October 2024 Newsletter – Challenge Registration Open Now 🗓

• Artemis ROADS II Final National Student Challenge Impact & Reach
• Travel Log: Aug 12 – 16, 2024 Kennedy Space Center Trip
• ROADS Educator Registration is now open!
• About the Artemis ROADS III National Student Challenge
• Washington Aerospace Scholars – Earn college credit!
• Liftoff! NASA’s Europa Clipper Salis Toward Ocean Moon of Jupiter

Important Dates

Friday, Nov 15, 2024 last day to request Companion Course classroom supplies.

Educators must have completed a NESSP PD workshop within the last 3 years to request a 2-month Companion Course classroom supply loan.

Artemis ROADS III Virtual Info Sessions

• Tuesday, Oct 29 @ 5:30 Pacific
• Tuesday, Nov 19 @ 5:30 Pacific
• Tuesday, Dec 10 @ 5:30 Pacific

Zoom link: https://cwu.zoom.us/j/87669037940?pwd=y2INShegaEm2CHGn0TbxVdVzbgo9gR.1

The Artemis ROADS III Virtual Info Session will cover:

• ROADS Educator registration process
• Companion Course classroom equipment loans
• National Student Challenge
• Summer Mini-Missions

These interactive sessions are your chance to learn about Artemis ROADS III. We welcome your questions!

Saturday, January 25, 2025 close date for Artemis ROADS III Educator Registration.

Artemis ROADS II Final National Student Challenge Impact & Reach

From January through early June, the teams were challenged to complete eight Mission Objectives, inspired by NASA’s Artemis Missions, whose goal is to send humans back to the moon. During the first six months of the year, participating students designed and launched high-flying water bottle rockets, tested moon cement, designed lunar habitats, conducted experiments to investigate the challenges of growing plants on the moon, envisioned what Earth looks like from the moon, and designed an autonomous lunar supply delivery rover. Many of the teams showcased their work at one of NESSP’s seven in-person hub events in Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Carolina, and Texas.

Results from all the teams that qualified for the Kennedy Space Center trip can be seen on NESSP’s YouTube channel.

Travel Log: Aug 12 – 16, 2024 Kennedy Space Center Trip

Thirteen teams joined NESSP staff in Florida for a week filled with exclusive, behind-the-scenes tours of NASA’s launch complex, several days in the visitor center, relaxation at the beach, and a rocket launch.

Astrovan/High School Teams	Crawler/Middle School Teams
AstroCoqui (Boqueron, Puerto Rico) Olympus (Othello, Washington) Caelestis Venatores (Billings, Montana) Ursa Minor (Lacey, Washington) Ad Astra (Shelbyville, Kentucky) Apples Peaches Watermelons (Brewerton, New York)	MarsNStars (Hardin, Montana) The Snoopys and Solar Stars (Whittier, North Carolina) Shining Stars (Preston, Idaho) Red Wranglers Rocket (Rosebud, Montana) Lunar Leapers (Northport, Michigan) Starry Sequim Serpents (Sequim, Washington) Goofy Hedgehogs (Mesa, Arizona)

ROADS Educator Registration Is Now Open!

ROADS Educator Registration is now open! Are you looking to lead an Artemis ROADS III Challenge Team or apply for a 2-month Companion Course Supply Loan? Follow the steps below to become a ROADS Educator:

• Go to nwessp.org/roads-educator-registration

Educators who want to be the Mission Advisors for a Artemis ROADS III Challenge team or request a Companion Course classroom supply loan must register as an ROADS Educator on our website. Once registered, you can sign up Challenge teams or request supplies on your ROADS Educator account page.

• No prior experience required. Supplies available for qualified Educators.

	Participating in the National Student Challenge	NOT Participating in the National Student Challenge
Access to NGSS-aligned detailed lesson plans in the Companion Course	Yes	Yes
Access to material LOANS	Yes*	Yes**
Access to Professional Development (Aug- Nov 2024)	Yes	Yes
Access to attend virtual speaker events	Yes	Yes
Submission Deadlines	Yes	No
Option to Attend a live NESSP Hub event	Yes	No
Opportunities to earn recognition and incentives	Yes	No

About the Artemis ROADS III National Student Challenge

The Artemis ROADS III Challenge consists of 8 Mission Objectives (MOs) that groups of 3 to 6 students complete under the guidance of an adult Mission Advisor. While MOs and additional resources are available online, teams must officially sign-up to receive a supply loan, support from NESSP, completion certificates, and recognition. Teams are not required to complete all MOs to be recognized, but there are additional incentives for those who do.

