Recommended Links

Want to track the International Space Station and see when it will pass over your location? Click the link below to enter information about your location and see when you can watch the space station with your own eyes.

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/

This year’s competition challenges students to write an essay about how to help the crew of Space Peace Mission 1 (SPM-1) whose Lunar Module Altair was damaged during landing and stranded the 4 astronauts onboard! This essay and any supporting information are due by February 19, 2010. You can form up in teams of two or work alone, but all teams require an Adult Sponsor. 
Below is the description for the essay but please review the Rules Section for the full details on the competition and how to enter and the Schedule Section for the deadlines.  If you have any questions, please Contact the What If Management Team.

Click on our interactive spacesuit and find out what goes into making this unique individual living environment. It's fun and you can see how complex the process is when we try to live outside our normal environment.

Mission 2010 is Part of the Indiana Space & Science Foundation's effort to help accelerate Indiana's students in Engineering, Math and Science as part of the STEM program. By clicking this link, you can read about Mission 2010 and how it applies to advanced learning in these disciplines. It is the Foundation's goal to work with the Department of Education, Indiana Space Grant Consortium, and the school districts to offer programming, speakers, deonstrations and inquiry-based learning to make Indiana students the most competitive and brightest in the nation. 

Space Port Indiana and the Indianapolis Challenger Center have teamed to create more opportunities for students. A mission Control and Space Station Mission will be part of the Space Port Camp 2009™ line up. Space Port Indiana's mission is to engage students in space, science, engineering and math activities that can be exciting and motivating. The Indianapolis Challenger Center shares those same goals and we are happy that the Indianapolis Challenger Center has become a new educational partner with Space Port Indiana ™.

This simple calculator determines the angles, lengths, and arcs of frustums used in transitions and boattails. (For those of you who slept through Geometry class, a frustum is a cone with the pointy end nipped off...) The calculator can also be used to reckon exact measurements of conical nose cones -- so grab a compass and a protractor and knock yourself out.

There are several different versions of RocketModeler II which require different levels of experience with the package, knowledge of aerodynamics, and computer technology. This web page contains the on-line student version of the program. It includes an on-line user's manual which describes the various options available in the program and includes hyperlinks to pages describing the math and science of rockets. 

This is an interactive program in which you can investigate changes in the atmosphere and its effects on aerodynamic variables. It uses mathematical models of the standard atmosphere of the Earth and Mars. You can find the equations for the standard Earth atmosphere at this web site in both English units and metric units. Similar information is available on the Martian atmosphere. Based on your input velocity, the program also calculates the Mach number, dynamic pressure, and stagnation, or total, temperature on your rocket. The stagnation temperature is the temperature of the airflow at a stagnation point, such as the leading edge of the nose cone.

The animated Gas Lab is a series of computer animations which demonstrate all the possible combinations of the ideal gas law or equation of state. Gases have properties which we can observe with our senses, including the gas pressure, temperature, mass and the volume which contains the gas. Click on the Gas Lab and see what you learn about gases!