NASA Co-Op Week 12: Makers & 3D Printers

Supposed 125mi high water plumes on Europa spotted by NASA Hubble Telescope's infrared images! https://youtu.be/4QJS9LcB66g

Cargo Launch & Boogers

Count the number of times I pick my nose (because you all did last time and reported less than 5 times) when I sit console with RIO (Remote Interface Officer formally known as Russian Interface Officer) tomorrow Dec 3rd 7am- afternoonish. It is the console with all the flags on it. NASA TV will probably not stream Mission Control the whole day but cuts to it every once and awhile. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/ Also occurring is the United Launch Alliance/ Orbital cargo ship launch to Space Station 4:55pmCT. There are things on this launch I care about so I'll be intently watching. http://www.ulalaunch.com/

Robots Storm the Castle

After a year of watching robots playing forklift simulator in the FIRST Robotics 2015 game Recycle Rush FIRST has raised the bar with their new game Stronghold. Alliances will work to take over the opposing team’s castle with Medieval flair. Robots must break through opposing alliance’s defenses, launch boulders to weaken the castle, and climb its walls to claim it as there own. A unique aspect of this game is the modularity of the defenses. Outer barriers that the robots will be navigating through can be swapped between matches with the choice of a portcullis (gateway to be lifted up), Cheval de Frise (teeter totter), moat, rampart (opposing steel ramps), drawbridge, Sally Port, rock wall, rough terrain, low bar and platforms. Five of these defenses assigned with obscure french names will be picked before each match. For the first time in FIRST Robotics history there will be audience participation enabling spectators to choose one of the defenses. There are 10,000 different field combinations!

Creativity of Stronghold was manifested from FIRST’s new partnership with Disney Imagineers. They collaborated to carry the season’s Medieval theme through the game’s decorative field pieces and motivating the teams to create a standard, a sort of battle flag. Ample Monty Python and the Holy Grail references were scattered though out the Kick Off broadcast from FIRST Headquarters. I am suspicious that the Stronghold theme was solely conceived for that reason. The trailer like game hint was created to capture interest of folks outside of the FIRST world instead of “in joke” game hints like this. It seems FIRST will continue to release game hints with this a mobile game aesthetic style in future years revealing the years’ theme.

Already most teams have brainstormed a design and a strategy. A group called Ri3D (Robot in Three Days) has already built a fully functional robot. This robot can complete in every aspect of the game proving from my perspective to be worthy of a regional competition win. The idea of building a competitive robot in three days must give rookies teams hope.  Check out Ri3D’s final product: https://youtu.be/Kd1FaSNoDiM

This season my hands are off the robot and on the computer as a project mentor helping students write newspaper articles covering the build season and competition. Check out earlier publications by our group BlueDevil Press and online here.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

If you are a strategy engineering feel you may enjoy reading the Stronghold game manual:

https://firstfrc.blob.core.windows.net/frc2016manuals/GameManual/2016GameManual-Full-20160112.pdf

Mentor a team or volunteer at a regional event: http://www.firstinspires.org/ways-to-help/volunteer

Find a local robotics team to donate to. Often local teams will have their own website with instructions on how to donate/ where to send a check to: http://www.firstinspires.org/find-local-support

Check out my old robotics team the Duluth East Daredevils: http://www.daredevils2512.org/

Saturn V - the rocket built to fly is now a grounded beast. #techisbeautiful #NASAIntern #jsc

Watch an SLS Booster test live today 6/28/2016 at 10:05amCT. This booster will slingshot an unmanned Orion Space Craft around the Moon in 2018:

A journal book I covered in little black star drawings

One Robot Six Weeks

Fueled by pizza and Mountain Dew over 78,000 high school students will be participating in FIRST Robotics teams to build a 120lb competitive robot in just six weeks. This Saturday January 9th 9amCT FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition for Science and Technology) will reveal a new game the robots will compete in. You can watch this season's Kick Off live stream HERE.

