Outreach Efforts

The ASTRO Center, with financial support from CANVASS, provided resources to the Texas A&M student branch of AIAA in creating the inaugural Aerial International Racing of Unmanned Systems (AIRUS). The team has unofficially broken the longest distance remote flying record in the world, and is finalizing the setup for an official attempt later this Spring 2016.

The High-Altitude Balloon Club (HABC) aims to provide high quality research to undergraduate students while giving the opportunity to investigate the upper levels of the atmosphere. The purpose of this club is to understand the nature upper atmospheric flight and near-space environment by means of affordable and readily available transportation. The HABC was established as a result of many successful balloon launches made in previous years at Texas A&M University.

The Texas A&M NASA SUITS team is designing interactive augmented reality displays to be utilized by astronauts during space walks. They were one of 16 chosen to participate in the NASA Spacesuit User Interface Technologies for Students (SUITS) 2019 challenge and has until April to develop a system, and then present their prototypes to a group of testers at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The ASTRO Center and the Department of Aerospace Engineering are happy to offer the Zero Robotics Middle School Summer Program again in 2018 with additional funding and support from Spark! PK-12 Engineering Education Outreach and Texas Space Grant Consortium. Apply today!

During Summer 2017, ASTRO and PK-12 Engineering Education Outreach successfully led the Zero Robotics Middle School Summer Program in Texas, where over 120 middle school students from 10 teams from across the state participated. Teams and their family members joined us at the Zero Robotics Final Event at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Space Center Houston where special guest speakers Former Astronauts Michael Fossum and Greg Johnson brought to life the excitement of living and working in space. Additional support for the 2017 Summer came from the Texas Space Grant Consortium.

During Summer 2016, ASTRO and PK-12 Engineering Education Outreach led a successful Zero Robotics Middle School Summer Program in Texas, where 8 middle school teams from across the state and over 80 students participated. Teams and their family members joined us at the Zero Robotics Final Event at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Space Center Houston where special guest speaker Astronaut Michael Finke wowed us with his tales of life on the ISS. Additional support for the 2016 Summer came from the Texas Partnership for Out of School Time, along with funds from the Texas Space Grant Consortium and Flour Corporation.

During Summer 2015, ASTRO and PK-12 Engineering Education Outreach, along with the Texas Partnership for Out of School Time, worked with 7 middle school teams from across the state and over 70 students in the Zero Robotics Middle School Summer Program. Teams and their family members joined us at the Zero Robotics Final Event at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Space Center Houston with special guest speaker Andre Sylvester, Assistant Division Chief for the Robotics Division at Johnson Space Center.

For the summer of 2014, ASTRO, the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution, and PK-12 Engineering Education Outreach partnered with the Texas Partnership for Out of School Time to bring the Zero Robotics Middle School Summer Program to Texas for its inaugural year with 5 teams and over 60 students. We hosted our first ever Zero Robotics Final Event at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Space Center Houston with special guest speaker and former student, Astronaut Michael Fossum ’80.