The National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program in partnership with NASA’s Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program announces the opportunity for students attending colleges and universities affiliated with Space Grant consortia to conduct research in a unique reduced gravity environment.
The “Grant Us Space” opportunity will enable selected student teams the opportunity to propose, design and fabricate a reduced gravity experiment and subsequently test and evaluate their experiment aboard a microgravity aircraft, which flies about 30 roller-coaster-like climbs and dips to produce periods of micro and hyper gravity, ranging from 0 g’s to 2 g’s.
Students interested in testing an experiment in this unique environment need to submit their proposals by *_February 2, 2011_*.
Interested students should also submit a letter of intent by _January 12, 2011_. This step is optional, but serves as an introductory notice that a team plans to submit a proposal for the upcoming competition.
NASA will announce the selected teams _March 16, 2011_ to fly in _July
2011_. Once selected, teams may also invite a full-time, accredited
journalist to fly with them and document the team’s experiment and
experience. All applicants must be currently enrolled students, at
least 18-years-old and be U.S. citizens. Flyers that have participated
in the past NASA RG program will not be eligible to participate as a
flyer or alternate for this program.
A total of 14 flight teams will be selected. Selections will be made according to the following regional allocations:
_Number of teams per Space Grant Region_
· Western Region: 5
· Southeast Region: 3
· Great Mid-Western Region: 2
· Mid-Atlantic Region: 2
· Northeast Region: 2
This opportunity is a flight week exclusively for students attending colleges and universities of Space Grant consortia. This opportunity provides the usual flight week benefits of NASA’s Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program (
http://microgravityuniversity.jsc.nasa.gov/); however, only Space Grant-associated student teams may be selected. Student teams will still need to secure funding for their experiment, travel and per diem, and other expenses outlined in the attached FAQ, Question #8.
Consortia are strongly encouraged to seek participation by minority-serving institutions, community colleges, and institutions that have not previously flown. In order to expand the number of students participating in student-led flight activities, no student flyers that have participated in the past NASA Reduced Gravity program will be eligible to participate as a flyer or alternate for this program.
With this program, NASA continues its tradition of investing in the nation’s education programs. It is directly tied the Agency's major education goal of strengthening NASA and the nation's future workforce.
For more information about the Reduced Gravity Education Flight
Program and instructions on submitting a proposal, see the attached
documents.
If you have any questions, Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program
personnel can be contacted at, jsc-reducedgravity@nasa.gov.
*Open Proposal Process: *November 17, 2010*
Letters of Intent (Optional) Due:* January 12, 2011
*Proposals Due:* February 2, 2011
*Announcement of Selected Teams:* March 16, 2011
*Test Equipment Data Package Due: *May 25, 2011
*Flight Week at NASA JSC: *July 7-16, 2011
*Final Reports Due: *September 7, 2011
