Robotics Competitions and Events

Images from various robotics competitions showcasing high school and college student teams presenting their robots, engaging in technical tasks, and demonstrating innovation in engineering.

Students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln prepare their robotic miner for its turn to dig in the mining arena during NASAs LUNABOTICS competition on May 26, 2022, at the Center for Space Education near the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 35 teams from around the U.S. have designed and built remote-controlled robots for the mining competition. Teams use their semi-autonomous or remote-controlled robots to maneuver and dig in a supersized sandbox filled with rocks and simulated lunar soil, or regolith. The objective of the challenge is to see which teams robot can collect and deposit the most rocky regolith within a specified amount of time.
Students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln prepare their robotic miner for its turn to dig in the mining arena during NASAs LUNABOTICS competition on May 26, 2022, at the Center for Space Education near the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 35 teams from around the U.S. have designed and built remote-controlled robots for the mining competition. Teams use their semi-autonomous or remote-controlled robots to maneuver and dig in a supersized sandbox filled with rocks and simulated lunar soil, or regolith. The objective of the challenge is to see which teams robot can collect and deposit the most rocky regolith within a specified amount of time.
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The Bee Bots team (393) robot, named Dr. Beevil, scores by gathering balls. The team is composed of students from Morristown Jr. and Sr. high schools in Morristown, Ind., and is co-sponsored by NASA Kennedy Space Center and IPT Inc. Students from all over the country are at the KSC Visitor Complex for the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Southeast Regional competition March 9-11 in the Rocket Garden. Teams of high school students are testing the limits of their imagination using robots they have designed, with the support of business and engineering professionals and corporate sponsors, to compete in a technological battle against other schools' robots. Of the 30 high school teams competing, 16 are Florida teams co-sponsored by NASA and KSC contractors. Local high schools participating are Astronaut, Bayside, Cocoa Beach, Eau Gallie, Melbourne, Melbourne Central Catholic, Palm Bay, Rockledge, Satellite, and Titusville
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At NASAs Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, college students arrive with their custom designed and built robots for NASAs Fourth Annual Robotic Mining Competition, held May 20-24. The mining competition is coordinated by Kennedy Space Centers Education Office for the agencys Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. Undergraduate and graduate students from 50 universities and colleges in the U.S. and around the world use their remote-controlled robots to maneuver and dig in a supersized sandbox filled with a crushed material called regolith that has characteristics similar to asteroids, moons of Mars and Mars itself.
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ORLANDO, Fla. - The Team 3149 robot participates in the regional FIRST robotics competition at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. The team is made up of students from McKeel Academy of Technology in Lakeland, Fla. NASA is a sponsor of the team. Team 3149 finished eighth in the competition called "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology," or FIRST, among about 60 high school teams hoping to advance to the national robotics championship.FIRST, founded in 1989, is a non-profit organization that designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge and life skills while motivating young people to pursue academic opportunities. The robotics competition challenges teams of high school students and their mentors to solve a common problem in a six-week timeframe using a standard kit of parts and a common set of rules.
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ORLANDO, Fla. - NASA Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana checks out the robot designed by the Bionic Tigers team at the regional FIRST robotics competition at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. The team is made up of students from Cocoa High School and Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy along the Space Coast in Florida. NASA's Launch Services Program based at Kennedy is a sponsor of the team. The Bionic Tigers finished seventh in the competition called "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology," or FIRST, among about 60 high school teams hoping to advance to the national robotics championship.FIRST, founded in 1989, is a non-profit organization that designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge and life skills while motivating young people to pursue academic opportunities. The robotics competition challenges teams of high school students and their mentors to solve a common problem in a six-week timeframe using a standard kit of
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Team members of "Survey" drive their robot around the campus on Saturday, June 16, 2012 at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Mass. The Survey team was one of the final teams participating in the NASA-WPI Sample Return Robot Centennial Challenge at WPI. Teams were challenged to build autonomous robots that can identify, collect and return samples. NASA needs autonomous robotic capability for future planetary exploration.
