NASA Challenges Students to Fly Earth and Space Experiments

Aug 16, 2023 |RELEASE 23-091

NASA is calling on middle and high school students across the country to submit experiment ideas for a high-altitude balloon or rocket-powered lander test flight in the third TechRise Student Challenge.

TechRise is open to students in grades six to 12 attending U.S. public, private, or charter schools – including those in U.S. territories. It offers participants hands-on insight into the payload design and suborbital flight test process, with the goal of inspiring a deeper understanding of space exploration, Earth observation, coding, electronics, and the value of test data.

“NASA’s TechRise Student Challenge is one of the many exciting ways we’re engaging with the Artemis Generation,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “The process of designing flight experiment proposals encourages students to think big and realize that their talents and creativity will be key in the future of humanity’s exploration.”

Managed by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program and administered by Future Engineers, the challenge invites teams of four or more students, under the guidance of an educator, to design science and technology experiments for suborbital flight. Sixty winning teams will be selected to turn their proposed experiment ideas into reality. Winners will receive $1,500 to build their experiments, a 3D printed flight box in which to build it, and an assigned spot for their payload on a NASA-sponsored flight test. Experiment ideas must be submitted no later than Oct. 20, 2023.

For more information about the challenge and to register: https://www.futureengineers.org/nasatechrise

Photo: One of two commercial platforms slated for flight tests in this year’s NASA TechRise Student Challenge, Astrobotic’s Xodiac is a vertical takeoff vertical landing rocket-powered testbed for simulating lunar and planetary landings as well as a variety of other technology applications for space exploration. Credits: NASA/Lauren Hughes