NASA Holds Balloonsat Contest For High School Students

NASA has announced a really cool contest for high school students that allows teams to send in proposals for experiments that they would like to run at high altitudes. The contest is the second annual Balloonsat High-Altitude Flight Competition and is open to students in 9-12 from the US and its territories. The team can have four or more students and they have to submit proposals for experiments to the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland by February 11.

The teams can propose experiments in a variety of subjects from bacterial studied to weather observation. A panel of engineers and scientists at NASA will evaluate the missions based on objectives, technical planning, and team organization. The top eight experiment proposals will be announced on March 4.

Four teams from the top eight will be chosen and given $1000 to actually create their experiment and travel to the Glenn Research Center May 18-20 to launch their experiments on go on tours. The other four teams will get $1000 each as well and come the week of the May 23 to launch their experiments. Sounds like a cool high school trip to me.