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Comprised of students from Cocoa Beach, Rockledge, Viera and Space Coast high schools, the robotics group known as the "Pink Team," its mentors and support personnel celebrated a successful season near the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on April 5. The Pink Team fared well in the two regionals it competed in this year in West Palm Beach, Florida, and the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
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FIRST teams and their robots work to go through the right motions at the FIRST competition. Students from all over the country are at the KSC Visitor Complex for the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Southeast Regional competition March 9-11 in the Rocket Garden. Teams of high school students are testing the limits of their imagination using robots they have designed, with the support of business and engineering professionals and corporate sponsors, to compete in a technological battle against other schools' robots. Of the 30 high school teams competing, 16 are Florida teams co-sponsored by NASA and KSC contractors. Local high schools participating are Astronaut, Bayside, Cocoa Beach, Eau Gallie, Melbourne, Melbourne Central Catholic, Palm Bay, Rockledge, Satellite, and Titusville
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Students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln prepare their robotic miner for its turn to dig in the mining arena during NASAs LUNABOTICS competition on May 26, 2022, at the Center for Space Education near the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 35 teams from around the U.S. have designed and built remote-controlled robots for the mining competition. Teams use their semi-autonomous or remote-controlled robots to maneuver and dig in a supersized sandbox filled with rocks and simulated lunar soil, or regolith. The objective of the challenge is to see which teams robot can collect and deposit the most rocky regolith within a specified amount of time.
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ORLANDO, Fla. -- NASA Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana talks with members of Team 1056 "The Moose," which is participating in the regional FIRST robotics competition at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla. The team is from Kissimmee, Fla., and consists of students from Osceola High School. More than 60 high school teams from took part in the competition called "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology," or FIRST, in hopes of advancing to the national robotics championship. This year, the competition resembled a basketball game and was dubbed "Rebound Rumble." The game measured the effectiveness of each robot, the power of collaboration and the determination of the teams.FIRST, founded in 1989, is a non-profit organization that designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge and life skills while motivating young people to pursue academic opportunities. The robotics competition challenges teams of high school students
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Astronaut David Brown chats with members of the Explorers team, from Lake Buena Vista, Fla., during the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Southeast Regional competition held March 9-11 in the KSC Visitor Complex Rocket Garden. Teams of high school students from all over the country are testing the limits of their imagination using robots they have designed, with the support of business and engineering professionals and corporate sponsors, to compete in a technological battle against other schools' robots. Of the 30 high school teams competing at the Southeast Regional event, 16 are Florida teams co-sponsored by NASA and KSC contractors. Local high schools participating are Astronaut, Bayside, Cocoa Beach, Eau Gallie, Melbourne, Melbourne Central Catholic, Palm Bay, Rockledge, Satellite, and Titusville
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Jordan Nagy, Department of the Air Force Chief Architect Office network engineer, monitors an EdgeConnect mobile communications system at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, June 13, 2022. The EdgeConnect system allows available internet sources such as cellular data and commercial internet to be securely connected to secure internet protocol router network (SIPRNet) and nonclassified internet protocol router network (NIPRNet), enabling official communication for remote forces in line with agile combat employment objectives.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At the NASA Press Site at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Twitter followers participate in a unique event, a Tweetup, held to share the excitement of a space shuttle launch with a new audience.The two-day event will provide NASA Twitter followers the opportunity to take a tour of Kennedy, view a shuttle launch and speak with shuttle technicians, engineers, astronauts and managers, as well as the staff behind the tweets on @NASA. Launch of shuttle Atlantis on the STS-129 mission to the International Space Station is scheduled for 2:28 p.m. EST on Nov. 16.
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FIRST Robotics Competition 'Lunacy' hosted by NASA at San Jose State University Event Center. For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology let the games begin. the Wild Hats team #100 take a sideways vies of their bot on the field
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NASA engineers and test directors gather in Firing Room 3 in the Launch Control Center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, to watch a demonstration of the automated command and control software for the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft. The software is called the Ground Launch Sequencer. It will be responsible for nearly all of the launch commit criteria during the final phases of launch countdowns. The Ground and Flight Application Software Team (GFAST) demonstrated the software. It was developed by the Command, Control and Communications team in the Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) Program. GSDO is helping to prepare the center for the first test flight of Orion atop the SLS on Exploration Mission 1.
