Want to know more about the life and work of NASA’s “hidden figure,” whose calculations helped send men to the moon? This lesson tells the story of Katherine Johnson (1918-2020), the space program trailblazer who broke down racial and gender barriers in her remarkable 101 years of life. Born a math prodigy in segregated West Virginia, her father regularly drove Katherine 120 miles to the nearest school that would educate Black students past the 8th grade. Her extraordinary talents landed her a job as a “human computer” in the early days of NASA, where she would spend an illustrious 33-year career as a research mathematician. Johnson’s work on the Mercury and Apollo projects, along with her many other research projects and technical papers, earned her the Medal of Freedom in 2015.

The Woodson Center's Black History and Excellence curriculum is based on the Woodson Principles and tells the stories of Black Americans whose tenacity and resilience enabled them to overcome adversity and make invaluable contributions to our country. It also teaches character and decision-making skills that equip students to take charge of their futures. These lessons in Black American excellence are free and publicly available for all.

Students learn about the unique challenges astronauts face while eating in outer space. They explore different food choices and food packaging. Students learn about the engineering design process, and then, as NASA engineering teams, they design and build original model devices to help astronauts eat in a microgravity environment --- their own creative devices for food storage and meal preparation.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"In the discipline of planetary protection, spacecraft are assembled in unique cleanrooms to prevent microbe transfer between planets. The cleanliness of these rooms has traditionally been assessed with the NASA standard spore assay (NSA), but advanced molecular techniques have revealed that this assay may be insufficient for contamination control. To learn more, researchers recently analyzed floor samples collected over 6 months from the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The NSA coupled with Sanger sequencing identified 16 genera of bacteria, 97% of which were spore-formers, primarily Bacillus subtilis and Virgibacillus pantothenticus. However, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing detected 51 additional bacterial genera. When viable and dead organisms were differentiated, amplicon sequencing identified 46 viable non-spore-forming genera (86% of bacteria) and 8 viable spore-forming genera (14% of bacteria)..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

The Mission to Mars curricular unit introduces students to Mars the Red Planet. Students discover why scientists are so interested in studying this mysterious planet. Many interesting facts about Mars are revealed, and the history of Martian exploration is reviewed. Students will learn about the development of robotics and how robots are beneficial to science, society and the exploration of space. Details on engineers' involvement in space exploration are presented. Furthermore, students will learn how orbits allow astronauts to move from planet to planet and what type of equipment is used by scientists and engineers to safely explore space. Lastly, the specific details on and human risks for a possible future manned mission to Mars (and back to Earth again!) are discussed.

Have you ever wondered how important people get to where they are? Spaceport America firefighter, Jeff Stroud, shares his path in this segment brought to you by STEM in 30.

NASA's webpage for educators. Includes lesson plans, videos, published articles, and additional teaching resources and websites to improve your science curriculum.

NASA's webpage for students. Includes videos, apps, blogs, projects, games, contests, and more!

This lesson will start with a brief history of robotics and explain how robots are beneficial to science and society. The lesson then will explore how robots have been used in recent space exploration efforts. The engineering design of the two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, will be used as prime examples. Finally, the maneuverability of their robotic arms and the functionality of their tools will be discussed.

Students learn about humankind’s search for life in outer space and how it connects to robotics and engineering. NASA is interested in sending exploratory missions to one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa, which requires a lot of preparatory research and development on Earth before it can happen. One robot currently being engineered as a proof of concept for a possible trip to explore Europa is the Icefin, which is an innovative robot that can explore under ice and in water, which are the believed conditions on Europa. This lesson provides students with intriguing information about far off (distance and time!) space missions and field robotics, and also sets up two associated robotics and arts integration activities to follow. The lesson can be used individually to provide new information to students, or as a precursor to the associated activities. A PowerPoint® presentation and worksheet are provided.

In a simulation of potential future space missions to Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, student teams are challenged to direct a robot placed in an enclosed maze to search for and find the most “alien life.” The robot is equipped with a camera to send a live feed of its surroundings in the maze. Students control the robot from outside the maze by looking at the live feed on a smartphone and using the robot’s remote control, making a map as they go. The student teams compete as if they are space agencies creating their own exploratory systems to meet the challenge’s criteria and constraints and prove “in the field” that they have the best plan to win the mission contract and get the job. This activity simulates the real-world research of scientists and engineers developing a robot with the capabilities to explore under the ice-covered surface of Europa.

Investigate the path to become an astronaut with NASA learning about Joe Acaba and his journey.

Students learn how the innovative engineering of photovoltaics enables us to transform the sun’s energy into usable power—electricity—through the use of photovoltaic cells. Watching a short video clip from “The Martian” movie shows the importance of photovoltaics in powering space exploration at extreme distances from the Earth. Then students learn that the photovoltaic technologies designed to excel in the harsh environment of space have the potential to be just as beneficial on Earth—providing electricity-generating systems based on renewable energy sources is important for our electricity-gobbling society. Two student journaling sheets assist with vocabulary and concepts.

All models digitized by the Smithsonian Museum. 3D Models are downloadable in several formats for use in various 3D Modeling programs. The model viewer on the Smithsonian 3D Digitization page allows for embedding the used model viewer.

In 16.89 / ESD.352 the students will first be asked to understand the key challenges in designing ground and space telescopes, the stakeholder structure and value flows, and the particular pros and cons of the proposed project. The first half of the class will concentrate on performing a thorough architectural analysis of the key astrophysical, engineering, human, budgetary and broader policy issues that are involved in this decision. This will require the students to carry out a qualitative and quantitative conceptual study during the first half of the semester and recommend a small set of promising architectures for further study at the Preliminary Design Review (PDR).
Both lunar surface telescopes as well as orbital locations should be considered.
The second half of the class will then pick 1-2 of the top-rated architectures for a lunar telescope facility and develop the concept in more detail and present the detailed design at the Critical Design Review (CDR). This should not only sketch out the science program, telescope architecture and design, but also the stakeholder relationships, a rough estimate of budget and timeline, and also clarify the role that human explorers could or should play during both deployment and servicing/operations of such a facility (if any).

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Radiation, weightlessness, and altered nutrition are just a few of the harsh conditions astronauts face while in space. Though blood parameters _do_ change during space flight, a new study published in the journal, _BMC Hematology_,_ _suggests crews on long missions may not experience persistent anemia, as once thought. Environmental conditions in space are undoubtedly different from those on Earth, and can, therefore, impact a number of the body’s systems including vision, immunity, and the musculoskeletal system. It is well understood that, upon entering microgravity, fluids rapidly shift toward the head -- evident by the so-called ‘puffy-face syndrome’ seen in many astronauts. It has been assumed that during long-duration space missions, this is accompanied by a state of anemia – a condition that occurs when the body fails to produce a sufficient levels of oxygen-carrying red blood cells and can result in weakness and fatigue..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"With an increasing number of spaceflights, microbial colonization of spacecrafts and assembly facilities is a concern. Planetary protection research focuses on developing technology for cleaning and sterilization, and clean rooms are the final step before spacecraft launch into space. But with their stringent air filtration and cleaning, Space Assembly Facility (SAF) rooms become a selective environment for microorganisms that can tolerate extreme cleaning methods. Because these microorganisms are likely low-abundance, current identification methods can struggle to characterize and profile SAF-residing microbes. A new study presents a comprehensive metagenomic framework to characterize microorganisms relevant for planetary protection. Researchers sequenced and analyzed 51 metagenomic samples from SAF clean rooms to identify microbes that could potentially survive spaceflight..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Dr. Rhea Seddon and Capt. Robert "Hoot" Gibson talk about life as an astronaut couple.