Category Archives: Education

Education, Rockets

Videos: Reuse of the SpaceX rocket “is a really big deal!”

The Everyday Astronaut explains why last week’s re-flight of a SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage booster that flew last year was a major advance towards affordable access to space:

Loren Grush gives her take on the event: SpaceX makes aerospace history with successful launch and landing of a used rocket – The Verge

SpaceX released this brief GIF of the landing of the booster on a floating platform at sea:

And here’s a nice photo of the booster coming down for a landing:

SES-10 Mission | Falcon 9 First Stage Landing

The booster returned to Port Canaveral this week. This video shows the booster by the dock. The scale of the rocket can be appreciated by seeing the workers underneath the landing legs

====

Education, Eyes in the Sky, Living in Space

Students use Sally Ride EarthKAM on ISS to take snapshots around the globe

The Sally Ride EarthKAM is a camera set up on the International Space Station (ISS) to image the surface of the earth through a station window. What images the camera captures is controlled by students at middle schools in many different countries.

Last week, astronauts on the ISS installed and activated the camera: ISS Daily Summary Report – 3/30/2017 | ISS On-Orbit Status Report –

Sally Ride Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle Schools (EarthKAM): This morning the crew successfully installed and activated the EarthKAM payload in the Node 2 nadir hatch window. Science operations using the EarthKAM setup will begin next week, marking the beginning of the 57th EarthKAM mission.

This session includes over 200 schools in more than 50 countries around the world and is scheduled to last through April 9. This is a NASA education program that enables thousands of students to photograph and examine Earth from a space crew’s perspective.

Using the Internet, the students control a special digital camera mounted on-board the ISS. This enables them to photograph the Earth’s coastlines, mountain ranges and other geographic items of interest from the unique vantage point of space.

The team at Sally Ride EarthKAM then posts these photographs on the Internet for the public and participating classrooms around the world to view.

Check out the image gallery for the latest Mission. Some samples:

Myanmar, Asia - EarthKam - March 30, 2017
Myanmar, Asia – EarthKam – March 30, 2017

 

Coast of South Africa – EarthKam – March 30, 2017

 

A view of the coast of India. March30, 2017

====

Education, Rockets

Videos: A new addition to “Stan Draws Spaceships”

Artist Stanley Von Medvey offers some nicely made video tutorials for the general reader on rockets and the challenges of getting to space. Episode 2 Part 2 just came out yesterday.

** Stan Draws Spaceships 1: Expendable Launch Vehicles

** Stan Draws Spaceships Episode 2, Part 1: The Space Shuttle

** Stan Draws Spaceships Episode 2 Part 2: Falcon and Skylon 

You can help Stan make more tutorials by contributing at Stanley is creating Animated Shorts | Patreon.

Contests and Games, Education, Space Systems

International Space Solar Power Student Project Competition

Several space organizations and advocacy groups are sponsoring a student engineering research/paper competition on the topic of space based solar power:

The International Space Solar Power Student Project Competition

The need to advance the goals of STEM (science, technology, engineering & mathematics) education is especially important in encouraging the emergence of future generations of researchers, technologists and innovators in the space sector in general, and in particular in the special fields of expertise required for the successful exploration, development and eventual settlement of space. The critical topic of Space Solar Power (SSP) – harvesting solar energy in space affordably and delivering it to markets in space and on Earth – has been studied as a vision for Humanity’s future for almost 50 years. And yet there are almost no courses (and no degrees of which we are aware) offered on this topic at either the undergraduate or the graduate levels in accredited colleges or universities.

If Space Solar Power – which is critical to space development and settlement – is to become a reality, this must change.

In a new cooperative effort, SPACE Canadai, the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) Power Committee, the Global Space Solar Power Working Group (GSSP-WG) of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), the National Space Society (NSS) International Space Development Conference (ISDC) SSP Track, and the IAF Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC; to be invited) are organizing an annual faculty advised, student-conducted international research and engineering research/paper competition on the topic of Space Solar Powerii. Upon request, additional details concerning the competition will be provided; the key points are as follows:

1. This will be an annual competition; the first year will be this year, 2017.iii

2. The purpose of the competition is to engender new, meaningful and credible student research projects in the broad field of Space Solar Power, and to support the presentation of the best of the various projects in an international forum including explicit recognition of the best research with a formal prize.