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KIKK Festival NAMUR, BELGIUM - NOVEMBER 04 : For 10 years, the KIKK festival has been a real laboratory that has never stopped evolving and re-inventing itself. The KIKK Festival will offer from the 4th of November to the 7th, an immersion in the universe of digital and creative cultures. .on NOVEMBER 04, 2021 in Namur, Belgium, 4/11/2021 Namur Belgium PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxFRAxBEL Copyright: xBertxVanxDenxBrouckex
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Two student teams test their robots in practice sessions before the start of the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Southeast Regional competition March 9-11 at the KSC Visitor Complex. Teams of high school students are testing the limits of their imagination using robots they have designed, with the support of business and engineering professionals and corporate sponsors, to compete in a technological battle against other schools' robots. Of the 30 high school teams competing at KSC, 16 are Florida teams co-sponsored by NASA and KSC contractors. Local high schools participating are Astronaut, Bayside, Cocoa Beach, Eau Gallie, Melbourne, Melbourne Central Catholic, Palm Bay, Rockledge, Satellite, and Titusville
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STS-132 LAUNCH L-1 MEDIA TWEETUP OPENING CEREMONY
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Ray Sadler adjusts hydraulic actuators with pads to the wing of the X-57 distributed electric aircraft wing at NASAs Armstrong Flight Research Center in California. Tests increased confidence in the wings durability and calibrated installed strain gauges for inflight load monitoring of the wing.
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Inside a tent, employees at KSC look over an exhibit of special equipment during Spaceport Super Safety and Health Day. Vendors exhibits were set up in the parking areas outside the Vehicle Assembly Building and the OandC Building. The day-long event also featured presentations by guest speakers Dr. Pamela Peeke, Navy Com. Stephen E. Iwanowicz, NASAs Dr. Kristine Calderon and Olympic-great Bruce Jenner. Super Safety and Health Day was initiated at KSC in 1998 to increase awareness of the importance of safety and health among the government and contractor workforce. The theme for this years event was Safety and Health A Winning Combination.
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For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology; FIRST Robotics Competition 2010 Silicon Valley Regional held at San Jose State University, San Jose, California The Apes of Wrath, Quirk & Pioneer H.S. ASB & Los Gatos H.S. CA Team 668
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ORLANDO, Fla. -- High school teams compete in the regional FIRST robotics competition at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla. More than 60 teams took part in the competition called "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology," or FIRST, in hopes of advancing to the national robotics championship. This year, the competition resembled a basketball game and was dubbed "Rebound Rumble." The game measured the effectiveness of each robot, the power of collaboration and the determination of the teams.FIRST, founded in 1989, is a non-profit organization that designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge and life skills while motivating young people to pursue academic opportunities. The robotics competition challenges teams of high school students and their mentors to solve a common problem in a six-week timeframe using a standard kit of parts and a common set of rules. NASA is the largest sponsor of the international program. Kennedy
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - During Energy and Awareness Week, employees try out the Segway Human Transporter, a self-balancing, electric-powered transportation device. Narrower than a standard doorway, the Segway is clean and quiet, with zero emissions. The two-day event was held April 22-23 around the Center.
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Team members from various colleges and universities watch a jumbo screen as robotic miners dig in the mining arena during NASAs LUNABOTICS competition on May 26, 2022, at the Center for Space Education near the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 35 teams from around the U.S. have designed and built remote-controlled robots for the mining competition. Teams use their semi-autonomous or remote-controlled robots to maneuver and dig in a supersized sandbox filled with rocks and simulated lunar soil, or regolith. The objective of the challenge is to see which teams robot can collect and deposit the most rocky regolith within a specified amount of time.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Media gather in the Assembly and Refurbishment Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to see the aft skirt for the Ares I-X flight test, targeted for launch in July 2009. The I-X flight will provide NASA an early opportunity to test and prove hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with Ares I, part of the Constellation Program to return men to the moon and beyond. Ares I is the essential core of a safe, reliable, cost-effective space transportation system that eventually will carry crewed missions back to the moon, on to Mars and out into the solar system.
