The Marshall Star for April 24, 2024

29 Min Read The Marshall Star for April 24, 2024 Students from Universidad Católica Boliviana prepare to traverse the course at the 2024 Human Exploration Rover Challenge at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Credits: Credits: NASA/Taylor Goodwin NASA Announces 30th Human Exploration Rover Challenge Winners NASA announced the winners of the 30th Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) April 22, with Parish Episcopal School, from Dallas, winning first place in the high school division, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville,capturing the college/university…

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Work Underway on Large Cargo Landers for NASA’s Artemis Moon Missions

Early conceptual renderings of cargo variants of human lunar landing systems from NASA’s providers SpaceX, left, and Blue Origin, right. Both industry teams have been given authority to begin design work to provide large cargo landers capable of delivering up to 15 metric tons of cargo, such as a pressurized rover, to the Moon’s surface. SpaceX and Blue Origin Under NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency and its partners will send large pieces of equipment to the lunar surface to enable long-term scientific exploration of the Moon for the benefit of…

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The Marshall Star for April 17, 2024

18 Min Read The Marshall Star for April 17, 2024 The Full Experience: NASA, Marshall, and Arkansas Celebrate Total Solar Eclipse By Celine Smith More than 100,000 people from across the world gathered April 8 in Russellville, Arkansas, to witness an astronomical syzygy – the alignment of the Sun, Moon, and Earth – creating a solar eclipse with totality lasting 4 minutes and 12 seconds. Team members from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and others traveled to Arkansas to provide educational opportunities related to the eclipse. Experts from NASA’s Stennis…

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Media Invited to NASA’s 30th Anniversary of International Rover Competition

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Students from Alabama A&M University compete during NASA’s 2023 Human Exploration Rover Challenge. The 2024 competition takes place Friday and Saturday, April 19-20, 2024, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center’s Aviation Challenge course in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA/Charles Beason NASA will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Human Exploration Rover Challenge when the competition returns to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center’s Aviation Challenge Course in Huntsville, Alabama, Friday, April 19, and Saturday, April 20. The event is free and open…

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The Marshall Star for April 10, 2024

19 Min Read The Marshall Star for April 10, 2024 NASA, Marshall Help Viewers Celebrate Total Solar Eclipse in Arkansas A group of Marshall and agency team members traveled to Russellville, Arkansas, to help viewers experience the April 8 total solar eclipse through the eyes of NASA. Science and communication experts from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Stennis Space Center, Kennedy Space Center, and NASA Headquarters provided educational outreach opportunities and participated in panel discussions in Russellville, which experienced an eclipse totality of 4 minutes, 12 seconds. Marshall Space Flight…

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Media Invited to NASA’s Student Launch Challenge in Alabama

Hundreds of students from across the U.S. and Puerto Rico launched amateur rockets near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, during the Agency’s 2023 Student Launch competition. Credit: NASA/Charles Beason NASA’s 2024 Student Launch challenge will bring students from colleges, universities, high schools, middle schools, and informal education groups to launch amateur rockets and payloads Saturday, April 13, starting at 8:30 a.m. CDT at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. Live streaming will begin at 8:20 a.m. CDT on NASA Marshall…

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The Marshall Star for April 3, 2024

23 Min Read The Marshall Star for April 3, 2024 Huntsville, Marshall Preparing to Celebrate Total Solar Eclipse By Celine Smith On April 8 between 1 and 3 p.m., the Moon will pass between the Sun and Earth to create a total solar eclipse for 15 states. While Alabama will experience a partial eclipse, area residents can enjoy some fun-filled festivities to celebrate the event. The U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, in collaboration with the Alabama Space Grant Consortium and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, will host a…

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NASA Invites Media to Annual FIRST Robotics Competition in Rocket City

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Students from the Power Struck Girls Team 5965 – an all-girls FIRST Robotics team from the Academy of Our Lady high school in Marrero, Louisiana, and sponsored by NASA’s Stennis Space Center – make final engineering adjustments to their robot during the 2023 Rocket City Regional FIRST Robotics tournaments in Huntsville. NASA/Joel Wallace The Rocket City Regional – Alabama’s annual For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics Competition – is scheduled for Friday, April 5, through…

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NASA Names Finalists to Help Deal with Dust in Human Lander Challenge

NASA selected 12 finalist teams to compete in the next round of the Human Lander Challenge (HuLC) competition. In 2023, NASA invited undergraduate and graduate students from accredited colleges and universities in the United States to propose innovative solutions to manage the lunar dust a spacecraft stirs up when landing on the Moon. NASA’s Artemis campaign will establish a long-term human presence on and around the Moon for the benefit of all, and one of the challenges the agency and its partners must address is the particularly dusty aspect of…

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