Nearly 300 Florida students in kindergarten through 12th grade are ready for a Saturday "liftoff," as Space Florida and NASA team up with teachers across the state for the Annual Planetary Lander and Egg Drop Competition.
Each team designs and builds their own lander, with the raw egg acting as a fragile payload that has to survive a 20-foot drop, just like a real NASA lander touching down on the moon, Mars, or an asteroid.
Dale Ketcham of Space Florida said it’s a fun way to get kids interested in the STEM fields – science, technology, engineering, and math. The competition also gets students some valuable face time with people who work in the space field, Ketcham said, allowing them "to interact with NASA and the [agency's] contractors, and to let them test their own skills on dealing with some of the challenges that are confronting the space program."
Ketcham says the need for new ways to make a safe, soft landing is especially timely. Earlier this week NASA contractor SpaceX tried a second time to land a rocket gently on an ocean barge - it hit the mark a little too hard and tipped over into the water.
Find more information at the event website.
