On Thursday, 11 June, NASA will hold virtual student presentations for the results of their new spacesuit technology challenge.
As part of NASA’s Artemis Student Challenges, NASA Spacesuit User Interface Technology for Students (NASA SUITS) invites teams of students to design and create spacesuit technology with information displays. The NASA challenge offers students an authentic engineering design experience using augmented reality. NASA SUITS is part of a series of NASA challenges aimed to involve early career innovators in the space and technology sectors.
The main goal of NASA SUITS is to engage participants in the technologies that are crucial to NASA’s Artemis programme. NASA hopes that students’ work with the challenge will improve how astronauts communicate with mission control on the ground as they perform moonwalks.
Requirements of NASA SUITS
Team members looking to participate in NASA SUITS must be a full-time student or faculty at an accredited US institution of higher learning, such as military academies, technical colleges, community colleges, and universities. Further requirements include:
- Participants must be 16 or older
- All team members must be US citizens or Legal Permanent Residents
- All participants must attend the Orientation and Virtual Design Review
- Primary team members may only participate with one team in the same competition
- Student experiments must be organised, designed, and operated by student team members without help from non-students
- Interns involved in the design of a SUITS challenge may not participate as a member of a team in that same cycle of the SUITS challenge
- Support team members may be comprised of university students of any level
- Any support team member under the age of 18 accompanying the team to Houston must provide a signed JSC parental consent form
Attendees of the NASA SUITS challenge
After contributing to three information sessions, all teams presented their proposals ready for the 2020 NASA SUITS Onsite Test Week, 20-24 April. Student teams participating in the 2020 challenge presentations include:
- Boise State University, Idaho
- Chapman University, California
- Columbia University, New York City
- Duquesne University, Pittsburgh
- Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida
- Harvard University, Massachusetts
- Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
- Kent State University, Ohio
- Norco College, California
- North Carolina State University, North Carolina
- Riverside City College, California
- Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, New Mexico
- Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey
- Texas A&M University, Texas
- University of Akron, Ohio
- University of Baltimore, Baltimore
- University of Central Florida, Florida
- University of Colorado, Boulder
- University of Massachusetts, Boston
- University of Michigan, Michigan
- University of North Texas, Texas
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia
