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By NASA
On Tuesday, March 4, 2025, technicians at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland help lower student experiments in the 2.2 Second Drop Tower. Credit: NASA/Jef Janis Nineteen teams of students from across the nation in grades 8-12 worked for months in classrooms, labs, basements, and garages for the opportunity to test their projects at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. This spring, the teams’ hard work was put to the test in the 2.2 Second Drop Tower facility at NASA Glenn.
The “2025 Drop Tower Challenge: Paddle Wheel” invited teams to design and build paddle wheels that rotate in water during free fall. The wheels could not rotate by mechanical means. A better understanding of fluid behavior in microgravity could improve spacecraft systems for cooling, life support, and propellants.
On Thursday, May 6, 2025, NASA Glenn Research Center technicians — left to right, John Doehne, Jason West, and Moses Brown — prepare the 2.2. Second Drop Tower for testing student experiments during the 2025 Drop Tower Challenge. Credit: NASA/Jef Janis Based on test performance, analyses, reports, the students’ approach to the challenge, and more, the following teams have been identified as the winners:
First Place: Arth Murarka, Umar Khan, Ishaan Joshi, Alden Al-Mehdi, Rohnin Qureshi, and Omy Gokul (advised by David Dutton), Bellarmine College Preparatory, San Jose, California Second Place: Emma Lai, Keaton Dean, and Oliver Lai (advised by Stephen Lai), Houston, Texas Third Place: Chloe Benner, Ananya Bhatt, and Surabhi Gupta (advised by SueEllen Thomas), Pennridge High School, Perkasie, Pennsylvania “We’re impressed with the variety of designs students submitted for testing in Glenn’s drop tower,” said Nancy Hall, co-lead for the 2025 Drop Tower Challenge. “The teams showed significant creativity and background research through their paddle wheel designs and analysis of results.”
Students from Bellarmine College Preparatory shared how they navigated through the process to earn first place. Using NASA guidelines and resources available to assist students with the challenge, the team submitted a research proposal, including two 3D designs. Learning their team was selected, they reviewed feedback from the NASA staff and set to work.
NASA Glenn Research Center’s 2025 Drop Tower Challenge first place winners, left to right, Ishaan Joshi, Umar Khan, Rohnin Qureshi, Omy Gokul, and Arth Murarka of Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, California, prepare their experiment for testing in NASA Glenn’s 2.2 Second Drop Tower on Friday, May 30, 2025. Credit: Courtesy of Bellarmine College Preparatory To start, students stressed that they conducted a large amount of research and testing of materials to use in their paddle wheels before deciding on the final design.
“I learned that something doesn’t need to be super expensive or complex to work,” said student Umar Khan. “We found that white board sheets or packing peanuts — just household items — can be effective [in the design].”
Student Arth Murarka added, “Our original design looks a lot different from the final.”
Bellarmine staff member and team advisor David Dutton helped the students get organized in the beginning of the process, but said they worked independently through much of the project.
Nancy Hall, left, co-lead of NASA Glenn Research Center’s 2025 Drop Tower Challenge, and intern Jennifer Ferguson prepare student experiments for testing in the 2.2 Second Drop Tower on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. Credit: NASA/Jef Janis Once the design was finalized, the team shipped their hardware to NASA Glenn. NASA technicians then tested how the paddle wheels performed in the drop tower, which is used for microgravity experiments.
Students said they studied concepts including capillary physics and fluid dynamics. They also learned how to write a research paper, which they said they will appreciate in the future.
The team dedicated a lot of time to the project, meeting daily and on weekends.
“We learned a lot of useful skills and had a lot of fun,” Murarka said. “It was definitely worth it.”
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By NASA
2 Min Read NASA Announces Winners of 2025 Human Lander Challenge
NASA’s Human Lander Challenge marked its second year on June 26, awarding $18,000 in prize money to three university teams for their solutions for long-duration cryogenic, or super chilled, liquid storage and transfer systems for spaceflight.
Building on the crewed Artemis II flight test, NASA’s Artemis III mission will send astronauts to explore the lunar South Pole region with a human landing system and advanced spacesuits, preparing humanity to ultimately go to Mars. In-space propulsion systems that use cryogenic liquids as propellants must stay extremely cold to remain in a liquid state and are critical to mission success. The Artemis mission architecture will need these systems to function for several weeks or even months.
Students and advisors with the 12 finalist teams for the 2025 Human Lander Challenge competed in Huntsville, Alabama, near the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center between June 24-26. NASA/Charles Beason NASA announced Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott as the overall winner and recipient of the $10,000 top prize award. Old Dominion University won second place and a $5,000 award, followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology in third place and a $3,000 award.
Before the winners were announced, 12 finalist teams selected in April gave their presentations to a panel of NASA and industry judges as part of the final competition in Huntsville. As part of the 2025 Human Lander Challenge, university teams developed systems-level solutions that could be used within the next 3-5 years for Artemis.
NASA selected Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott as the overall winner of NASA’s 2025 Human Lander Challenge Forum June 26. Lisa Watson-Morgan, manager of NASA’s Human Landing System Program, presented the awards at the ceremony. NASA/Charles Beason “Today’s Golden Age of Innovation and Exploration students are tomorrow’s mission designers, systems engineers, and explorers,” said Juan Valenzuela, main propulsion systems and cryogenic fluid management subsystems lead for NASA’s Human Landing System Program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “The Human Lander Challenge concepts at this year’s forum demonstrate the ingenuity, passion, and determination NASA and industry need to help solve long-duration cryogenic storage challenges to advance human exploration to deep space.”
The challenge is sponsored by the agency’s Human Landing System Program within the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate and managed by the National Institute of Aerospace.
Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars – for the benefit of all.
For more information about Artemis missions, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/artemis
News Media Contact
Corinne Beckinger
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256.544.0034
corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Jun 27, 2025 EditorLee MohonContactCorinne M. Beckingercorinne.m.beckinger@nasa.govLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
By Beth Ridgeway
NASA’s Student Launch competition celebrated its 25th anniversary on May 4, just north of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, bringing together more than 980 middle school, high school, college, and university students from across the U.S. to showcase and launch their high-powered rocketry designs.
The event marked the conclusion of the nine-month challenge where teams designed, built, and launched more than 50 rockets carrying scientific payloads—trying to achieve altitudes between 4,000 and 6,000 feet before executing a successful landing and payload mission.
“This is really about mirroring the NASA engineering design process,” Kevin McGhaw, director of NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement Southeast Region, said. “It gives students hands-on experience not only in building and designing hardware, but in the review and testing process. We are helping to prepare and inspire students to get out of classroom and into the aerospace industry as a capable and energizing part of our future workforce.”
NASA announced James Madison University as the overall winner of the agency’s 2025 Student Launch challenge, followed by North Carolina State University, and The University of Alabama in Huntsville. A complete list of challenge winners can be found on the agency’s Student Launch webpage.
Participants from James Madison University – the overall winner of the 2025 NASA Student Launch competition – stand around their team’s high-powered rocket as it sits on the pad before launching on May 4 event. NASA/Krisdon Manecke Each year, a payload challenge is issued to the university teams, and this year’s task took inspiration from the agency’s Artemis missions, where NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefit, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars. Teams were challenged to include sensor data from STEMnauts, non-living objects representing astronauts. The STEMnaut “crew” had to relay real-time data to the student team’s mission control, just as the Artemis astronaut crew will do as they explore the lunar surface.
Student Launch is one of NASA’s seven Artemis Student Challenges – activities that connect student ingenuity with NASA’s work returning to the Moon under Artemis in preparation for human exploration of Mars.
The competition is managed by Marshall’s Office of STEM Engagement. Additional funding and support are provided by the Office of STEM Engagement’s Next Generation STEM project, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the agency’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, Northrup Grumman, National Space Club Huntsville, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Association of Rocketry, Relativity Space, and Bastion Technologies Inc.
To watch the full virtual awards ceremony, please visit NASA Marshall’s YouTube channel.
For more information about Student Launch, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/nasa-student-launch/
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Last Updated Jun 16, 2025 EditorBeth RidgewayLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
A lot can change in a year for Earth’s forests and vegetation, as springtime and rainy seasons can bring new growth, while cooling temperatures and dry weather can bring a dieback of those green colors. And now, a novel type of NASA visualization illustrates those changes in a full complement of colors as seen from space.