3. The International Space Solar Power Student Competition Prize will have four parts: (a) travel and registration support for selected semi-finalist teams to attend the annual ISDC (see below); (b) a formal certificate of recognition for selected semifinalist teams (as a team, and for each team member, including the faculty advisor); (c) travel and registration support for one or two selected finalist team(s) to attend the annual IAC SSP Symposium (see below); (d) a formal certificate and a plaque for the selected winning team(s) (the plaque for the team, and a certificate for each participant, including the faculty advisor).

4. The competition is open to participation by faculty-coached, student-implemented project team, including a faculty advisor, not fewer than two undergraduate students and potentially one or more graduate students from any accredited international college or university. A given project team may involve more than a single university in an integrated team; however, each team from any participating college or university must include not less than two undergraduate students and one faculty advisor.

5. The competition will involve three stages: (1) registration and proposal / abstract submission; (2) preliminary presentation of interim results at the Space Solar Power Track of the annual NSS ISDC (in late May each year); and (3) final presentation (with a formal technical paper) of the one or two best projects at the IAF Power Committee Solar Power Satellite (SPS) Symposium at the annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC) (in late September each year).

6. Semi-finalists in the annual competition will be chosen by an independent review process based on submitted abstracts and draft presentation materials; these will be provided with a fixed level of financial support for their attendance and presentation of interim results at the annual ISDC SSP Track. (Participation in the ISDC must comprise not less than one student team member and one faculty advisor; however otherwise the decision as to who should participate and how the funds should be distributed among team members to meet travel and registration costs will be flexible.)

7. Finalists in the annual competition will be chosen by an independent review process based on the presentations made at the annual ISDC SSP Track, and updated draft research presentation results. In the event that no project teams are adjudged to have achieved a sufficiently high level of technical accomplishment in a given year, no award will be made during that year.

8. The chosen winner(s) will be provided with a fixed level of financial support for their attendance and presentation of interim results at the annual IAC SPS Symposium. A formal paper is required, and must be submitted to the IAC according to the rules of the conference. (Participation in the IAC must comprise not less than one student team member and one faculty advisor; however otherwise the decision as to who should participate and how the funds should be distributed among team members to meet travel and registration costs will be flexible.)

9. In order to be eligible, members of each competing team (as described elsewhere) must be available and able to attend and present at the ISDC (semi-finalist) and the IAC (finalist).

10. The competition will encompass multiple disciplines, but will be focused each year around a particular Solar Power Satellite concept. During 2017-2018, the focus will be on highly-modular microwave wireless power transmission (WPT) Solar Power Satellite concepts as embodied in the “SPS-ALPHA” concept (Solar Power Satellite by means of Arbitrarily Large Phased Array) and related SPS architectural concepts. Details are available upon request.

11. The acceptable disciplines/fields for research projects include (a) architecture level studies; (b) end-to-end energy concepts & technology (including wireless power transmission (WPT), solar power generation, etc.); (c) structural systems, controls and dynamics technology; (d) space transportation technology and engineering for SPS (including Earth-to-orbit or in-space transportation and/or propulsion); (e) space resources utilization for SPS; (f) ground systems and integration; (g) near-term SPS system and technology demonstration concepts; and (h) space policy, legal and regulatory considerations across all of the above (including international cooperation, spectrum management, space debris, etc., etc.).

12. The first deadline for participation in the 2017 competition is the development and submission of an abstract for a proposed student research project by not later than March 29, 2017.

We look forward to the active participation by students and faculty from accredited colleges and universities globally in this new competition. If you would like to indicate interest in participating, and to obtain additional information, please contact us at the email address below.

