NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, will be hosting Young Astronaut Day on Saturday, Nov. 1 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. More than 350 students will assume the role of NASA aerospace engineers and compete for ribbons in hands-on activities related to engineering problem solving. The event will be held in the hangar at Glenn.
The day will include an opening ceremony, competition instructions and preparations, and lunch. The competition begins at 12:15 and ends at 2:15 p.m.
NASA astronaut and engineer Stephanie D. Wilson will deliver a keynote address at 10:15 a.m. Wilson, a veteran of three space shuttle flights, will touch on her NASA experiences and highlights of her time aboard the International Space Station.
“Young Astronaut Day gives students the chance to apply STEM outside the classroom,” said Julie Kleinhenz, a liquid propulsion engineer at Glenn. “They have to come up with their own solutions to these activities and there are no right answers. It is a very positive atmosphere and even when their designs don’t work they are excited to figure out what happened and try again. Sometimes their creative solutions work better than the ones NASA engineers came up with!”
The eighth- through 12th-grade student activities collectively comprise a robotic mission to Mars. Students will be able to construct a rocket out of balloons; design a laser communication system using mirrors and laser pointers; design an aerodynamic entry vehicle out of Styrofoam and use a wind tunnel to test the drag; and build Lego Mindstorms Robots that can drive over rough terrain.
First- through seventh-graders will focus on a manned lunar mission. Their tasks will be to design and build a shock-absorbing lander that protects two marshmallow “astronauts” when they land; build a launcher to propel a simulated spacecraft (a marble) into orbit around a simulated Earth and moon; and create a spacecraft surface using a variety of materials. This “skin” will then be subjected to impact qualification tests. They will also conduct an experiment consisting of an astronaut (a student) building structures within a glove box based on the information provided by a scientist (another student).
To celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, students will also participate in a Canstruction project and build a sculpture made entirely of canned foods of the lunar lander image that is reflected in Buzz Aldrin’s helmet. At the end of the event, the cans will be donated to the Cleveland Food Bank.
Twenty-seven local schools and youth organizations participating in Young Astronaut Day are:
- Bay Middle School – Bay Village
- Bay High School – Bay Village
- Berea-Midpark High School – Berea
- Birchwood School – Cleveland
- Black River High School – Sullivan
- Boy Scout Troop 175 – Brecksville
- Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School – Brecksville
- Brecksville-Broadview Heights Middle School – Brecksville
- Brecksville-Broadview Heights Central School – Brecksville
- Brecksville-Broadview Heights Highland Drive School – Brecksville
- Chippewa Elementary School – Cleveland
- Ford Intermediate School – Brook Park
- North Olmsted Forrest Primary School – North Olmsted
- Gesu Catholic School – University Heights
- Girl Scout Brownie Troop 70556 – Cleveland
- Lee Burneson Middle School – Westlake
- Madison High School – Madison
- Middleburg Heights Junior High School – Middleburg Heights
- Northmor Elementary School – Galion
- Parma Heights Christian Academy – Parma Heights
- Saber Sockets – Cleveland Heights
- Sheffield Middle School – Sheffield Lake
- St. Patrick Catholic School –Bryan
- The Red Bee – Brecksville
- University School – Shaker Heights
- Westerly Elementary – Bay Village
- Westlake High School – Westlake
Glenn’s Exploration Systems Project Office, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Northern Ohio Section and three partnering companies of Glenn’s Test Facilities, Operations, Maintenance and Engineering contract are sponsoring the event.
Media interested in covering the event should email jeannette.p.owens@nasa.gov or call 216-433-2990 to be cleared through security by 9:30 a.m. Nov. 1.
For more information about Young Astronaut Day, visit:
For more information about NASA astronaut Stephanie D. Wilson, visit:
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/wilson.html
To learn more about NASA Glenn, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn
Jeannette Owens
Glenn Research Center, Cleveland
216-433-2990
jeannette.p.owens@nasa.gov