science

NASA Academy

NASA Academy is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand NASA Academy rather than just read about it. In short: The NASA Academy is NASA's premiere leadership training program for undergraduate and graduate students. Since its founding in 1993, the NASA Academy has brought together future leaders of the aerospace industry and exposed them to the inner workings of NASA, academia, and industry.

Key takeaways

NASA Academy belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect NASA Academy to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of NASA Academy from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The NASA Academy is NASA's premiere leadership training program for undergraduate and graduate students. Since its founding in 1993, the NASA Academy has brought together future leaders of the aerospace industry and exposed them to the inner workings of NASA, academia, and industry. The Academy consists of a ten-week summer program hosted by a participating NASA center. Currently there are academies at Langley Research Center, Ames Research Center, Marshall Space Flight Center and Glenn Research Center. Goddard Space Flight Center and Dryden Flight Research Center previously hosted NASA Academies, as well.

History The NASA Academy was founded in 1993 at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center by Gerald "Gerry" Soffen. The concept was largely based on the concept of the International Space University. Soffen envisioned the NASA Academy as a leadership program with an inter-disciplinary approach similar to ISU, but without the emphasis on the international and intercultural aspects. Specifically, Soffen created the program to "give possible 'leaders' a view into how NASA, the university community, and the private sector function; [to] set their priorities; and [to] contribute to the success of the aerospace program." The research focus for any specific NASA Academy can change from year to year. In 2015, the Multidisciplinary Aeronautics Research Team Initiative (MARTI) replaced the Aeronautics Academy.

Mission statement

The NASA Academy states its mission as follows: "to identify and recruit the future leaders of the space exploration community, to introduce them to the key aspects of the industry, to provide them with critical training, and to build an ever-expanding network of these future leaders, so that these young scientists and engineers are prepared to assume the highest responsibilities of a career dedicated to leadership in space exploration."

Program Overview The 2010 NASA Academy Definitions Document outlines six key criteria that are critical to the program and which, when taken as a whole, differentiate it from other NASA leadership development programs:

Principal Investigator-Directed Research, wherein the Research Associate devotes an average of 30 hours a week to a research project within a NASA science or advanced technology program. A Group Research Project requiring the collaborative efforts of all of the Research Associates as well as external advisors. Traditionally, this requires extensive work during evenings and weekends, and consumes several working days during normal business hours towards to end of the program. Structured and Unstructured Team Building activities, designed to form an effective and cohesive community from an interdisciplinary group of leaders. Interactions with current aerospace industry leaders, including both formal lectures and informal opportunities to interact at meals, launches, and other events. Site visits to a variety of NASA centers, companies, and university labs. Traditionally, this takes up approximately one working day during normal business hours as well as extensive work during evenings and weekends. A culture of extreme professionalism and preparation. NASA Academy students are typically expected to work long hours: as a general rule, the day is scheduled from 07:30 to 21:00, after which students work on the Team Project or on individual research assignments. However, NASA Academy students are also typically given excellent opportunities, including field trips to other centers and excellent access to the leaders and decision-makers of the aerospace industry. A NASA Academy class typically varies from 10-20 students per center per year. Participants are selected in a joint effort between the NASA Center, the NASA Academy Alumni Association, the PIs, and the State Space Grant Consortia. Alumni from the previous year's program are typically selected to serve as program coordinators for current sessions. For several years in the early 2000s (decade), the NASA Academy at GSFC admitted a French student every year as part of a cooperative agreement with the Centre National d'Études Spatiales, the French space agency.

Notable alumni

Christina Hammock Koch, NASA Astronaut and the first woman to travel beyond low Earth orbit and journey around the Moon Josh Cassada, NASA Astronaut Expedition 68 Holly Ridings, NASA's Chief Flight Director—the first woman ever to hold that role. Eric C. Anderson, Chairman of Space Adventures, President and CEO of the Intentional Software Corporation, Chairman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, and Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Planetary Resources Emily Calandrelli, astronaut, author, and host and producer of the Emmy-nominated educational television program Xploration Station. Diana Trujillo, NASA Flight Director who previously helped lead the Mars Curiosity and Mars 2020 rover projects. Enectalí Figueroa-Feliciano, pioneer of positron-sensitive detectors, MIT Professor Bethany Ehlmann, Director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder. Chris Lewicki, Founder of Planetary Resources, formerly Mars Exploration Rover Flight Director, and the first person to drive the MER rovers on Mars Jared Henderson, the Democratic Party's nominee for the Governor of Arkansas during the 2018 election. Jake Lopata, Founder and President of rocket launch startup company SpaceLaunch, Inc. Laura Stiles, Blue Origin engineer and astronaut on Blue Origin NS-38

References

External links NASA Academy Home Page The NASA Academy Alumni Association (NAAA) Archived 1998-05-23 at the Wayback Machine Multidisciplinary Aeronautics Research Team Initiative (MARTI) Application, which hosts the Aeronautics program application. NASA OSSI, which hosts the other Academy program applications

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with NASA Academy

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what NASA Academy claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to NASA Academy before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about NASA Academy ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of NASA Academy

In research: NASA Academy appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses NASA Academy in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: NASA Academy is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American organizations established in 1993, Educational institutions established in 1993, Educational organizations based in the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for NASA Academy outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study NASA Academy in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what NASA Academy means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain NASA Academy out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is NASA Academy in simple terms?

Why does NASA Academy matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study NASA Academy?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on NASA Academy.