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The Orion crew module flown on NASAs Pad Abort-1 (PA-1) flight test is shown on display at an event at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 4, 2011 before moving into the Operations & Checkout (O&C) Building. Part of Batch image transfer from Flickr.
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High school students compete at the 2009 FIRST Robotics Bayou Regional competition held March 19-21 in New Orleans.
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The 2019 First Robotics Competition was held in Huntsville, Alabama on March 15 and 16 in the Von Braun Center. 55 teams from 12 states and Brazil competed in Destination Deep Space” games. The First Robotics Competition is supported by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Mallory Jennings and Heather Paul, aerospace engineers with Johnson Space Center's Spacesuit Life Support, perform a spacesuit demonstration during the STS-134 Tweetup event. About 150 people from 43 states, Washington, D.C., and half a dozen countries are participating in the event. A Tweetup gives followers of @NASA on the social messaging medium Twitter the opportunity to tour the center, view a shuttle launch and speak with NASA managers, astronauts, shuttle technicians and engineers. During the STS-134 mission, space shuttle Endeavour will deliver the Express Logistics Carrier-3, Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 (AMS), a high-pressure gas tank and additional spare parts for the Dextre robotic helper to the International Space Station. Endeavour was scheduled to launch at 3 47 p.m. on April 29, but that attempt was scrubbed for at least 72 hours while engineers assess an issue associated with the shuttle's Auxiliary Po
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sends streaming live video via a mobile phone attached to his hat to his website of Phylise Banner, who goes by @Phylisebanner on Twitter, as she stands in an astronaut suit on display during the tweetup on Monday, Nov., 1, 2010 at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At NASA Kennedy Space Center's Apollo/Saturn V Center, university students take part in an award ceremony for NASA's second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition.Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and India participated in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26 - 28 at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The competition is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teams will maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The event also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon.
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Uzkar Ibrahim (right), director of business development - Department of Defense, Asylon, instructs Brig. Gen. Heather Reuter (left), how to control a DroneDog with a Microsoft XBox game controller during the 2022 Fed Supernova Conference Sept. 29 in Austin, Texas. Reuter and other key leaders attended this three-day conference to promote the 75th IC's vision, mission, and capabilities while developing partnerships with entrepreneurs, universities and other Department of Defense organizations. Sponsored by Capital Factory, Fed Supernova connects entrepreneurs, government and industry together to collaborate on a dual-use solutions that put commercial technology in the hands of the Department of Defense. Developed by Asylon and Boston Dynamics, the DroneDog security offers end-to-end quadrupedal unmanned ground vehicles security solutions. The hardware and software include live video monitoring, teleoperation, 20x optical zoom, infrared (thermal) vision for nighttime operations,
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The First Robotics Rocket City Regional Competition was held at the Von Braun Civic Center in Huntsville, Alabama on March 16, 2018. High school robotics teams from throughout the U.S., as well as a team from Brazil, competed.
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FIRST Robotics Competition
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Workers at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex make final preparations in the huge tent for the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Southeast Regional competition March 9-11. Teams of high school students are testing the limits of their imagination using robots they have designed, with the support of business and engineering professionals and corporate sponsors, to compete in a technological battle against other schools' robots. Of the 30 high school teams competing at KSC, 16 are Florida teams co-sponsored by NASA and KSC contractors. Local high schools participating are Astronaut, Bayside, Cocoa Beach, Eau Gallie, Melbourne, Melbourne Central Catholic, Palm Bay, Rockledge, Satellite, and Titusville
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U.S. Space Force Lt. Gen Douglas A. Schiess, commander, U.S. Space Forces - Space and Combined Joint Force Space Component Commander, provides closing remarks to Global Sentinel participants during Global Sentinel 2024 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., Feb. 16, 2024. USSPACECOM and representatives from partner nations come together each year at Global Sentinel to promote cooperation and safe, secure space operations. In addition to the United states, partner nations that attended this year included Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Israel, Japan, Republic of Korea, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Thailand and Ukraine. Space Force
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An attendee uses virtual reality goggles to view the Sun during Sneak Peek Friday at the USA Science and Engineering Festival, Friday, April 6, 2018 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. The festival is open to the public April 7-8.
