Student volunteers prepare a balloon for a morning launch in Cumberland, Md. On April 8, eclipse day, hundreds of balloons will be launched into the path of the eclipse to study the atmosphere.

Many Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project Teams Sponsored by local NASA Space Grant Consortia

On eclipse day, hundreds of students will send up balloons for science

CUMBERLAND, Md. — It’s a chilly March morning, and Mary Bowden is standing in the parking lot of a local community college.

Bowden is a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Maryland. Nearby, her students are hustling around on a bright blue tarp, rolling out heavy cylinders of compressed gas and fiddling with boxes of electronics.

“This is our final, final dress rehearsal,” Bowden says as she surveys the scene.

At the start of next month, a total solar eclipse will sweep across the continental United States. It will begin in Texas and move north through a dozen states before exiting the country through Maine and into Canada.

On eclipse day — April 8 — dozens of student teams across the country will release hundreds of research balloons. The balloons will carry long, dangling strings of scientific instruments into the path of totality, the area on Earth’s surface that will see the moon completely block the sun.

The effort, known as the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project, is backed by NASA. It’s an opportunity to make unique atmospheric measurements that can only be done during an eclipse, and a chance for students to learn skills they may someday use to launch satellites and astronauts into orbit. Bowden is guiding the University of Maryland team, which is made up of about 30 to 40 students.

Read the full story on NPR.

Author Credit: Geoff Brumfiel

Image Credit: Meredith Rizzo for NPR

Ashton Ventura, a metallurgical engineering student, cleans the surface of a titanium sample before spot-welding a thermocouple

Missouri Space Grant Supports Seventeen Student Interns & Fellows in NASA Research

Seventeen students from Missouri S&T are conducting NASA-funded research that may directly affect the space agency’s work.

These students are interns and fellows as part of the Missouri Space Grant Consortium, which is administered by Missouri S&T.

Since the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program was established in 1989, Missouri S&T has led the NASA initiative for the state of Missouri for most of its existence. NASA has one program for each of the 50 states, plus Puerto Rico and Washington D.C., with the goal of further developing the nation’s science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)-related workforce.

Read the full article: on Missouri University of Science and Technology “News and Events.”

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Image Credit: Ashton Ventura

Original Post Date: December 19, 2023

A rocket carrying NASA mission equipment lifts off in New Zealand in May. Three Utah State University engineering students — Adam Weaver, Payton Taylor, and Bryan Gricius — were awarded funding on behalf of the Utah Space Grant Consortium for internships this past summer working on rocket propulsion and space exploration equipment.

Utah Space Grant Supports Three Utah State University Student Internships

Three Utah State University engineering students were awarded funding on behalf of the Utah Space Grant Consortium for internships this past summer.

Adam Weaver, a recent graduate student at USU studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis in aerospace engineering, and Payton Taylor, a senior also studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis in aerospace engineering, received $6,200 each for their internships at Northrop Grumman. They worked in the propulsion systems department for four months.

“I was very thankful for this opportunity and excited that I was a recipient,” Weaver said. “The internship was a great experience.”

In addition to Weaver and Taylor, Bryan Gricius, who also graduated with a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, received funding for his internship at the Space Dynamics Laboratory as an opto-mechanical engineering intern. His job was to assist in the development and construction of a space telescope.

Read the full article on Utah State TODAY.

Author Credit: Sydney Dahle

Image Credit: NASA

NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft is dramatically lit for a “glamour shot,” captured before its Jan. 12, 2024, rollout at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale where the airplane was constructed.

Five NASA Space Grant Consortia Teams Selected for NASA OSTEM Quesst Community Overflights

NASA has issued new grants to five universities to help develop education plans for the community overflight phase of the agency’s Quesst mission, which aims to demonstrate the possibility of supersonic flight without the typical loud sonic booms.

