NASA Hits Big with Asteroid Defense
Posted on September 28th, 2022 by Mary Lord
Talk about “high impact” engineering! On September 26, NASA intentionally crashed a small spacecraft into an asteroid, providing the world’s first full-scale demonstration of planetary defense missions to deflect potential near-Earth hazards.
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Tags: CubeSat, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, kinetic impact, NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test, planetary defense, space exploration, spacecraft
Many kids dream of exploring space, but few get much further than their schoolyards. This is not true of students in Tekna-Theos, a Florida after-school program bursting with science activities and contests. They’ve set their sights high, designing and building mini-satellites and preparing a payload to test the effect of weightlessness on bone cells. Some have actually experienced “Zero-G.”
“Space Science Mentor,” an article from the March 2009 issue of Prism magazine, profiles a Kentucky professor who involves his undergraduates in satellite launches. Hands-on research is often seen as a good way to engage undergraduates in science and engineering. But at Morehead State University’s ambitious space science center, it’s no mere exercise. As the center joins in preparing suborbital vehicles and a satellite for launch, sophomores and even second-semester freshmen help design and build payloads and operate ground-to-space communications.
