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SCaN Innovation Boot Camp

On Friday, June 15th we were invited to attend an Innovation Boot-camp at the Goddard Space Station by Intern Coordinator, Sandra Vilevac. We were presented with this opportunity after participating in the SCaN ARISS challenge on May 12th of 2018. Of course after having a wonderful experience participating in the ARISS challenge, we excitedly agreed to participate in this Innovation Boot-camp. At the time we didn't know anything about what it was we were going to do, except that we were also going to work along-side some NASA interns. Despite the many mysteries we were excited nonetheless.
I am happy to report that both my sister and I really enjoyed the Innovation Boot-camp. As the name suggests, one of the main focuses was innovation. As soon as we met and were introduced to the interns, we were immediately given the challenge prompt and got straight to work. The challenge consisted of creating a mission with a limited amount of supplies and funding that needed to reach a specific goal of our own design. We then had to create a presentation that would convince a panel of judges that our project was worth funding all the way. It is an understatement to say that the challenge was pretty difficult. Not only did we have to create a realistic spacecraft that would reach our goal, but we had to do it with a limited amount of time and money. To put it into perspective, our mission was to reach one of Jupiter's moons Europa and the only satellite so far to have reached and orbited around Jupiter is Juno. Juno itself cost a total of 1.1 billion dollars. We only had a maximum of 30 million dollars. 
So there was definitely a lot of innovation and research that had to be involve to calculate the right amount of fuel, communications, weight capacity, propulsion, and other such components.
Even though there was a lot of work involved, both my sister and I had tons of fun. The more I researched about different topics the more I learned about the different mechanics that actually go into a spacecraft, but also the process it takes to get a mission funded. It turns out, it's really hard to convince someone to believe in what has never been done before.  I mean of course we both had experience convincing people to believe in us, but you don't really realize how much research and time goes into a proposal until you're the one that is proposing the idea.
I would also like to mention just how nice and understanding the interns at the boot-camp were. Most of the interns were college students who had their own unique projects that they were completing during their time at NASA. I would have loved to talk more about each individual project and the process it took to become NASA interns, especially the students currently majoring in Aeronautical Engineering, but we split into different groups before I could gather the courage to talk to anyone. The interns we met in our group were funny, charming, and a pleasure to hang out with during the course of the next eight hours. I would love to work alongside them again in the future. 

​written by Stephanie Vicarte
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  • Home
    • Home 2018
    • Home 2017
  • Life Today...
  • Hackster
  • Robotics
    • VEX Past Games
    • Design Journal
    • Maryland State High School Championship/VRC Turning Point
    • Maryland State High School Championship/ VRC In the Zone
    • VEX BMore Robotic - Have a Dream - VRC Tournament
    • Volvo Group Trucks Qualifier Hagerstown Tournament
  • World Maker Faire
    • 2018 World Maker Faire
    • 2017 World Maker Faire
  • NASA
    • SCaN ARISS Challenge
    • NASA experience
    • SCaN Boot Camp
  • Music
  • KIDS Museum
  • Toy 2.0 Challenge
  • Arthur C. Clarke Foundation
  • BISFA Experience
  • Other Projects/Experiences
  • Meet the Inventors
    • Stephanie
    • Elizabeth
  • Contact Us