mISSion imaginaTIon Challenges Students To Solve Space Travel Problems
The National
Aeronautics & Space
Administration (NASA) and Texas Instruments are asking middle and high
school students in the United States for help with space-related challenges.
mISSion imaginaTIon is a contest
in which student
teams will be asked to solve challenges that NASA astronaut Scott Kelly
and
Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko currently face as they participate
in their
year-long mission aboard the International Space Station.
"If
anything shows students how exciting STEM
subjects can be, it's astronauts spending a year in a space station,
doing
science experiments and demonstrating cutting-edge technology," said
Donald
James, associate administrator for NASA's Office of Education. "The
yearlong
mission is an excellent opportunity to capture students' attention and
set them
on a course to become the next generation of explorers."
The
challenge begins with an online
quiz that students
can take to determine how ready they might be to live in space. For
example,
the quiz asks them for the acceleration of the Earth's gravity. Once
prepared,
they will be asked to come up with solutions for one of four challenges
that
involve long-term space travel. Examples of design challenges include
designing a plan
to feed astronauts who are on the space station for long periods of
time and
creating an effective waste-management system.
The
deadline for submitting challenge solutions
will be May 2 and the winner will receive a video chat with a NASA
expert, a
Texas Instruments graphing calculator and a number of other prizes.
The
mISSion imaginaTIon challenge is the first
initiative of a four-year partnership between NASA and Texas
Instruments that
is intended to promote interest in science, technology, engineering and
math
(STEM) careers and teach students more about the space station.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.