For the second consecutive year, a team of six eighth-grade students has been selected as winners of the NASA TechRise Challenge! This national competition invites schools across the United States to propose innovative experiments for a chance to be among 60 teams to design and build a device that will fly on a NASA-supported flight vehicle.

Once selected, winning teams work closely with an engineer, meeting weekly to design, build, code, test, and finalize their experiment, also known as a “payload.” Last year, our team created a payload to measure levels of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and ozone in the upper atmosphere, investigating whether there’s a link between rising VOCs and ozone levels.

This year, the team is taking on an even bigger challenge! Their experiment will test how drone rotors perform at different altitudes to simulate conditions on other planets with lower atmospheric pressures. The goal is to see if drones could be a viable tool for future space exploration and transportation on celestial bodies like Mars, where thinner atmospheres make flying more difficult. Their findings will also help determine how high drones can fly on Earth before losing lift.

This exciting research could help shape the future of space exploration, and the students are thrilled to be part of such an important project. Stay tuned for updates on their journey as they build their payload and prepare for launch!