NEWS!!   Investing in Technology to Enable the Future: NASA Creates Space Technology Mission Directorate
NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate

 

A Narrow View of the Sun  from Aviation Week

 

The NASA Research Announcement,
"Soliciting Proposals for Exploration Technology Demonstration and National Lab Utilization Enhancements," may be viewed at: http://go.nasa.gov/Uqkccz

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

 

 SOLAR MAX STORM WARNING

This opportunity is available for classrooms across the planet:

 

Join the Tracking a Solar Storm challenge and guide students as they learn about the Sun’s anatomy, the space weather it generates, and why studying our star is important.

This challenge is designed around NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, mission.   Scheduled to launch in April 2013, the IRIS spacecraft will study the dynamics of the interface region of our Sun’s atmosphere using an ultraviolet telescope and imaging spectrograph. As students participate in the challenge, they will learn about the IRIS mission and the instruments scientists use to gather solar data.

An educators’ guide to the IRIS challenge is available on the Tracking a Solar Storm website and includes key information for helping students study the sun’s weather, track a solar storm, and predict its effect on Earth. Students will demonstrate what they have learned by collecting data and producing a space weather report.

Timing: February – May 2013
No-cost registration now open: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZRBWQQK

Challenge website: http://irischallenge.arc.nasa.gov/>

 

NASA SOLICITS IDEAS FOR INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION RESEARCH

WASHINGTON -- NASA wants to know how you can improve the International Space Station as a technology test bed.

NASA's International Space Station National Laboratory and Technology Demonstration offices are asking for proposals on how the space station may be used to develop advanced or improved exploration technologies. NASA also is seeking proposals about how new approaches, technologies and capabilities could improve the unique laboratory environment of the orbiting outpost.

The NASA Research Announcement, "Soliciting Proposals for Exploration Technology Demonstration and National Lab Utilization Enhancements,"
may be viewed at: http://go.nasa.gov/Uqkccz

The announcement will provide successful proposers access to the space station's microgravity environment, crew support and robotic servicing. It closes Sept. 30.

"The space station is a world-class facility and critical to NASA's plan to extend humanity's presence beyond low-Earth orbit," said Andrew Clem of the Technology Demonstration Office in the International Space Station Program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "This is an opportunity for researchers, inventors and designers to demonstrate a technology needed for future human spaceflights or to improve an existing space station capability."

NASA will review submissions throughout the year as they are received.
The agency will cover launch and integration costs for selected proposals. Successful submissions also may be eligible for limited additional funding.

Proposed technologies should help advance exploration and research capabilities aboard the space station. Concepts must fit within existing NASA standards for mass and volume to meet requirements for current launch vehicles. Suggested areas include in-space propulsion; space power and energy storage; components of highly reliable, closed-loop, human health, life support and habitation systems; thermal systems; robotics, telerobotics, and autonomous systems; and human exploration destination systems.

Proposals for new exploration technologies could include strategies to reduce mass, maintenance and power requirements, while also increasing efficiency, reliability and safety. The idea could be a new technology or a new, improved use of existing space hardware.
Proposals also may have the potential to yield benefits for humanity, such as testing a new material or stimulating economic growth.

Alternately, proposers could address improvements to the existing capabilities of the U.S. National Laboratory, such as new uses for existing experiment tools and infrastructure aboard the orbiting outpost, or potential efficiencies like advances in data communications. Other possibilities include ground equipment for space studies, in-orbit analytical tools, three-dimensional cell and tissue culture hardware, or improvements or new uses for existing station research resources.

The enhancements sought in this announcement will further efforts by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space to promote research aboard the station's U.S. National Laboratory.

For assistance with responding to the announcement, visit the Guidebook for Proposers Responding to a NASA Research Announcement or Cooperative Agreements Notice at: http://go.nasa.gov/W3HlSe
For more information on the International Space Station and its research, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station/

 

NASA EDUCATION COMMUNITY

Check out the following NASA opportunities for the education community. Full descriptions are listed below.

