On January 7th, we hosted the NASA Astrocamp in collaboration with NASA and The Clueless, a local FTC robotics team. In this workshop, our special guest speaker, Dr. Rachel Kronyak, a system engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), talked about the Perseverance and rover and its Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, and answered participants' questions about all things space. For more information on the MSR mission, please visit their website at https://mars.nasa.gov/index.cfm.

In addition to learning about NASA’s most recent projects and programs, participants designed their own mission patches and logos and designed their own landing systems (modeled by an egg drop). They also built their own sample collectors / drills using straws and rubber bands, constructed their own aerodynamic rockets and programmed commands to guide a mars rover on a simulated terrain!

One participant reported that the camp was “very interesting,” and that she learned about “why rocks on Mars are red.” Another participant said that she learned about how engineers and scientists collaborate together, to help us “explore the deep unknown of space.”

We will be hosting the same NASA Astrocamp on February 4th, from 12:30 - 5:30 pm, at the Mission Valley Library. Also be sure to sign up for our upcoming Data Science workshop at City Heights Library on January 28th!