NASA Seeks Student Experiments to Soar in Second TechRise Challenge

NASA has announced the second NASA TechRise Student Challenge, which invites middle and high school students in the US to design, build, and launch science and technology experiments on high-altitude balloons. The competition is open to students in grades six to 12, attending public, private, or charter schools, including those in US territories. Teams must design an experiment under the guidance of an educator and submit their ideas by Oct. 24, 2022. A total of 60 winning teams will be selected, with each team receiving $1,500 to build their experiment and an assigned spot on a NASA-sponsored high-altitude balloon flight operated by one of two commercial providers: Aerostar of Sioux Falls, South Dakota or World View based in Tucson, Arizona. The winning teams will also receive technical support and mentorship from Future Engineers, including the opportunity to learn or improve technology skills such as soldering, coding, and 3D design.

NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, based at the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, and part of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), is leading the NASA TechRise Challenge, with support from the NASA Tournament Lab, also part of STMD. The challenge aims to inspire a deeper understanding of Earth’s atmosphere, surface features, and climate, as well as space exploration, coding, electronics, and the value of test data. The winning teams will also have access to technical support and mentorship from Future Engineers. NASA plans to announce the competition winners in January 2023, with the final experiments taking flight in summer 2023.

Last year, NASA launched the inaugural NASA TechRise Student Challenge, in which students designed and built technology to study high-altitude clouds, atmospheric particles, and other phenomena. The challenge aims to inspire students to develop their own unique ideas for future inventions and provide hands-on learning experiences that encourage problem-solving skills. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the quality of the experiments and the creativity demonstrated by the students in the last challenge are exactly what NASA hopes to inspire.

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