Posted on 01/18/2006 9:28:24 PM PST by anymouse
NASA is looking to bring more than 300 students from Texas community colleges to Johnson Space Center this spring to design a rover for future expeditions to the moon, Mars and beyond.
Applications must be submitted to the space center by Feb. 6.
The program, called Community College Aerospace Scholars, will assign students to fictional companies where they will compete to build a planetary surface rover.
A NASA or contractor engineer will hold the position of CEO for each student company.
“NASA will be looking to this next generation of explorers to help send humans back to the moon, then on to Mars and beyond,” said program manager Linda Smith.
She added that the program “provides Texas community college students with a unique opportunity to work side by side with NASA engineers in preparing for future expeditions to other worlds.”
The program includes a trip to Johnson Space Center for the rover competition.
Participants will go on tours and meet with astronauts during one of four sessions: March 23-25, March 30-April 1, April 6-8 or April 20-22.
To qualify, community college students must be U.S. citizens and Texas residents, be at least 18 and have graduated high school.
They must be pursuing an initial undergraduate degree. Applicants should also be able to commit to a one-semester relationship with Johnson Space Center and have access to the Internet.
On the Web:
http://aerospacescholars.jsc.nasa.gov/CAS/default.cfm
Space ping.
And it signals that the future is in unmanned exploration, to get far more discovery for the taxpayer buck.
I applied to a clerkship in NASA's legal department after my first year of law school. Didn't make it in. Then I took Space Law, which I very much liked. Unfortunately, the class didn't seem to like me. That may have ended my hopes of a space law practice.
The womanned space program (ie, the shuttle) only wants fruitcakes who will be astronaughts to retire and then go on speaking tours to schools and lobby congress for more money.... more money to recruit fruitcakes who will become astronaughts and then retire to speak and lobby for more... you get the point.
And don't get me started on Dan Goldin, the embodiment of institutional failure, non-leadership, and poor management.
(Do excuse my sexist jab...)
College Research for Aerospace Projects
Nasa's _ _ _ _ Initiative.
Rovers are so 15 minutes ago. Why not aim high and have them plan a moon base? NASA has no imagination, stunts like this are the proof.
Tell that to them. They want to go. And they will. Exploration is not about saving a buck. It is the essence of why any of us are even here at all. Not a single one of us would be here today if not for brave souls that went beyond the next hill, beyond the horizon, the sea. Exploration is part of what we are. And touching with our own hands and seeing with our own eyes is as important as any science. It's our nature.
This is somthing I did for a school about 10 years ago. :-)
The students loved it.
Since I was involved in this very thing, I can speak with some experience here. My students not only loved doing this, they got a flavor of all types of space operations. Not only design; but also flight control, launch operations, testing & analysis, etc.
No it's not a bunch of crap. This is one way we can inspire future space scientists and engineers.
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