The new grants, from NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement, will provide each university team with $40,000 to develop science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) engagement strategic implementation plans for those Quesst community overflights. The awards will focus on plans for engaging with students and educators in the communities that NASA will eventually select for overflights. This will help ensure communities are accurately informed about this phase of Quesst and what involvement in the mission will look like for their community.

“The Quesst mission is unique at NASA, with community input playing a major part in its success,” said Eric Miller, deputy mission integration manager for Quesst. “These new awards will allow NASA to learn from other STEM professionals, informing us as we develop a framework to effectively engage with students and educators.”

The selected institutions and their projects, are:

  • Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin – STEM Quesst, Wisconsin Space Grant
  • Cornell University, Ithaca, New York –Quesst Community Overflight STEM Engagement New York Space Grant Consortium
  • Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia – Engaging the National NASA Space Grant Network in Support of the Quesst Community Overflight STEM Engagement
  • University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico – Space Grant Quesst Community Overflight STEM Engagement: Sounds of Our World
  • University of California, San Diego, San Diego, California – California Space Grant Planning Support for the Quesst Community Overflight STEM Engagement

 

Read the full article on NASA.gov

Author Credit: Lauren E. Low

Image Credit: Lockheed Martin / Michael Jackson

Cameron Miller & Dr. Aaron Coyner

Oregon Space Grant Consortium Supports Southwestern Oregon Community College Student Research Award

Southwestern Oregon Community College wishes to congratulate our S.P.E.A.R. (STEAM Pathways Experimental & Academic Research) Team Member Cameron Miller for being selected for a 2023-24 Oregon NASA Space Grant Consortium (OSGC) Student Academic Research Review (STARR) award in the amount of $3,000 for Nuclear Propulsion research.

Cameron is currently a sophomore Mechanical Engineering student at Southwestern and plans to transfer into the Nuclear Engineering program at Oregon State University (OSU) after he graduates. For his research project, Cameron will be investigating the current state of research into nuclear propulsion systems with particular applications to aerospace.

Read the full article on Cannon Beach Gazette.

Author Credit: Cannon Beach Gazette

Image Credit: Cannon Beach Gazette

University of Dayton Sophomore electrical engineering student Grace McKenna professional headshot

Ohio Space Grant Consortium Supports Sophomore Electrical Engineering Student Research

Sophomore electrical engineering student Grace McKenna started working with NASA in the Here to Observe (H2O) program in September 2023. The program gives undergraduate students the opportunity to observe and interact with NASA Planetary Science Division teams, with the goal of inspiring historically marginalized groups to be a part of the STEM workforce.

McKenna is currently working on the Europa Clipper mission that will launch later this year.

“The mission is to send a spacecraft to Europa to fly by and take different captures, measurements, all kinds of data, to let us know a little bit more about Europa because it has an ice shell,” McKenna said. “We are looking to see what it’s composed of because the details of that are still unknown.”

Read the full article on udayton.edu

Author Credit: University of Dayton Blogs

Image Credit: University of Dayton Blogs

February 2, 2024 Space Foundation Space Symposium Dear Volunteer Committee: I am delighted to provide my strongest recommendation on behalf of Bella Hettich to be a volunteer at the 2024 Space Symposium to be held April 8-11 in Colorado Springs. Bella is a Ph.D. student in the Education, Health, and Behavior Studies program at the University of North Dakota with a specialization in Higher Education where I have been serving as her advisor for the last two years. Bella’s dissertation research centers on sense of belonging and retention of students of color in aerospace programs. Her research in this area has been funded by the North Dakota Space Grant Consortium and been accepted for presentation at the National Conference on Race & Ethnicity. I believe her participation as a volunteer in the Space Symposium will expose her to industry and academic leaders in the industry as she conceptualizes the empirical phase of her research. While her primary purpose as a volunteer will be to complete tasks assigned by the conference committee, I believe she will benefit from the informal conversations and observations of the field. Because the students she will be surveying will end up in the military, civil and commercial space sectors, the Space Symposium will offer her a chance to map out the broader impacts of her social science research. In terms of her personal qualities, she is reliable, professional, and adaptable which means that she will show up for her shifts and prioritize what needs to be done for the execution of the symposium. I have zero concerns about her abiding by the symposium’s code of conduct. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns or should you wish to discuss this recommendation further. Thank you for your kind consideration. Sincerely, Radomir Ray Mitic, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Higher Education, Department of Education, Health, and Behavior Studies University of North Dakota

Nevada Space Grant Consortium Supports High Altitude Ballooning Team

UNLV students are launching a balloon 100,000 ft. with live-streaming cameras. Why?

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — UNLV engineering students plan to launch a balloon on Oct. 14 to capture “valuable engineering data” during upcoming solar eclipses.

“The last time the moon blocked out the sun in 2017, the skies above Las Vegas were covered in clouds, and rain poured down across the Valley,” said officials with the university. “A rare celestial event obscured by an unlikely weather phenomenon for a desert city and its inhabitants.”

Read the full story on KTNV.com.

The next series of launches is set for early April for the total solar eclipse!

Author Credit: KTNV.com

Image Credit: UNLV

 

Nick Barmore, a chemistry student who is working on an undergraduate research project with Steven Girard, associate professor of chemistry, has been awarded $4,000 for his ongoing research on sensor materials. He is shown in Girard's lab on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. Photos by Craig Schreiner

Wisconsin Space Grant Supports “Launching Excellence in the Lab”

From stargazing as a child in his hometown of Evansville to working as an undergraduate researcher inside the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Upham Hall, Nick Barmore has always had an interest in space.

That passion, combined with the support of UW-Whitewater’s chemistry department, earned Barmore a prestigious $4,000 grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium (WSGC) as part of the Undergraduate Research Awards Program.

Watch the YouTube video and read the full story on uww.edu.

Written by Chris Lindeke | Video by Kyle Winter | Photos by Craig Schreiner

Alan Rowland (left) will study different polymers with varying nitrogen content to try to understand how significant a role nitrogen plays in how lithium-sulfur batteries work. He is shown with Nawraj Sapkota (middle) and Ramakrishna Podila, an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

South Carolina Space Grant Funds Student’s Battery Research

NASA is on the quest for a better battery — one that is lighter, longer lasting and able to survive the extreme temperatures found in space — and a Clemson graduate student’s research could help lay the groundwork.

Alan Rowland, a graduate student in the Clemson University Department of Physics and Astronomy, has received a prestigious NASA SC Space Grant fellowship to explore the role nitrogen plays in sulfurized polymer-based lithium-sulfur batteries.

Read the full article on News.Clemson.edu.

Author Credit: Cindy Landrum

Image Credit: News.Clemson.edu.

Jenavieve Lyon ’26 (left) and Jillian Sylvia ’24 received $7,300 each from the NASA Rhode Island Space Grant Consortium for two projects and are working to develop technologies and lab protocols meant to help up-and-coming space programs.

Rhode Island Space Grant Funds Students’ Mars Research

   

If you need to find Jillian Sylvia ’24 or Jenavieve Lyon ’26 this summer, look no further than Bryant’s research labs. The two School of Health and Behavioral Sciences students received $7,300 each from the NASA Rhode Island Space Grant Consortium for two projects and are working to develop technologies and lab protocols meant to help up-and-coming space programs.

Sylvia, a Biology major and seasoned summer research fellow, is creating new techniques to characterize climate on Earth’s past and present landscapes. The methods she develops could eventually be applied to Mars rock samples to look at the planet’s preservation.

Meanwhile, Lyon — an Environmental Science major engaging in her first summer research experience — is using rock and sedimentary samples to study past climate changes and apply this information to the climate changes humans are experiencing today.

Read the full article on News.Bryant.edu.

Author Credit: Emma Bartlett

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