WASHINGTON, March 15 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency says it's inviting graduate and undergraduate U.S. students to take part in its fourth annual Systems Engineering Paper Competition.
The deadline to register for the competition is April 16, with papers due April 23. The winning teams will be announced in May.
Awards will include up to $3,500 in cash scholarships and VIP invitations to attend a future space shuttle or rocket launch at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Each team must focus on an area NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate considers critical to the future of space exploration. Those areas are:
-- Spacecraft: Guidance, navigation and control; thermal; electrical; structures; software; avionics; displays; high speed re-entry; modeling; power systems; interoperability/commonality; advanced spacecraft materials; crew/vehicle monitoring; life-support.
-- Propulsion: Propulsion methods that will utilize materials found on the moon or Mars, "green" propellants, on-orbit propellant storage, motors, testing, fuels, manufactuing, soft landing, throttle-able propellants, high performance and descent.
-- Lunar and Planetary Surface Systems: Precision landing hardware, software in situ resource utilization, navigation systems, extended surface operations, robotics (specifically environmental scouting prior to human arrival, outpost maintenance with and without humans present, and assisting astronaut with geologic exploration) environmental analysis, radiation protection, spacesuits, life support and power systems.
-- Ground Operations: Pre-launch, launch, mission operations, command and control software systems, communications, landing and recovery.
More information is available at http://education.ksc.nasa.gov/esmdspacegrant/SystemsEngineering.htm.
