Education Opportunities: Web Articles
2nd Annual NASA STEM Educators Workshop Series - AESP
"Calling all teachers in the Charlotte area. NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools are inviting educators to take part in free workshops Feb. 23-25. The second annual NASA STEM Educator Workshop Series will showcase science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education resources relating to studying the NASA mission to return to the moon."
This announcement is from a NASA-sponsored Aerospace Education Services Project (AESP) located at Penn State. STEM education for teachers flows into our classrooms and helps stimulate creation of our future workforce, that includes commercial space enterprises.
Northrop Grumman Foundation Now Accepting Teacher Applications for 2010 Weightless Flights of Discovery Program - Yahoo! Finance
"The Northrup Gumman Foundation is accepting teacher applications for the 2010 Weightless Flights of Discovery program, a unique initiative that places teachers on micro-gravity flights to test Newton's Laws of Motion and energize students in the formative middle-school years. Middle-school math and science teachers in public schools are welcome to apply for the program."
Department of Commerce Secretary, Gary Locke's "States of Entrepreneurism" Address
"The United States has not adjusted to a new global marketplace where foreign countries and foreign companies have the ability to outpace their American counterparts. It’s not tenable for...[us] to continue with the status quo. In a world where innovation is critical to U.S. competitiveness, we must do everything in our power to optimize commercialization that stems from our nation’s vast research investments. This is an issue where the Commerce Department is working hard to find solutions.
Last fall, we launched the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, whose mandate is to drive policies and programs that help entrepreneurs translate new ideas, products, and services into economic growth, and to accelerate technology commercialization of federal R&D.
And today, I want to announce that on February 24 [2010], this Office will host a forum with university leaders and key stakeholders on the roles of universities in innovation, economic development, job creation, and commercialization of federally funded research."
Locke's analysis is dead on and includes references to NASA, aerospace and public-private collaboration in commercialization. The emerging suborbital space vehicle industry is a classic example of what he and the Obama administration are strongly promoting and they surely support STEM education as a critical lifeline essential to feed such entrepreneurial innovations.
Building up a new market for suborbital spaceflight | The Space Review
"...Space tourism isn’t the only market [suborbital space} vehicles can serve. The same vehicles that can give paying customers the ride of a lifetime can also serve as testbeds for scientific research, technology demonstration, and even education. These potential applications had been largely overshadowed by space tourism in recent years, deemed to be secondary markets—and certainly not as novel or glamorous as space tourism. However, in the last year there has been growing interest in these fields, to the point that one advocate for them believes that they might become bigger markets than even tourism."
Virgin Galactic to Unveil SpaceShipTwo - Commercial Spaceflight Federation
"SpaceShipTwo, intended to carry passengers and scientific payloads into suborbital space, is being unveiled today by Virgin Galactic in Mojave, California. SpaceShipTwo was developed for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic by the engineering firm Scaled Composites, a team that includes aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan.
This reusable spacecraft will take two pilots and six passengers to space after first being carried aloft by the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft, which has already been undergoing test flights for a year. SpaceShipTwo will conduct flights of passengers and science payloads to space from Spaceport America near Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, stated, “This is truly a momentous day. The team has created not only a world first but also a work of art. The unveil of SS2 takes the Virgin Galactic vision to the next level and continues to provide tangible evidence that this ambitious project is not only moving rapidly, but also making tremendous progress towards our goal of safe commercial operation.”
Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program (CRuSR) - Request for Info
"In this Request for Information (RFI), the NASA Ames CRuSR Office is requesting technical and programmatic input to improve the government's understanding of flight opportunities to aid potential science investigators in scoping and designing possible future suborbital investigations. Responses to this RFI are welcome from all interested parties, especially potential providers of suborbital spaceflight services. Suborbital spaceflight service providers should consider accommodation of flight experiments that address any of the science disciplines listed herein."
Innovation More Important for Future than in Past; U.S. Education is Lagging
"A recent survey found 78 percent of Americans believe innovation will be more important to the U.S. economy in the next thirty years than the previous thirty years. While the importance of innovation is recognized, 81 percent of Americans believe the quality of K-12 math and science education lags behind other countries. The survey of 1,200 U.S. respondents, commissioned by the Intel Corporation and Newsweek magazine, found that 33 percent of Americans said the U.S. will be the global leader in technology innovation during the next 30 years, while 30 percent said Japan, and 22 percent said China." The NASA CRuSR Program provides a great opportunity for innovation of all kinds, including student-driven suborbital research projects.
Zero Gravity for Zero Dollars: Best Student Discount Ever | Wired Science
While the super-rich can pay millions to experience weightlessness at the International Space Station, some college kids have figured out how to experience the thrill of zero gravity for the student-friendly price of $0.
Through NASA’s Microgravity University program, teams of college students get to ride in and conduct experiments on a NASA jet that simulates zero-gravity conditions. Undergrads around the country will be sending their letters of intent to apply to this year’s competition this week, with completed applications due next month. “It’s really an ‘as only NASA can’ program,” said Sara Malloy, coordinator of the Microgravity University office at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Your TubeSat Personal Satellite Kit | International Space Fellowship
"[We have] entered the age of the Personal Satellite with the introduction of the InterOrbital Systems (IOS) TubeSat Personal Satellite Kit. The TubeSat Kit is the low-cost alternative to the CubeSat. It has three-quarters of the mass (0.75-kg) and volume of a CubeSat, but still offers plenty of room for most experiments or functions.
...The price of the TubeSat kit [$8K] ...includes the price of a launch into Low-Earth-Orbit on an IOS NEPTUNE 30 launch vehicle. Since the TubeSats are placed into self-decaying orbits 310 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, they do not contribute to any long-term build-up of orbital debris. Launches are expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2010."
Space-Based Solar Power Lecture | International Institute of Space Commerce (ISU)
"The first "London Lecture" for the ISU International Institute of Space Commerce was held at The Royal Astronomical Society at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London on March 4th 2009. Colonel Michael ‘Coyote’ Smith spoke on Space Based Solar Power. The event was well attended and stimulated much discussion afterwards. The podcast of this lecture is now available on this website under Publications - Speeches."