Category Archives: Education

Int. Space Apps Challenge + Robonaut 2 Challenge + A need for big challenges too

The International Space Apps Challenge is underway this weekend.

The International Space Apps Challenge is an international mass collaboration focused on space exploration that takes place over 48-hours in cities around the world. The event embraces collaborative problem solving with a goal of producing relevant open-source solutions to address global needs applicable to both life on Earth and life in space. NASA is leading this global collaboration along with a number of additional government collaborators and 100+ local partner organizations.

See the 50 challenges here.  And the locations around the world where the teams are competing.

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NASA Robonaut Challenge is also happening this month. It challenges programmers to code a couple of particularly useful tasks for the humanoid-like Robonaut 2 on the ISS.

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Ed Wright endorses the modest sized challenge competitions like those above but says NASA should also continue to support important major challenges with big prizes as they did with the Lunar Lander Challenge competition: Robonaut Programming Challenge – CitizensInSpace.org

 

 

This week @NASA – Antares rocket, Kepler’s exoplanets, etc

This episode of This Week @NASA reports on:

The Antares rocket remains at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad 0-A at Wallops Flight Facility — awaiting launch on its first test flight under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS program. Orbital Sciences Corporation canceled the countdown during Wednesday’s initial launch attempt when a data umbilical connection prematurely separated from the rocket. On this demonstration flight, Antares will carry a simulated Cygnus spacecraft to orbit. The real Cygnus will deliver cargo to the International Space Station. Also, Orion’s Progress , Gathering for Impact!, Three More Planets for Kepler , Station Spacewalk, Moonbuggy Preps, Hubble’s Infrared Horsehead and more!

ISS Video: Washcloth microgravity physics

In this video Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield on the ISS performs

a simple science experiment designed by grade 10 Lockview High School students Kendra Lemke and Meredith Faulkner. The students from Fall River, Nova Scotia won a national science contest held by the Canadian Space Agency with their experiment on surface tension in space using a wet washcloth.

Planetary Science and education in proposed NASA budget

Here are some reports on the planetary science and education parts of the administration’s proposed NASA budget for 2014:

Virtual SpaceTV 3D will return…

Our series of Virtual SpaceTV 3D shows with Amanda Bush and James C. Birk has been on an hiatus for what we hope will be a short break. Here is a brief update from Amanda:

Find previous Virtual SpaceTV 3D shows on the HobbySpace Youtube Channel.