With best regards,
John C. Mankins
Lead, International Space Solar Power Student Competition
Member of the Board, SPACE Canada
Secretary, IAF Power Committee
Co-Chair, ISDC Space Solar Power Track

For additional information, please contact us at: sspstudentcompetition@gmail.com

===

i SPACE Canada is a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Canada; the purpose of the organization is to promote international dialogue on and understanding of the topic of Space Solar Power.

ii It is anticipated that with time some organizations may be added as participants in implementing the annual competition, while others may choose not to be involved; as the foundation of the competition, SPACE Canada is the principal sponsor of the effort, and the prizes. Cooperation has been established among SPACE Canada, the IAF Power Committee, the IAF Power Committee and the ISDC SSP Track organizers. Participation by the IAF SGAC is anticipated, but must still be confirmed.

iii This competition builds upon and integrates two previous independent events: an annual SSP visualization competition held in conjunction with the NSS ISDC conference, and a yearly SSP student paper competition resulting in a paper and presentation at the annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC), organized by the IAF Power Committee and the IAF SGAC.

====

Education, Space participation, Space Science

SpaceX Dragon berths to ISS. Cargo includes over 20 student experiments

The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft, launched last Sunday from the Kennedy Space Center, berthed today to the International Space Station. Astronauts on the station reached out with a robotic arm, snagged the Dragon, and then attached the craft to the station:

The Dragon carries over 5,000 pounds (2300 kg) of supplies, hardware, and research materials, including 21 experiments from students in grade school through high school who are participating in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) . This is the 9th SSEP mission to the ISS:

SSEP is a partnership of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) and NanoRacks, LLC, a company that provides standardized experimental platforms on the ISS and also deploys small satellites into orbit from the station.

NanoRacks also co-sponsors DreamUp, a program to help young people crowd-fund, build, and launch experiments into space. The Dragon cargo included a DreamUp project: Another big DreamUp launch on SpaceX-10! — DreamUp

This was a really exciting launch for the team at DreamUp as we had the fantastic V3PO students fly all the way from Germany to join us for the launch. These students crowd-funded their plant-growth research project and got some great advisors on board, including Airbus and BASF Crop Protection. With the team put together, the students commenced their vegetative plant propagation.

Learn more about the plant growth experiment here.
…
All together, DreamUp was able to bring over 55 student researchers and advisors to this launch. We really saw our students’ perseverance when on the first planned launch date…the launch was scrubbed with just 13 seconds to go! They held on to all of their excitement and brought it to the launch the following day, with big smiles and loud cheers as they saw the rocket go up, holding on tight to their experiments.

The V3PO team receiving their DreamUp Wings certificates with the view of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in the background. Photo credits DreamUp

DreamUp plans for more student experiments going to space in the year ahead: DreamUp Launches in 2017! — DreamUp

Last year alone, we launched over 60 educational payloads to space on five different rockets, designed by student researchers from 7 different countries. We’ve also grown our myLAUNCH and DreamUp graduation programs – offering 50 students a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend a rocket launch and honoring over 100 DreamUp graduates with certificates to celebrate their incredible achievements and welcome them to our growing alumni community. 

Part of DreamUp’s core mission is to immerse students and educators at every level of education in the wonder of outer space through engaging programs that highlight the multifaceted applications of STEM skills and the growing opportunities in the global space industry.  In 2016, we produced and released our first-ever, completely free, curriculum for educators.  Located on our website, the “Eye in the Sky” curriculum was developed in partnership with Jenny Pieratt at CraftED and incorporates space-based data and images to help students determine whether the Earth is a just planet.  All are welcome to download and use this Next Generation Science Standard-compliant resource at no cost, but if you do, please send us feedback so we can incorporate your thoughts in our next curriculum release!

Looking ahead, we foresee a very active 2017. As we implement the first-ever DreamUp Challenge, realize partnership agreements with some of the largest school districts in the country, and invite more and more student researchers to experience the wonder of rocket launches, DreamUp will continue to improve our services as the leading provider for experiential learning in space.