March 20, 2012

Joshua Buck Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100 jbuck@nasa gov

Brandi Dean Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 brandi k dean@nasa gov

RELEASE: 12-087

NASA CALLS FOR STUDENT-DESIGNED DEEP SPACE HABITAT PROPOSALS

HOUSTON -- NASA is offering college and university students a chance to help design a deep space habitat The Exploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge is accepting applications for the 2013 challenge, inviting students to design, manufacture, assemble and test systems for use on NASA's deep space habitat prototype

Past projects have included an inflatable loft for crew sleeping quarters, plant growth systems and sample handling tools This year, students in multiple disciplines can choose projects from a variety of possibilities, including photovoltaic solar arrays, a workstation to support human-robotic collaboration or a telepresence and holodeck conceptual system Students will work together on potential solutions to needs future astronauts might have living and working outside Earth

"Students will play a vital role in our critical early system planning and development," said Alvin Drew, a NASA astronaut and habitat systems project manager at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston "Their designs could become the basis for the concepts and technologies that will make up the habitat we eventually send to space "

The X-Hab Challenge is part of a continuing effort to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, and provide a real-world challenge exposing them to engineering and design processes NASA will directly benefit from the development of innovative habitation-related concepts and technologies that could be applied to future missions

The challenge is run by the National Space Grant Foundation for the deep space habitat project team at Johnson, which is part of NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems Program The goal of for the X-Hab Challenge is to help NASA inspire the STEM workforce of the future and the next generation of explorers Winners will receive between $10,000 and $49,000 to produce functional products based on their designs Proposals are due May 2, 2012, and awardees should expect to deliver their product to Johnson in May or June 2013

To learn more about the X-Hab Challenge, visit:

http://go nasa gov/x-hab

To see the solicitation, project list and challenge timeline, visit:

http://spacegrant org/xhab

-end-

To subscribe to the list, send a message to: hqnews-subscribe@mediaservices nasa gov To remove your address from the list, send a message to: hqnews-unsubscribe@mediaservices nasa gov

The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription:

You are subscribed to the following list: [list_name]

using the following email: example@example.com

You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL:

https://aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/u/NASA_REPORTS/example/example com/

If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism

You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen:

<[program_url]/list/[list]>

If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at:

<mailto:[list_owner_email]>

The following physical address is associated with this mailing list:

[physical_address]