Pre-Service Teacher Institutes at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center
Audience: Higher Education Students
Application Deadline: May 10, 2013
Institute Dates: July 12-24, 2013

Don't miss out on upcoming NASA education opportunities.
For a full list of events, opportunities and more, visit the Educator and Student Current Opportunity pages on NASA's website:
-- Educators http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/current-opps-index.html
-- Students http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/current-opps-index.html

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NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellowships

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) supports NASA’s goal to expand scientific understanding of the Earth and the universe in which we live.

Selected by a competitive peer-review process, NPP Fellows complete one- to three-year Fellowship appointments that offer scientists and engineers unique opportunities to conduct research in fields of science relevant to NASA.

These opportunities advance NASA’s missions in Earth science, heliophysics, planetary science, astrophysics, space bioscience, aeronautics and engineering, human exploration and space operations, and astrobiology. Opportunities are available at NASA Centers and other NASA-approved sites.

As a result, NPP Fellows contribute to national priorities for scientific exploration, confirm NASA’s leadership in fundamental research, and complement the efforts of NASA’s partners in the national science community.

U.S. citizens, Lawful Permanent Residents, and foreign nationals eligible for J-1 status as a Research Scholar may apply. Applicants must have completed a Ph.D. or equivalent degree before beginning the fellowship, but may apply while completing the degree requirements. Applicants who earned the Ph.D. more than five years before the deadline date are categorized as Senior Fellows; all applicants, no matter their category, must apply and become eligible for an NPP award via the same process.

Interested applicants may apply by one of three annual application deadlines: March 1, July 1, and November 1.

For more information and application procedures, go to http://nasa.orau.org/postdoc/.

Questions about this opportunity should be directed to nasapostdoc@orau.org.

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National Air and Space Museum Super Science Saturday Events

Join the National Air and Space Museum on the second Saturday of each month during 2013 for Super Science Saturday at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. Through demonstrations and hands-on activities, visitors of all ages will become immersed in science, technology, engineering and mathematics topics related to aviation and space exploration. Each event takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern Time. Admission is free, and parking is $15.

Upcoming topics include:

May 11, 2013 -- Astronomy
June 8, 2013 -- Energy
July 13, 2013 -- Weather
Aug. 10, 2013 -- Helicopters
Sept. 14, 2013 -- Living and Working in Space
Oct. 12, 2013 -- Balloons and Blimps
Nov. 9, 2013 -- The Moon and Beyond
Dec. 14, 2013 -- The Wright Brothers

For more information, visit http://airandspace.si.edu/events/superscience/.

Questions about this series of lectures should be directed to nasmpubliclectures@si.edu.

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Pre-Service Teacher Institutes at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center has partnered with Oakwood University to offer a two-week Pre-Service Teacher Institute taking place July 12-24, 2013, in Huntsville, Ala. This residential session is for education majors preparing to teach grades K-8.

Participants will engage in hands-on learning experiences designed to develop their skills for teaching science, technology, engineering and mathematics using NASA-developed curriculum resources. Full-time rising junior or senior undergraduate and graduate students at minority institutions are invited to apply. Housing, meals, travel assistance and a stipend will be provided.

Applications must be postmarked by May 10, 2013.

For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/education/msfc/psti.

Please email any questions about this opportunity to Marilyn Lewis at marilyn.h.lewis@nasa.gov.

 

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Exciting Projects!!

Vermont Lunar CubeSat Project
Space exploration is happening right under our noses, even in Vermont.

The half-hour television program "Out of This World,"(below) which highlighted Vermont's CubeSat Lunar Lander Project and was the lead-off episode of this year's Vermont Public Television Emerging Science series, has been nominated for a New England Regional Emmy in the Outstanding Health/Science Program category.  
Click link below:

Regional Emmy Nomination for Program on VTSGC/NASA EPSCoR Project

The VT CubeSat Lunar Lander Project project was initiated with support from the VTSGC's 2009 CDC award and is being supported this year by Vermont's NASA EPSCoR Project through a research minigrant to Prof. Carl Brandon at Vermont technical College.  Prof. Brandon has been awarded a NASA launch opportunity next year for a 1-U CubeSat that will test aspects of the Lander package's navigation system in orbit.


Vermont Public Television's Emerging Science "Out of this World"  featured our
 CubeSat project.  It is now online at:  http://www.vpt.org/show/164035/4015
News!! launch in ..tentative date is September, 2013   Click here for more information