NASA is inviting middle and high school students from across the country to submit experiment ideas for a test flight of a high-altitude balloon or rocket-powered lander at the third TechRise Student Challenge.

TechRise is a grade 6-12 attending U.S. public, private, or charter school, including those on U.S. soil. Open to grade students. It provides participants with hands-on insights into the payload design and suborbital flight testing process to inspire a deeper understanding of the value of space exploration, Earth observation, coding, electronics, and test data.

“The NASA TechRise student competition is one of many exciting ways to engage with Generation Artemis,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “The flight experiment proposal development process encourages students to think big and realize that their talents and creativity will be key to future human exploration.”

Organized by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program and presented by Future Engineers, the challenge invites faculty-led teams of four or more students to design science and engineering experiments for suborbital flight. Sixty winning teams will be selected to turn their proposed experiment ideas into reality. The winners will receive $1,500 to build their experiment, a 3D-printed flight box to build it, and a designated area for their payload during a NASA-sponsored flight test. Experiment ideas must be submitted no later than 20 October 2023.

This year, TechRise attendees will be offered flights on one of two commercial flight platforms: the World View high-altitude balloon from Tucson, Arizona, or the Xodiac suborbital rocket lander operated by Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic. The high-altitude balloon will provide approximately four hours of flight at 70,000 feet (21,000 meters) with exposure to Earth’s upper atmosphere, altitude radiation, and Earth’s perspective view, while the lander will fly for about two minutes. height. 80 feet (about 25 meters) above a test site designed to simulate the Moon’s surface.

NASA encourages students and their instructors to submit ideas for experiments, even if they have no prior experience with the event. A variety of resources are available to support teams in the submission process, including two upcoming workshops and a virtual tour for virtual teachers. Winning teams will receive technical support and guidance from future engineers who will help students gain the skills necessary to turn their experimental ideas into reality.

“TechRise has been a great STEM experience for my students,” said Gregory Tucker, TechRise team leader at Nesbitt Discovery Academy in Asheville, North Carolina, and winner of the second TechRise competition. “It was great to see the excitement in the group when the final test was complete, all the sensors and data collection were working correctly, and our experiment was ready to begin. The confidence and pride these students gained by working on this project for months was immeasurable.” An experiment conducted by the Nesbitt Discovery Academy team recently made a high-altitude balloon flight.

To enter the competition, teams will propose their experiment ideas online using the design guidelines and proposal template on the competition website. The winners will be announced in January 2024. Selected student teams will build their payloads from January to May, and the final experiments will begin in the summer of 2024.

The NASA TechRise Challenge is led by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, which quickly demonstrates technologies for expanding space exploration and space business through sub-orbital testing with industry airlines. Flight Opportunities is based at the Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California and is part of NASA’s Space Technology Directorate (STMD). TechRise is also supported by the NASA Tournament Lab, which is part of the STMD Awards, Challenges and Crowdsourcing program. Source