Education Opportunities: Reports
Lunar Science: Window to the Past and Stepping Stone to the Future | NLSI
This recent white paper sent to the Augustine Panel by NASA describes how "the NLSI will bring together scientists and engineers from the academic community and NASA Centers to advance lunar science, support both human and robotic missions to the Moon, train the next generation of lunar scientists and communicate the excitement of this scientific exploration to the public." The Google Lunar X-prize announced in Sept '07 has galvanized the emerging entrepreneurial space community. Nineteen international teams are registered and this will inevitably spur development of a commercial lunar industry. NASA is having policy discussions focused on allowing NASA to buy services including payload transport to the Moon from these companies once reliable capabilities are demonstrated. NLSI is pursuing options to contribute small science payloads to private missions to the Moon". Stay tuned.
Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Two Years Later
This report from National Academies Press can be downloaded as a pdf. It provides the results of a convocation of experts who developed the original report and with others met again to review any progress made since its release two years ago. The report focuses on major problems in the US with science and engineering education and innovation-focused R&D.
““A number of significant events have taken place since the Gathering Storm report was released,” said Norman Augustine, who chaired the committee that wrote the report. Unfortunately, he added, most of those positive events have occurred in other countries. Governments around the world are boosting their support of science and engineering research, invigorating precollege science and math education, and investing in institutions of higher education. Meanwhile, the United States has made little progress in strengthening its education, research, and innovation systems. “It would be a cruel outcome if the Gathering Storm report were to motivate others to become more competitive while we did little,” said Augustine. Emergence of the entrepreneurial space market will help move our country in the right direction as recommended by this seminal report.
STEM Inventory - Pre-College Aerospace Education
The California Space Education and Workforce Institute (CSEWI) has compiled a major online Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM) program inventory database. An American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA) project in Pre-College Aerospace Education is profiled that provides teacher, student (K-16), and career changers with education opportunities and resources that provides access to participation in the aerospace and commercial space enterprise. The program has won national prizes for STEM outreach.