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Orion Program Manager at Aerojet Don Mahr delivers remarks during a panel discussion with NASA Social attendees, Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022, at the Space Station Processing Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASAs Artemis I flight test is the first integrated flight test of the agencys deep space exploration systems: the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and ground systems. Launch of the uncrewed flight test is targeted for no earlier than Aug. 29 at 8:33 a.m. ET.
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Novi, Michigan, The Battery Show and the Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo. The annual event brings thousands to learn about and demonstrate advancing technology and innovations in the automotive and other fields. Participants learn about a Freudenberg lithium ion battery pack for heavy commercial vehicles
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Reportage at 27 Delvalle, Nice, France. 27 Delvalle is an 800m2 space funded by the conurbation, the town of Nice, the department and region. It is the first stone in the creation of Nices European Health City project due to be built in the next five years to the east of Nice. The aim is to make new technologies and innovation available to improve health. By bringing together health sector actors (health professionals, researchers, solution and funding providers, associations etc.), 27 Delvalle must enable the emergence of projects that allow better living thanks to digital technology. The Habitat platform: show and simulation apartment highlighting technical, technological and innovating solutions for kitting out a home to allow fragile, ageing and handicapped people to remain autonomous as long as possible. It is a real apartment that organizes uses for daily life aiming to simplify and adapt them to the needs of the person. All the daily activities are simulated here, moving round t
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Visitors to the virtual driving simulator of an underground train at gamescom, the world's largest trade fair for video and computer games in Cologne, Germany, Europe
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For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology; FIRST Robotics Competition 2010 Silicon Valley Regional held at San Jose State University, San Jose, California team 192 checks on robot
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Engineers working on the smart and intelligent sensor payload project include (l to r) Ed Conley (NASA), Mark Mitchell (Jacobs Technology), Luke Richards (NASA), Robert Drackett (Jacobs Technology), Mark Turowski (Jacobs Technology) , Richard Franzl (seated, Jacobs Technology), Greg McVay (Jacobs Technology), Brianne Guillot (Jacobs Technology), Jon Morris (Jacobs Technology), Stephen Rawls (NASA), John Schmalzel (NASA) and Andrew Bracey (NASA).
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Washington, Seattle, Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI). Taken upon the opening of the new Mohai building in South Lake Union. An exhibit of models of Boeing airplanes.
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Twitter user Karim Jazouani from Casablanca, Morocco, who goes by the twitter name @karimjazouani, uses his laptop during a two-day NASA Tweetup event held at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009. NASA Twitter followers in attendance will have the opportunity to take a tour of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, view the space shuttle launch and speak with shuttle technicians, engineers, astronauts and managers.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Several of the 45 of NASA social media followers photograph a speaker during two days of presentations on the Kennedy Space Center's past, present and future.The social media participants gathered at the Florida spaceport on Aug. 2 and 3, 2012 to hear from key former and current leaders who related stories of the space agency's efforts to explore the unknown. It was the first social media event totally run by Kennedy.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A videogame simulates driving excavators during NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The competition challenges university students to build machines that can collect soil such as the material found on the moon. Working inside the Caterpillar LunArena, the robotic craft dig soil that simulates lunar material. The event is judged by a machine's abilities to collect the soil, its design and operation, size, dust tolerance and its level of autonomy.
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jsc2018e083386 - (Sept. 20, 2018) - The FIRST Robotics Team from the Clear Creak International School District teaches Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump how to drive their robot during a visit to NASAs Johnson Space Center.
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NASA Twitter followers attending the STS-135 Tweetup are seen through the helmet of a NASA space suit, Thursday, July 7, 2011, at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. About 150 NASA Twitter followers attended the event. The STS-135 mission will be NASA's last space shuttle launch.
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Guam Lt. Gov. Josh Tenorio, second from right, test drives a robot designed by the Team Hafa Adai "Robokids" at the Guam National Guard's STARBASE facility on Fort Juan Muna, Sept. 23 as Maj. Gen. (GU) Esther Aguigui, left, and Command Sgt. Maj. Celso Leonen look on. "There's a whole lot of technology going on in Guam right now, with more opportunities on the horizon," said Tenorio. "You are among the first who will benefit from these opportunities, so congratulations to the team." The Robokids will represent Guam at the First Global Challenge in Switzerland next month, where they will compete on the world stage in robotics design and engineering.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - In NASA Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building High Bay 3, NASA's Ares I-X mission team members Bobby Williams, Trent Smith and Karl Kendall monitor the rocket's first power-up. Part of the Constellation Program, the Ares I-X is the test vehicle for the Ares I, which is the essential core of a space transportation system that eventually will carry crewed missions back to the moon, on to Mars and out into the solar system. The Ares I-X flight test is targeted for Oct. 31.
