NASA Opportunities Fuel Growth and Entrepreneurship for Bronco Space Club Students

4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The Bronco Space team assembles its Bronco Ember technology, which uses a short-wave infrared camera with AI to improve early wildfire detection. Credit: Bronco Space NASA’s public competitions can catalyze big changes – not just for the agency but also for participants. Bronco Space, the CubeSat laboratory at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California, matured more than just space technology as a result of winning funds from NASA’s TechLeap Prize competition. It grew from its roots in a…

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Going Beyond the Challenge for New and Continued Success

CO2 Conversion Challenge (2020) – NASA’s Centennial Challenges has an impact far greater than just space travel – just ask Air Co., a Brooklyn-based company that competed and won a three-way tie in the CO2 Conversion Challenge, which ran from 2018 to 2021. Air Co. founders Gregory Constantine (left) and Stafford Sheehan (right) used their innovative idea, which originally existed to convert carbon dioxide into glucose, to create immediately usable hand sanitizer at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Image courtesy of Air Co. NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate connects…

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Reaching New Frontiers in Science Supported by Public Participation

8 min read Reaching New Frontiers in Science Supported by Public Participation A brown dwarf roaming the Milky Way galaxy. Image by citizen scientist/artist William Pendrill. Credit: William Pendrill NASA’s Science Mission Directorate seeks knowledge and answers to profound questions that impact all people. Through competitions, challenges, crowdsourcing, and citizen science activities, NASA collaborates with the public to make scientific discoveries that help us better understand our planet and the space beyond. Multiple NASA science projects were supported through public participation in Fiscal Years 2021 and 2022, spanning pursuits in…

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Inspiring the Next Generation with Student Challenges and Learning Opportunities

8 min read Inspiring the Next Generation with Student Challenges and Learning Opportunities Creativity and curiosity are strongly tied to NASA’s missions and vision. Many of the agency’s public opportunities foster these traits by engaging students and educators. Participants of all ages and levels, from kindergarten to college, used their imaginations and enthusiasm to solve open innovation challenges related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in fiscal years 2021-2022. Advancing and Encouraging Aerospace Careers Multiple NASA programs partnered with Starburst Accelerator in Los Angeles to launch the 2022…

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