Cullen, who voices the character OPTIMUS PRIME.
TRANSFORMERS and OPTIMUS PRIME are trademarks of Hasbro and are used with permission. © 2012 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved.
For more information, visit https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/releases/2012/12-077.html.
Questions about this contest should be directed to Darryl Mitchell at Darryl.R.Mitchell@nasa.gov.
NASA is marking two milestones in the search for planets like Earth — the successful completion of the Kepler Space Telescope’s 3½ year prime mission and the beginning of an extended mission that could last as long as four years.
Scientists have used Kepler data to identify more than 2,300 planet candidates and confirm more than 100 planets – teaching us that the galaxy is teeming with planetary systems, that planets are prolific, and hints that nature makes small planets efficiently.
The information at https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/news/kepler_prime_mission.html is an excellent extension to the NASA Explorer Schools featured lesson, Algebraic Equations: Transit Tracks—Finding Habitable Planets.