Researchers have now gathered a complete year of PACE data to tell a story about the health of land vegetation by detecting slight variations in leaf colors. Previous missions allowed scientists to observe broad changes in chlorophyll, the pigment that gives plants their green color and also allows them to perform photosynthesis. But PACE now allows scientists to see three different pigments in vegetation: chlorophyll, anthocyanins, and carotenoids. The combination of these three pigments helps scientists pinpoint even more information about plant health. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite is designed to view Earth’s microscopic ocean plants in a new lens, but researchers have proved its hyperspectral use over land, as well.
Previous missions measured broad changes in chlorophyll, the pigment that gives plants their green color and also allows them to perform photosynthesis. Now, for the first time, PACE measurements have allowed NASA scientists and visualizers to show a complete year of global vegetation data using three pigments: chlorophyll, anthocyanins, and carotenoids. That multicolor imagery tells a clearer story about the health of land vegetation by detecting the smallest of variations in leaf colors.
“Earth is amazing. It’s humbling, being able to see life pulsing in colors across the whole globe,” said Morgaine McKibben, PACE applications lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It’s like the overview effect that astronauts describe when they look down at Earth, except we are looking through our technology and data.”
Anthocyanins, carotenoids, and chlorophyll data light up North America, highlighting vegetation and its health.Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio Anthocyanins are the red pigments in leaves, while carotenoids are the yellow pigments – both of which we see when autumn changes the colors of trees. Plants use these pigments to protect themselves from fluctuations in the weather, adapting to the environment through chemical changes in their leaves. For example, leaves can turn more yellow when they have too much sunlight but not enough of the other necessities, like water and nutrients. If they didn’t adjust their color, it would damage the mechanisms they have to perform photosynthesis.
In the visualization, the data is highlighted in bright colors: magenta represents anthocyanins, green represents chlorophyll, and cyan represents carotenoids. The brighter the colors are, the more leaves there are in that area. The movement of these colors across the land areas show the seasonal changes over time.
In areas like the evergreen forests of the Pacific Northwest, plants undergo less seasonal change. The data highlights this, showing comparatively steadier colors as the year progresses.
The combination of these three pigments helps scientists pinpoint even more information about plant health.
“Shifts in these pigments, as detected by PACE, give novel information that may better describe vegetation growth, or when vegetation changes from flourishing to stressed,” said McKibben. “It’s just one of many ways the mission will drive increased understanding of our home planet and enable innovative, practical solutions that serve society.”
The Ocean Color Instrument on PACE collects hyperspectral data, which means it observes the planet in 100 different wavelengths of visible and near infrared light. It is the only instrument – in space or elsewhere – that provides hyperspectral coverage around the globe every one to two days. The PACE mission builds on the legacy of earlier missions, such as Landsat, which gathers higher resolution data but observes a fraction of those wavelengths.
In a paper recently published in Remote Sensing Letters, scientists introduced the mission’s first terrestrial data products.
“This PACE data provides a new view of Earth that will improve our understanding of ecosystem dynamics and function,” said Fred Huemmrich, research professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, member of the PACE science and applications team, and first author of the paper. “With the PACE data, it’s like we’re looking at a whole new world of color. It allows us to describe pigment characteristics at the leaf level that we weren’t able to do before.”
As scientists continue to work with these new data, available on the PACE website, they’ll be able to incorporate it into future science applications, which may include forest monitoring or early detection of drought effects.
By Erica McNamee
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Jun 05, 2025 EditorKate D. RamsayerContactKate D. Ramsayerkate.d.ramsayer@nasa.gov Related Terms
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By NASA
NASA Nearly all of NASA’s ninth class of astronaut candidates, along with two European trainees, poses for photos in the briefing room in the public affairs facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on July 7, 1980.
Group 9 was announced on May 29, 1980; the candidates would go on to make history in spaceflight and at NASA. For example, Charles Bolden (kneeling at far right) traveled to orbit four times aboard the space shuttle between 1986 and 1994, then became the agency’s first African American administrator in 2009. Franklin Chang-Diaz (fifth from the right, standing) was the first Hispanic American to fly in space and Jerry Ross (middle, standing in the back) was the first person to be launched into space seven times.
Image credit: NASA
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