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Members of the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) Parliamentary Assembly get a close look at some of the Shuttles hardware during their visit to the Vehicle Assembly Building during their tour of KSC. In the background is a segment of a solid rocket booster. The Parliamentarians are meeting in Orlando this year for their 49th annual gathering. They chose to visit KSC with their families during their one-day excursion break from meetings.
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A model of NASAs Orion spacecraft with the Launch Abort System is on display at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in San Diego, California. The agencys Ground Systems Development and Operations Program is participating in a “Be Wise” program at the science center. GSDO is preparing for Orion Underway Recovery Test 5 (URT-5) using a test version of the Orion crew module in the Pacific Ocean. URT-5 will allow NASA and the U.S. Navy to demonstrate and evaluate the recovery processes, procedures, hardware and personnel necessary for recovery of the Orion crew module on its return from a deep space mission. Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to destinations not yet explored by humans, including an asteroid and NASAs Journey to Mars. It will have emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. Orion is scheduled to launch atop NASAs Space Launch System rocket in 2018.
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Darth Vader and other Star Wars characters from the 501st Legion address students and sponsors in the Center for Space Education at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Teams from across the state of Florida were gathered at Kennedy for the finals of the Zero Robotics Middle School Summer Program national championship. The five-week program allows rising sixth- through ninth-graders to write programs for small satellites called SPHERES (Synchronized, Position, Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites). Finalists saw their code tested aboard the International Space Station.
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In the Swarmathon competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, students were asked to develop computer code for the small robots, programming them to look for "resources" in the form of AprilTag cubes, similar to barcodes. Teams developed search algorithms for the Swarmies to operate autonomously, communicating and interacting as a collective swarm similar to ants foraging for food. In the spaceport's second annual Swarmathon, 20 teams representing 22 minority serving universities and community colleges were invited to develop software code to operate these innovative robots known as "Swarmies" to help find resources when astronauts explore distant locations, such as the moon or Mars.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Thousands of workers who have processed, launched and landed space shuttles for more than three decades, gather for an employee appreciation event in front of Orbiter Processing Facility-2 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Atlantis' final return to Earth occurred at 5:57 a.m. EDT July 21, 2011. Securing the space shuttle fleet's place in history, Atlantis marks the 26th nighttime landing of NASA's Space Shuttle Program and the 78th landing at Kennedy. Atlantis and its crew delivered to the International Space Station the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module packed with more than 9,400 pounds of spare parts, equipment and supplies that will sustain station operations for the next year. STS-135 is the 33rd and final flight for Atlantis and the final mission of the Space Shuttle Program.
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Members of the Space Coast FIRST Robotics Team, known as the Pink Team, display their robot, Roccobot, at the 2005 FIRST Robotics Regional Competition held at the University of Central Florida March 10-12. The NASA-sponsored Roccobots took first place in the competition as part of a three-team alliance and advances to the Championship in Atlanta in April. The Pink Team comprises students from Rockledge High School and Cocoa Beach Junior_Senior High School.
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The newly added Robot Scouts exhibit at the KSC Visitor Complex is situated next to the Rocket Garden. Part of the $13 million expansion to the Visitor Complex, the exhibit helps describe for visitors the accomplishments of unsung space heroes space probes and their role in space exploration. It also includes a display of how data from robotic probes might be used to build a human habitat for Mars. Visitors can witness a simulated Martian sunset. Other additions include a new foyer, films, and an International Space Station-themed ticket plaza, featuring a structure of overhanging solar panels and astronauts performing assembly tasks. The KSC Visitor Complex was inaugurated three decades ago and is now one of the top five tourist attractions in Florida. It is located on S.R. 407, east of I-95, within the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge