Planetary scientist (and AZ Space Grant Alum!) Dani DellaGiustina makes Popular Science Brilliant 10

The University of Arizona’s Daniella “Dani” DellaGiustina shot for the stars and has already landed among them. Today, the planetary scientist was named one of Popular Science’s Brilliant 10 – an annual list of early-career scientists and engineers who are developing innovative approaches to problems across a range of disciplines.

DellaGiustina is an assistant professor of planetary sciences in the university’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and deputy principal investigator of NASA’s UArizona-led OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission. She is also principal investigator of the extended OSIRIS-REx mission, dubbed OSIRIS-APEX, which will visit the near-Earth asteroid Apophis.

Read the full article on news.arizona.edu

Image Credit: Kyle Mittan/University Communications

Author Credit: Mikayla Mace Kelley

How a NASA-Supported Robotics Program Is Preparing Students for STEM Careers – Hawaii Space Grant Consortium

Hawaii is trying to prepare its K-12 students to fill the massive shortages of jobs in STEM-related fields.

The Hawaii Space Grant Consortium, a community educational program supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has partnered with schools across the state to implement robotics in the classroom.

“We’re trying to build this pipeline from K-12 and eventually have the students go on to college to build robotics or satellites, and eventually, hopefully, work at NASA as engineers,” said Adria Fung, robotics engineering education specialist at the consortium, during a session at the 2022 International Society for Technology in Education conference.

 

Read the full article on edweek.org

Image Credit: Kristina Barker for Education Week

Author Credit: Lauraine Langreo

 

Flying Before Walking: The CU Trailblazers – A Partnership Between NASA, Wisconsin, & Colorado Space Grant Consortia

Test Launch day

“Going in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…” The eight-foot tall rocket stood, motionless.

“… Come on Chungus.” the rocketeer murmured into the microphone.

With an ear-shattering roar, Chungus burst into the sky, 500 hundred feet, 1,000 feet, over 3,000 feet! A speck in the brilliant blue.

The team erupted, screaming wildly as the rocket flew.

“YES!” Reign Pagaran yelled, leaping into the air, held aloft, it seemed, by the joy of this moment. The Trailblazers did it, they flew before they walked.

Read the full article on colorado.edu

Image Credit: University of Colorado Boulder & Colorado Space Grant Consortium

Author Credit:  

Learn more about the First Nations Launch – Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium

DC Space Grant Sponsors NASA International Space Apps Challenge

If you had two days to work with NASA to eliminate barriers of access to space and science opportunities, what would you do?

For nearly 30,000 participants who had this opportunity earlier this month, the sky was the limit. Coders, entrepreneurs, scientists, designers, storytellers, builders, artists, and technologists across the world came together in person and virtually for the 2022 NASA International Space Apps Challenge. Using NASA’s open-source data, they tackled the challenge of scientific access, using their scientific knowledge, artistic skills, business acumen, and wildest imaginations.

Read the full article on american.edu

Author Credit: Patty Housman

Image Credit: DC Space Grant Consortium

‘Captures the imagination’: Montana State University gets $6.5 million NASA grant for solar eclipse research

When Angela Des Jardins was a child, she looked through an astronomy book and saw the next total solar eclipse would be in 2017. While she wondered where she’d be, she knew she wanted to see it.

“I had the thought of ‘Oh my gosh, that’s so long from now,’” said Des Jardins, now the director of the Montana Space Grant Consortium and Montana State University physics professor. “And so, from a young age, I had that 2017 eclipse in my mind.”

Read the full article on BozemanDailyChronicle.com

 

Author Credit:

Image Credit: Montana Space Grant Consortium

Artemis I mission shares spectacular view of Earth after a historic launch

Cape Canaveral, FloridaCNN — 

The historic Artemis I mission took flight in the early hours of Wednesday morning after months of anticipation. The milestone event kicked off a journey that will send an uncrewed spacecraft around the moon, paving the way for NASA to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in half a century.

The Orion spacecraft’s spectacular first views of Earth were shared more than nine hours into the journey, with the vehicle about 57,000 miles away from our planet on its way to the moon.

Read the full article on CNN.com.

Author Credit: By  and , CNN

Image Credit: CNN Business

Teams Selected for NC Space Grant 2022-23 Team Experience and Competition Award

NC Space Grant is pleased to announce the winners of this year’s Team Experience and Competition Awards, which help undergraduate teams participate in competitions either sponsored or sanctioned by NASA or other STEM-related organizations. Competitions are in the fields of engineering, science, technology and/or mathematics (STEM), and complement the academic studies of the team members.

“These opportunities help students develop the skills and knowledge base, as well as build strong teamwork capabilities, necessary to succeed in STEM careers in the future,” says Sandra Canfield, assistant director of NC Space Grant.

 

Read the full article on the NC Space Grant Consortium website here.

 

Author Credit: Michelle Yu

Image Credit: UNC Charlotte

NASA caught the sun smiling down on us, but the grin could signal a solar storm

“NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) this week captured an image of the sun in ultraviolet light featuring three dark patches that look like a smiling face — a face that could signal a solar storm with problems for Earth.”

Read the full article and view a video of the Sun at npr.org.

 

Author Credit: Ashley Ahn

Image Credit: NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an image of the sun “smiling” in 193 angstrom light on Oct. 26. NASA/GSFC/SDO

Safe Return for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 Astronauts

After 170 days in orbit, NASA astronauts  Bob HinesKjell Lindgren, and Jessica Watkins and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti safely splashed down Friday, Oct. 14, 2022, off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, completing the agency’s fourth commercial crew mission to the International Space Station. Teams aboard SpaceX recovery vessels retrieved the spacecraft and astronauts.

 

Read the full article on nasa.gov here.

Author Credit: Monika Luabeya

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 Launches to International Space Station

The crew members assigned to NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission are in orbit following their launch to the International Space Station noon EDT Wednesday, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The international crew will serve as the agency’s fifth commercial crew rotation mission with SpaceX aboard the orbital laboratory.

 

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Dragon Endurance spacecraft into orbit carrying NASA astronauts Nicole Mann as mission commander, and Josh Cassada, pilot. JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, also aboard the Dragon, will serve as mission specialists for their science expedition in microgravity aboard the space station.

 

Read the full article on NASA.gov here.

 

Author Credit:Gerelle Dodson

Image Credit:NASA/Joel Kowsky