Category Archives: Education

Education, Space participation, Spaceflight & Parabolic Flight

The next-gen Teachers in Space

Ed Wright of Citizens in Space gives the background to various programs aimed at sending teachers and other educators into space and lays out his organization’s plans for the future: Teachers in Space: The Next Generation – CitizensInSpace.org.

Citizens in Space continues to expand and grow. We have not abandoned the original goals of Teachers in Space, nor have we “split” the program or transferred any part of the program to another organization. We still hope to enable a large number of teachers to fly in space and return to the classroom, along with people from every walk of life.

There are other organizations that have the goal of flying teachers in space. The Challenger Center for Space Science Education has acquired two seats on a Virgin Galactic flight for teachers. Virgin Galactic has also donated a seat to the Royal Air Force for a British teacher. So far, however, we are the only organization that has purchased a significant block of flights and initiated a training program for citizen astronauts. We hope we will not be alone much longer. Regardless of what other organizations do, however, our path is clear. As President Reagan said, our hopes and journeys will continue.

Education, Space Models, Space Science

LEGO to produce fan-designed Curiosity Rover model

The  Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover LEGO model designed by Stephen Pakbaz is to be become an official LEGO product: LEGO to roll out Mars rover Curiosity as toy model in fan-created line – collectSPACE

See also his page at Rebrickable.com and the earlier posting about Pakbaz here: New LEGO space models by Stephen Pakbaz – Space-for-All.

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Education, History, Space participation

NASA “passport” gives discounts at NASA centers and Shuttle museums

The Passport to Explore Space card gives you benefits at multiple space museums and exhibitions across the country:

Passport to Explore Space holders receive special savings on admission, tours, food and retail at each location. Visit all 14 Visitor Center and space shuttle locations to complete your passport.

More at NASA visitor centers launch new passport for space tourists – collectSPACE.

Earth-bound space tourists hitting the road this summer to tour NASA’s historic launch pads and mission controls, as well as see the retired space shuttles on display, now have their own passport.

The “Passport to Explore Space” is now being offered by the official visitor centers for NASA’s nationwide facilities and the museums that display the space agency’s former orbiter fleet. Guests to the 14 locations in nine states can get the passports stamped with commemorative markers representing each of the centers, earning them offers and discounts in the process.

Education, Rocketry, Rockets

Rocket Week at NASA Wallops – students/educator build payloads for sounding rockets

An announcement from NASA Wallops:

Students and Teachers Become Rocket Scientists at
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility

WASHINGTON — More than 120 students and educators will delve into the world of rocket science June 15-21 during Rocket Week at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.

Activities during the week will include a RockOn! workshop for 50 university and community college-level participants, and the Wallops Rocket Academy for Teachers and Students (WRATS) for a high school audience. All attendees will participate in a sounding rocket launch scheduled between 5:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. EDT June 20.

“Rocket Week brings together students and teachers from across the country to experience first-hand the exciting world of rocketry,” said Joyce Winterton, senior advisor for education and leadership development at Wallops. “For students, it provides them valuable experience to blend with academics for their future STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers. The educators gain valuable experience to expand their curriculum in the classroom and mentor students for STEM majors and careers.”

RockOn! Introduces participants to building small experiments that can be launched on suborbital sounding rockets. Now in its sixth year, the workshop is conducted in partnership with the Colorado and Virginia Space Grant Consortia.

“Working with NASA, we have developed a step approach to expand the skills needed for students to enter STEM careers,” said Chris Koehler, director of the Colorado Space Grant Consortium. “RockOn! is the first step, followed by RockSat-C and then RockSat-X. Each step is technically more challenging than the previous one, allowing the students to expand the skills needed to support the aerospace industry.”

The RockOn! participants will build standardized experiments to be launched on a NASA Terrier-Improved Orion suborbital sounding rocket. The 35-foot-tall rocket is expected to fly to an altitude of about 75 miles. After launch and payload recovery, the participants will conduct preliminary data analysis and discuss their results.

Nine custom-built Rocksat-C experiments, developed at universities that previously participated in a RockOn! Workshop, also will fly inside a payload canister on the rocket. About 50 students who designed and built the experiments will be attend Rocket Week.

Also attending will be university participants in RockSat-X. They are previous Rocksat-C participants who will fly six custom-built experiments aboard a sounding rocket from Wallops in August.

In the WRATS program, 20 high school teachers from Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and the District of Columbia will learn about the dynamics of rocketry and the science gained from suborbital sounding rockets to reinforce STEM concepts they teach in their classrooms. They also will attend the planned sounding rocket launch.

These programs continue NASA’s investment in the nation’s education programs by supporting the goal of attracting and retaining students in STEM disciplines critical to the future of space exploration.

For more information about the WRATS programs, visit:  http://education.wff.nasa.gov

The RockOn! and WRATS workshops are supported by NASA’s Sounding Rocket Program. RockOn! also is supported by NASA’s Office of Education and NASA’s National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program in partnership with the Colorado and Virginia Space Grant Consortia.

For more information on RockOn! and RockSat, visit: http://spacegrant.colorado.edu/rockon

For more information about NASA’s education programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/education

Education, General, SpaceCasts

Virtual SpaceTV 3D – June 2013

Our series of Virtual SpaceTV 3D shows with Amanda Bush resumes after an extended hiatus due to technical difficulties. The programs are created by BINARY SPACE (www.binary-space.com) with story content from HobbySpace.com.

In the June show, Amanda talks about:
00:27 – 03:10 The SpaceShipTwo Test Flight
03:11 – 05:17 Curiosity Rover Update
05:18 – 07:12 SpaceX Grasshopper
07:13 – 09:01 Planetary Resources Kickstarter

Other Virtual SpaceTV 3D shows are available on the  HobbySpace Youtube Channel.

These videos are intended as educational programs and as demonstrations of an experimental technique for generating animated presentations. The show was generated autonomously by software according to a text script. The project is described in the Virtual Producer whitepaper (pdf). For further information contact info@binary-space.com.