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By NASA
NASA Glenn Research Center’s Director Dr. Jimmy Kenyon, left, talks with a Youth Tech Academy Red Dragon participant at the FIRST Robotics Competition Buckeye Regional in Cleveland on Friday, April 4, 2025. Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland supported the 26th annual FIRST Robotics Competition Buckeye Regional, April 3-6, at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center. This international engineering design challenge combines the excitement of sports with the rigors of STEM.
Mavericks Team participants adjust their robot prior to their turn to compete at the FIRST Robotics Competition Buckeye Regional in Cleveland on Friday, April 4, 2025. Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna NASA Glenn Center Director Dr. Jimmy Kenyon helped kick off this year’s event by addressing the student participants. He shared that NASA Glenn specializes in propulsion and communications, that the center is vital to the region and country, and that “the road to Moon and Mars goes through Ohio” thanks to the center’s contributions to the agency’s missions. He also highlighted several aerospace projects underway at the center and explained how engineering and math skills used in robotics apply to real-life engineering challenges.
Fifty-six teams of high school students competed in the robotics competition, which aims to inspire young people to be STEM leaders and innovators by engaging them in mentor-based engineering.
Members from the Argonauts Team cheer as their robot competes in the FIRST Robotics Competition Buckeye Regional at Cleveland State University in Cleveland on Friday, April 4, 2025. Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna NASA Glenn employees offered their time and expertise as mentors, machinists, or volunteers supporting FIRST Robotics teams leading up to the event as well as on competition day.
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By NASA
What does the future of space exploration look like? At the 2025 FIRST Robotics World Championship in Houston, NASA gave student robotics teams and industry leaders a first-hand look—complete with lunar rovers, robotic arms, and real conversations about shaping the next era of discovery.
Students and mentors experience NASA exhibits at the 2025 FIRST Robotics World Championship at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston from April 16-18. NASA/Sumer Loggins NASA engaged directly with the Artemis Generation, connecting with more than 55,000 students and 75,000 parents and mentors. Through interactive exhibits and discussions, students explored the agency’s robotic technologies, learned about STEM career paths and internships, and gained insight into NASA’s bold vision for the future. Many expressed interest in internships—and dreams of one day contributing to NASA’s missions to explore the unknown for the benefit of all humanity.
Multiple NASA centers participated in the event, including Johnson Space Center in Houston; Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California; Kennedy Space Center in Florida; Langley Research Center in Virginia; Ames Research Center in California; Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans; Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California; Glenn Research Center in Cleveland; Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; and the Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility in West Virginia. Each brought unique technologies and expertise to the exhibit floor.
FIRST Robotics attendees explore NASA’s exhibit and learn about the agency’s mission during the event.NASA/Robert Markowitz Displays highlighted key innovations such as:
Automated Reconfigurable Mission Adaptive Digital Assembly Systems: A modular system of small robots and smart algorithms that can autonomously assemble large-scale structures in space. Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration: A team of small lunar rovers designed to operate independently, navigating and making decisions together without human input. Lightweight Surface Manipulation System AutoNomy Capabilities Development for Surface Operations and Construction: A robotic arm system built for lunar construction tasks, developed through NASA’s Early Career Initiative. Space Exploration Vehicle: A pressurized rover prototype built for human exploration of planetary surfaces, offering attendees a look at how future astronauts may one day travel across the Moon or Mars. Mars Perseverance Rover: An exhibit detailing the rover’s mission to search for ancient microbial life and collect samples for future return to Earth. In-Situ Resource Utilization Pilot Excavator: A lunar bulldozer-dump truck hybrid designed to mine and transport regolith, supporting long-term exploration through the Artemis campaign. Visitors view NASA’s Space Exploration Vehicle on display.NASA/Robert Markowitz “These demonstrations help students see themselves in NASA’s mission and the next frontier of lunar exploration,” said Johnson Public Affairs Specialist Andrew Knotts. “They can picture their future as part of the team shaping how we live and work in space.”
Since the FIRST Championship relocated to Houston in 2017, NASA has mentored more than 250 robotics teams annually, supporting elementary through high school students. The agency continued that tradition for this year’s event, and celebrated the fusion of science, engineering, and creativity that defines both robotics and space exploration.
NASA’s booth draws crowds at FIRST Robotics 2025 with hands-on exhibits. NASA/Robert Markowitz Local students also had the chance to learn about the Texas High School Aerospace Scholars program, which offers Texas high school juniors hands-on experience designing space missions and solving engineering challenges—an early gateway into NASA’s world of exploration.
As the competition came to a close, students and mentors were already looking ahead to the next season—energized by new ideas, strengthened friendships, and dreams of future missions.