Summaries of the Artemis ROADS III Mission Objectives
MO-1 Documenting Your MissionWhen NASA has a lot of people working on a complex project over a long period of time, how do they keep it all organized and honor everyone’s efforts? Documentation! All team members will learn about the Artemis ROADS III Mission Objectives (MOs) and identify their individual funds of knowledge that will help them complete these objectives. Throughout the Challenge, each student will document their work in a Science & Engineering Notebook (SEN). Then, students will work in teams to select the evidence (e.g. photos, diagrams, maps, typing, writing) required for each MO to create one Mission Development Log (MDL) for the team.	MO-5 ROV-ing Under the MoonHumans aren’t the only ones who will be working on the moon–robotic rovers will be there working alongside human crews. In this MO, teams will design a lunar lava tube explorer that can autonomously navigate a lunar tunnel and take measurements along the way.
MO-2 Building a Strong Project TeamA mission patch is an important symbol of any NASA mission, reflecting the team, the object of study, the spacecraft, the mission goals, or a combination! How will you represent your Artemis ROADS mission and crew with imagery	MO-6 Designing a Human-Rated RocketRocket science gets real when NASA crews are on board. In this MO, teams will design a rocket and a crew capsule that is safe and reliable enough to deliver their astronauts to the Moon and then safely return them home.
MO-3 Investigating Water on Earth and the MoonAll living things are possible because of Earth’s giant “life support system.”  For this MO, teams will focus on one aspect of Earth’s systems: water. They will create a place-based water cycle model and use the water cycle as inspiration to design and test prototype water purification systems for astronauts on the Moon.	MO-7 Envisioning Your RoleTeamwork makes the dream work, and this is especially true at NASA.  While astronauts get a lot of attention, it takes hundreds of other roles all working together to complete a successful NASA Mission.  In this MO, each team member will tell us about their dream role at NASA.
MO-4 Growing Food on the MoonFor short-term missions, NASA sends astronauts to space with all of the food that they will need.  As missions get longer, it will become more difficult and costly to send all of the food they will need.  In this MO, teams will consider the resources (inputs) that will be required for astronauts to create an agriculture plan and grow their own food (output) on the Moon.	MO8 Reflecting on and Presenting Your MissionWhat went great, and what could have been better?  Reflect on your work and summarize it in your MDL. While all teams will submit their final MDL electronically, there are two options for completing this MO.MO-8a: For Teams Attending an In Person ExpoIT’S GO TIME! Your team has modeled and tested its mission, and now it’s time to launch. Teams who attend an in-person Final Challenge Event will complete MO-5 and MO-6 on the Final Challenge Course and present a tri-fold board on another MO of their choice.MO-8b: For Teams NOT Attending an In Person ExpoTeams who cannot attend a Final Challenge Event will complete their final mission on their own printed or homemade courses and submit their MDL and short videos of MO-5 and MO-6.

Washington Aerospace Scholars – Earn college Credit!

Are you a High School Junior interested in a career in STEM or the Space Industry? Washington Aerospace Scholars (WAS) is an online distance learning course and summer experience specifically designed for high school juniors interested in pursuing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) pathways through the exploration of flight, aerospace design, and space travel.

The online curriculum is a University of Washington college course focused on air and space vehicle design and NASA’s space exploration program as well as topics in Earth and Space Science. If scholars successfully complete the online curriculum, they are invited to participate in multi-day summer experiences that provide them the opportunity to work with STEM professionals, NASA scientists, university students, and STEM educators. 

Graduatesof the WAS program gain access to $250,000 worth of exclusive scholarship opportunities and receive a free membership to The Museum of Flight.
For program details and to apply go to: https://www.museumofflight.org/education/explore-programs/was.

Liftoff! NASA’s Europa Clipper Sails Toward Ocean Moon of Jupiter

The massive spacecraft heads for Europa to search for signs of whether the ocean thought to exist beneath the moon’s icy shell could support life.

NASA’s Europa Clipper has embarked on its long voyage to Jupiter, where it will investigate Europa, a moon with an enormous subsurface ocean that may have conditions to support life. The spacecraft launched at 12:06 p.m. EDT Monday, October 14, 2024, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The largest spacecraft NASA ever built for a mission headed to another planet, Europa Clipper also is the first NASA mission dedicated to studying an ocean world beyond Earth. The spacecraft will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) on a trajectory that will leverage the power of gravity assists, first to Mars in four months and then back to Earth for another gravity assist flyby in 2026. After it begins orbiting Jupiter in April 2030, the spacecraft will fly past Europa 49 times.

Learn more about the Europa Clipper Mission at https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/press-kits/europa-clipper.