Middle & High School Students: NASA App Development Challenge for Orion

The Orion spacecraft, now under development by NASA, as the first deep-space vehicle for human use since the Apollo program 50 years ago.
(Image Sources: NASA, Wikipedia.org, By NASA - http://spaceinimages.esa.int/Images/2013/01/Orion6, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24626935)

By Glenn A. Walsh

Reporting for SpaceWatchtower

NASA continues planning for, and developing, the Orion space capsule, the American space agency's first human-rated vehicle destined for deep-space missions, since the Apollo space program 50 years ago. NASA is creating a Launch Abort System (LAS) for Orion, which will be a state-of-the-art crew escape system attached to the top of the spacecraft, which can propel the crew module away from the rocket within milliseconds in the case of a life-threatening occurrence shortly after launch.

Today (2019 March 13), NASA is launching Round 1 of an App Development Challenge (ADC), which will give middle and high school student teams the opportunity to demonstrate the practice of computer coding and applications development. The app that NASA will ask students to develop will visualize three minutes of simulated test data in support of the upcoming Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2) flight test, regarding the Launch Abort System.

A full-stress test of the Orion space capsule's Launch Abort System (called Ascent Abort-2) is scheduled for June. For Orion to be a safe spacecraft for humans, it is critical to demonstrate that the LAS can separate the capsule from a failing rocket in the event of an emergency.

Round 1 of the challenge will give participants the opportunity to confer with NASA scientists, who will provide tips on the app development. The student teams would then post videos of their app designs on the World-Wide-Web for consideration for future missions by NASA. Video submissions for Round 1 are due 2019 May 1.

Student teams with favorable video submissions will advance to Round 2 of the competition. These student teams will have the opportunity to present their app during an interview with NASA engineers working on the Ascent Abort-2 flight test. At the conclusion of Round 2, NASA will select a student team or teams, who will receive an all-expenses paid trip to a NASA field center in the early Summer of this year.

Internet Links to Additional Information ---

NASA Student App Development Challenge for Ascent Abort-2 Test Flight:
Link >>> https://www.nasa.gov/education/nextgenstem/moon_to_mars/app_challenge.html

NASA Orion Spacecraft -
Link 1 >>> https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/index.html
Link 2 >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(spacecraft)

Source: Glenn A. Walsh Reporting for SpaceWatchtower, a project of Friends of the Zeiss.
              Wednesday, 2019 March 13.

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gaw

Glenn A. Walsh - Informal Science Educator & Communicator:
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Formerly Astronomical Observatory Coordinator & Planetarium Lecturer, original Buhl Planetarium & Institute of Popular Science (a.k.a. Buhl Science Center), Pittsburgh's science & technology museum from 1939 to 1991.
Formerly Trustee of the Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall, Pittsburgh suburb of Carnegie, Pennsylvania.
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