NASA volunteers at the FIRST Robotics World Championship on April 17, 2025. NASA/Robert Markowitz “It was a true privilege to represent NASA to so many inspiring students, educators, and mentors,” said Jeanette Snyder, aerospace systems engineer for Gateway. “Not too long ago, I was a robotics student myself, and I still use skills I developed through FIRST Robotics in my work as a NASA engineer. Seeing so much excitement around engineering and technology makes me optimistic for the future of space exploration. I can’t wait to see these students become the next generation of NASA engineers and world changers.”
With the enthusiastic support of volunteers, mentors, sponsors, and industry leaders, and NASA’s continued commitment to STEM outreach, the future of exploration is in bold, capable hands.
See the full event come to life in the panorama videos below.
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By European Space Agency
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By NASA
1 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
ECF 2024 Quadchart Beik.pdf
Omid Beik
Colorado School of Mines
This project will design a power management and distribution (PMAD) system that can be coupled with a megawatt-scale nuclear power generation system for nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) that is suitable for a Mars mission. The system will include all needed components including a dual rotor generator and power rectifier. The overall design will be optimized and validated with a smaller-scale (10kW) experiment that will be built and tested in the laboratory.
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By NASA
Explore This Section Science Science Activation GLOBE, NASA, and the Monsignor… Overview Learning Resources Science Activation Teams SME Map Opportunities More Science Activation Stories Citizen Science 4 min read
GLOBE, NASA, and the Monsignor McClancy Memorial High School in Queens, New York
When students actively participate in scientific investigations that connect to their everyday lives, something powerful happens: they begin to see themselves as scientists. This sense of relevance and ownership can spark a lifelong interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), paving the way for continued education and even future careers in these fields. Opportunities to engage directly with NASA science—like the one you’ll read about in this story—not only deepen students’ understanding of STEM concepts, but also nourish their curiosity and confidence. With the support of passionate educators, these moments of participation become stepping stones to a future in which students see themselves as contributors to real-world science.
In September 2021, Ms. Deanna Danke, a Monsignor McClancy Memorial High School mathematics teacher in Queens, New York, began teaching her students how to measure tree heights using trigonometry. Soon enough, Ms. Danke discovered the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Observer Trees Tool, and with her 150+ students, began taking tree height observations around the school, an activity that Ms. Danke and her students continue to participate in today. Her and her students’ hundreds of repeat tree height observations have provided student and professional researchers with clusters of measurements that can coincide with measurements made by NASA satellite instruments, allowing for a comparison of datasets that can be analyzed over time.
Due to the consistent tree height data collection resulting from this effort, Ms. Danke was asked to be a co-author on a peer-reviewed research paper that was published on June 21, 2022 in the Environmental Research Letters special journal “Focus on Public Participation in Environmental Research.” The paper, “The potential of citizen science data to complement satellite and airborne lidar tree height measurements: lessons from The GLOBE Program,” included data from the tree height observations reported by Ms. Danke and her students—an incredible achievement for everyone involved.
On March 21, 2025, Ms. Danke’s former and current students continued their inspiring adventures with NASA science by taking a trip to the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. Highlights from this trip included science and technology presentations by personnel from the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) and Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Missions, the Wallops Balloon Program Office, and the Wallops Machine Shop for Fabrication and Testing. The ICESat-2 presentation, in particular, included a discussion on the student-collected tree height data and how the ICESat-2 satellite makes tree height observations from space.
Ms. Danke’s work is a testament to the incredible impact educators can have when they connect classroom learning to authentic scientific discovery. By introducing her students to tools like the GLOBE Observer Trees Tool and facilitating meaningful contributions to NASA science, she opened the door to experiences most students only dream of—from collecting data that supports satellite missions to co-authoring peer-reviewed research and visiting NASA facilities. Stories like this remind us that when students are empowered to be part of real science, the possibilities—for learning, inspiration, and future careers in STEM—are truly limitless.
The GLOBE Observer app, used by Ms. Danke and her students, is made possible by the NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative (NESEC). This free mobile app includes four tools that enable citizen scientists to participate in NASA science: Clouds, Mosquito Habitat Mapper, Land Cover, and Trees. Learn more about ways that you can join and participate in this and other NASA Citizen Science projects. Through these projects, sometimes called “participatory science” projects, volunteers and amateurs have helped make thousands of important scientific discoveries, and they are open to everyone around the world (no citizenship required).
NESEC is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AE28A and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn
Map of tree height around the Monsignor McClancy Memorial High School from the GLOBE Program’s Visualization System. I know this was an experience they will remember forever and they have already told me that they cannot wait to tell their future children about it. It was wonderful meeting you in person and being on site to get a real sense of what you are working on. The boys were especially fascinated by the last two stops on the tour and appreciated learning a little more about how tree height is measured. Thank you again for this incredible opportunity.”
Ms. Deanna Danke
Monsignor McClancy Memorial High School
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