Basketball, soccer and frisbee playing robots have been built in the past. A video showcasing a new theme "FIRST Stronghold" gives hints to a Mideavel inspired games. Watch FIRST Stronghold here. Hidden in the video is a layout of a competition field convincingly drawn with symmetrical sides. Bloggers from Chief Delphi, a popular robotics discussion board, took screenshots of the blueprint and even corrected its perspective. Chief Delphi members are convinced the video allures to a capture the flag, jousting or player VS field game. Echoes of Nickelodeon Guts and Legends of the Hidden Temple 90s game shows resonate with me as I imagine robotics quickly scaling Aggro Crag and manipulating artifacts. Sprinkled the throughout the forum are hopes for water game with submerged obstacles - a long running hope and joke of robotics students. Friday January 8th 6pmCT a broadcast from a FIRST Founders evening (WATCH HERE) will be diving into the details of the FIRST Stronghold theme.

Game challenge aside I am concerned about how high school students and the general audience will view the Stronghold theme. Stronghold may create a stigma with its LARPing (Live Action Roll Play) undertones alienating students from STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) rather than inviting them in. As the 2016 FIRST Robotics season plays out we will see how Stronghold is welcomed.

With or without fancy capes and flags what these high school students are accomplishing is exrtraodinary. Designing, building, wiring, marketing, and programming these robots take industry level skills that would knock any future employer's socks off. Get behind these FIRST Robotics teams by donating or mentoring to get behind future STEM leaders.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

Find a local team to help: http://www.firstinspires.org/team-event-search

Mentor a team: http://www.firstinspires.org/sites/default/files/uploads/volunteer/first-mentorcoachflyers-ftc-frc.pdf

Watch the Kick Off 1/9/16 9amCT: http://corporate.comcast.com/news-information/news-feed/2016-first-robotics-competition-kickoff

Watch Stronghold clues 1/8/16 6pmCT: http://streamingmeeting.com/webcast/2016_first_founders/

Check out my past robotics team: http://www.daredevils2512.org/

Current Mission Control

Directs football field sized International Space Station which orbits every 90min

SPACE WALK 7:10am CT tomorrow October 28 on NASA TV UStream: https://t.co/VMWu4QWWf7 Astronaut Kjell & Scott Kelly will be floating outside the International Space Station (ISS) doing stuff. Probably fixing things because poor ISS is almost 15 years old. If you think about how old a dog is when it's 15 that's basically like ISS. Photo by NASA

NASA Co-Op Week 16: Barf Lab & Mockups

Twenty five weeks at NASA Johnson I finally got a proper tour, lead by a tour guide, of the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility that houses exact replicas (build with same blueprint) of International Space Station modules, Shuttle, and Soyuz. Astronauts train in these mockups. A "low definition" mockup of Orion was present too.

Neurosciences Laboratory took us on a tour of their various astronaut barf machines. It is really like the rumors of spinning chairs, dizzying treadmills, and dark enclosed sliding contraptions. The spinning is to isolate parts of your brain that are used for balance. Only one day after Space Station astronauts return to Earth in Russia they are flown over to Johnson Space Center and put through a series of gravity adaptation tests. They had to pick up weighted objects, navigate around obstacles, jump of a short platform, and exit a hatch like structure. These tests will help NASA determine if astronauts would be capable of completing Mars surface operations after a long low gravity flight to the Red Planet. I wouldn't be surprised if returning astronauts Kjell, Oleg and Kimiya are on their way to the barf lab right now!

Most of the NASA Johnson Co-Ops and Interns complete their Fall semester this week. It is absolutely heart breaking to get to know so many space passionate people only to have to say goodbye at the end of the semester. I wish I could see all of these stellar students participate in NASA's future as they have already contributed to the growth of space exploration. It was an honor to work among these bright minds.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED

Accomplishments this week at NASA: https://youtu.be/4tw5uwHD0PEApply for a NASA Internship NOW (high school to grad school):https://intern.nasa.gov/ossi/web/public/main/Apply for a NASA Co-Op (Pathways Internship):http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/opportunities.htmLearn to code: https://hourofcode.com/usMeteor Shower live chat December 13th: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/news/releases/2015/M15-180.htmlCurrent NASA opportunities for students: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/current-opps-index.htmlCode more: https://www.madewithcode.com/