Bring space missions
to students
A U.S. Department of Education challenge to build technical skills for careers in space and beyond.
Meet the finalistsCongratulations to the five finalists
Over the course of just 10 months, students across the country brought ideas for CubeSat missions from concept to launch. Watch the video of CTE Mission: CubeSat Flight Week and celebrate the finalist teams’ hard work and accomplishments over the past academic year.
Anderson Clark Magnet High School
Studied whether local encampments are in high-risk wildfire areas, with the goal of helping the local fire department to save lives of people without housing.
Freeport High School
Measured Earth’s surface temperature to study the differences in heat absorption and retention between urban and rural areas.
Mooresville High School
Measured the effect of their town’s population growth on air quality, land use, and temperature.
Opelika High School
Collected performance data for a new type of core material used in NASA-grade fluxgate magnetometers, which are used to study Earth’s changing magnetic field.
Princeton High School
Optimized space missions by examining topics such as atmospheric pressure density and habitable planetary environments.
ABOUT THE CHALLENGE
A national challenge to build technical skills for careers in space and beyond
Space is a frontier for infinite exploration. As the boundaries of our missions in space continue to expand, so do the opportunities for today’s students to explore a wide range of related careers in space — or their own communities.
Through the challenge, the U.S. Department of Education invited high schools to bring space missions to students by designing and building CubeSat prototypes — in the classroom or at home. Designing and building a CubeSat prototype in this multiphase challenge offered students a firsthand opportunity to learn valuable technical skills — such as engineering, computer science, research, logistics, project management, and marketing — that can be applied to careers in aerospace and many other industries.
Five finalists were each awarded $5,000, as well as additional in-kind prizes donated by the following organizations:
- Arduino
- Blue Origin
- Chevron
- EnduroSat
- LEGO Education
- Magnitude.io
- MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative
- XinaBox