During a Google+ Hangout on NASA Television, Astronaut Leland Melvin, NASA experts, and representatives from LEGO discussed the “NASA’s Missions: Imagine and Build” competition. Anyone age 13 and over can enter a futuristic aircraft or spacecraft design built with the toy bricks into the competition. Entry deadline is July 31, with winners announced the week of Sept. 1. NASA and LEGO are partnering to inspire the next generation of aerospace engineers.
After receiving numerous requests from folks that barely missed the campaign close, those in Europe that were not able to attend the live cast, and those that had Kickstarter payment snags, we’ve decided to provide select rewards through PayPal for a limited extension period. Simply choose your desired pledge level and quantity below. You’ll be taken to Paypal to checkout. For additional details on the campaign, translations, and the pledge rewards, visit our Kickstarter campaign page.
Pricing of our reward levels during this limited extension does not reflect an additional discount provided to our early Kickstarter backers.
If you’re in interested in our Education Packages (Education Supporter/Ambassador, etc.), click here to contact us. If you have other questions about the Kickstarter campaign or pledge levels, please click here.
Created in partnership with the U.S. Space & Rocket Center (USSRC), this professional development program is designed to help middle school math and science teachers from around the world become more effective educators in science, technology, engineering, and math. Educators are empowered with supplemental teaching techniques through simulated astronaut training and innovative educational tools that help bring science to life in the classroom
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Honeywell Educators @ Space Academy takes place at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center (USSRC) in Huntsville, Alabama. The USSRC is recognized as one of the most comprehensive U.S. manned space flight hardware museums in the world. Facilities at the center include Spacedome Theater, Rocket Park, the Education Training Center (NASA’s Educator Resource Center) — and more!
The open hardware space shuttle project is an effort to bring the masses together to work on a spacecraft that can be owned by anyone. (Government regulations apply) The goal is to design and build a modular, reusable, and affordable space vehicle. Governments are the only ones that had access to space until recently. Privatization of space has opened the possibilities up for everyone.
The main problem we all have at this point is the means or ability. There are no shuttles we can own, yet. Private companies have a lot of capital invested in their designs and need to get a return on those investments. Because of this, the price for a ticket is higher than the annual salary of almost all Americans. By completing a design together – with Exosphere to ensure government regulations, safety standards, and testing are done properly – we could all have the ability to go to space in our lifetimes.
Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute led the team that spotted the new Pluto-ian moons with the Hubble Space Telescope. He
decided to call for a public vote to suggest names for the two objects. To be consistent with the names of the other Pluto satellites, the names had to be picked from classical mythology, in particular with reference to the underworld — the realm where the souls of the deceased go in the afterlife. The contest concluded with the proposed names Vulcan, Cerberus and Styx ranking first, second and third respectively. Showalter submitted Vulcan and Cerberus to the IAU where the Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) and the Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (WGSBN) discussed the names for approval.
However, the name Vulcan had already been used for a hypothetical planet between Mercury and the Sun. Although this planet was found not to exist, the term “vulcanoid” remains attached to any asteroid existing inside the orbit of Mercury, and the name Vulcan could not be accepted for one of Pluto’s satellites (also, Vulcan does not fit into the underworld mythological scheme). Instead the third most popular name was chosen — Styx, the name of the goddess who ruled over the underworld river, also called the Styx.
Here is a SETI Institute video with a discussion of the name selection: