Bring space missions
to students
A U.S. Department of Education challenge to build technical skills for careers in space and beyond.
Meet the finalistsAnnouncing the five finalists
Congratulations to the five finalists! These teams received mentorship and additional virtual resources to implement their mission proposals and build their CubeSat prototypes.
Anderson Clark Magnet High School
Studying whether local encampments are in high-risk wildfire areas, with the goal of helping the local fire department to save lives of people without housing.
Freeport High School
Measuring Earth’s surface temperature to study the differences in heat absorption and retention between urban and rural areas.
Mooresville High School
Measuring the effect of their town’s population growth on air quality, land use, and temperature.
Opelika High School
Collecting performance data for a new type of core material used in NASA-grade fluxgate magnetometers, which are used to study Earth’s changing magnetic field.
Princeton High School
Optimizing space missions by examining topics such as atmospheric pressure density and habitable planetary environments.
ABOUT THE CHALLENGE
A national challenge to build technical skills for careers in space and beyond
Space is a frontier for infinite exploration. As the boundaries of our missions in space continue to expand, so do the opportunities for today’s students to explore a wide range of related careers in space — or their own communities.
Through the challenge, the U.S. Department of Education invited high schools to bring space missions to students by designing and building CubeSat prototypes — in the classroom or at home. Designing and building a CubeSat prototype in this multiphase challenge offers students a firsthand opportunity to learn valuable technical skills — such as engineering, computer science, research, logistics, project management, and marketing — that can be applied to careers in aerospace and many other industries.
Five finalists were each awarded $5,000, as well as additional in-kind prizes donated by the following organizations:
- Arduino
- Blue Origin
- Chevron
- EnduroSat
- LEGO Education
- Magnitude.io
- MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative
- XinaBox