Before becoming an astronaut Robert Curbeam was a naval aviator. Learn about his path here.
Learn how Training Officer Travis Fitzgerald went from lifeguard to engineering in a really big pool at Johnson Space Center's Neutral Buoyancy Lab.
Christine Darden is a mathematician featured in the book Hidden Figures. Learn about her journey in this My Path video.
Hear about the path Julie took to get to NASA and what advice she has for students trying to figure out what profession they should pursue.
"I learned more about being an astronaut in grade school than anything I did later on." -NASA Astronaut David Wolf
Astronaut John Grunsfeld shares advice on chasing your dreams and working hard to make them come true.
Astronaut Scott Tingle shares how a little help goes a long way when overcoming obstacles and failure to achieve success.
Danielle Richey says "Everybody experiences failure but it's how you deal with it that really makes a difference." Hear Richey talk about her career, which includes working on the Orion spacecraft.
From paper route to award winning author! Learn about Margot Lee Shetterly's path to publishing Hidden Figures.
Barratt says you don't have to be a genius to be an astronaut, but you do need a sense of determination.
Hear astronaut Michael Good explain the significance of the Hubble Space Telescope as well as his role in its service mission.
Apollo 11 Astronaut reflects on his career path from pilot to astronaut, to director of the National Air and Space Museum, and how important the museum is to the legacy of Apollo.
JAXA Astronaut Soichi Noguchi was the first person to make sushi in space. Hear about this and what it is like to be a member of an international crew orbiting 250 miles above the earth.
Solar Physicist Dr. Kelly Korreck provides an in depth look of her exploration of the Sun and its effects on space weather.
Jared Leidich talks about what big, important projects take -- teamwork, communication and failure.
In NOVA’s Exoplanet Lab, students will play the role of Moon-based “NOVAnauts” who are on a series of missions as part of a “Galactic Resettlement Team” to rehome several displaced alien life-forms and master the same techniques scientists use to find and characterize exoplanets. Students will first engage in training modules to learn about the transit and radial velocity methods for exoplanet detection. Then they will model using simulated transit and radial velocity data to identify potential exoplanets and determine various planet properties including volume, orbital period, and mass. They will also model using transit spectroscopy to determine the composition of an exoplanet’s atmosphere. Finally, by piecing together all the evidence they have gathered, students will predict how hospitable an exoplanet might be for various aliens looking for a new home planet by matching the characteristics needed by the alien species with the conditions on the exoplanet.
This lesson describes the function and components of the human nervous system. It helps students understand the purpose of our brain, spinal cord, nerves and the five senses. How the nervous system is affected during spaceflight is also discussed in this lesson.
Normally we find things using landmark navigation. When you move to a new place, it may take you awhile to explore the new streets and buildings, but eventually you recognize enough landmarks and remember where they are in relation to each other. However, another accurate method for locating places and things is using grids and coordinates. In this activity, students will come up with their own system of a grid and coordinates for their classroom and understand why it is important to have one common method of map-making.
Students create and use their own simple compasses, which are each made from a bowl of water, strong magnet, stick pin and Styrofoam peanuts. They learn how compasses work and about cardinal directions. They come to understand that the Earth's magnetic field has both horizontal and vertical components.
Students learn how engineers navigate satellites in orbit around the Earth and on their way to other planets in the solar system. In accompanying activities, they explore how ground-based tracking and onboard measurements are performed. Also provided is an overview of orbits and spacecraft trajectories from Earth to other planets, and how spacecraft are tracked from the ground using the Deep Space Network (DSN). DSN measurements are the primary means for navigating unmanned vehicles in space. Onboard spacecraft instruments might include optical sensors and an inertial measurement unit (IMU).