Above, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden poses for a group selfie with members of Heritage High School’s HUNCH.
Students Create Goods for the International Space Station
Passaic County Technical Institutes welcomes the NASA HUNCH program. NASA.gov
NASA needs a pipeline of STEM students to thrive in this century. To meet that challenge, the space agency goes where the next generation of the best and brightest are found: in the nation’s high schools.
[See related NASA gallery: NASA Ames Eyes To the Sky]
The NASA initiative to nurture STEM specialists is called HUNCH. It is an acronym for High Schools United with NASA to Create Hardware, and a national program to attract students to the idea of becoming engineers and scientists.
NASA.gov
[Watch Why HUNCH was created and students are important.]
What students do:
They design and create goods for NASA, with the administration’s assistance and mentoring, which are selected to be used by astronauts on the International Space Station. The products created range from food items to hardware.
Astronaut Nicole Stott, on left. NASA.gov
[Watch Astronaut Nicole Stott and 2014-2015 HUNCH Students.]
What high school students have accomplished:
Design and Prototype products include.
- A galley table sent to the ISS for the astronauts to use as a dining room table on station and the reverse side is a work area
NASA.gov
Click here to see a video of the table in use on the ISS.
- A food pantry system being prepared for flight to the ISS, and a training set was built for the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility.
Hunch students with the food pantry. NASA.gov
Hardware fabricated in 2014-2015 include:
- Storage Lockers
Soft Goods include:
- A crew cargo organizer
- Cargo Transfer bags
- Cold Storage Cargo Restraints
Watch the HUNCH Culinary Challenge video, below, about creating nutritious entrée that will be cooked in a microgravity environment.
These Passaic County Technical Institute students created a red pepper risotto entrée that won the NASA HUNCH Culinary Challenge at the Houston Space Center in Texas. NASA.gov
How to apply for the HUNCH:
- This is how to apply. If you have questions contact the Help Hotline at jsc-iss-research-helpline@mail.nasa.govor the ISS Research Integration Customer Helpline phone number: 281-244-6187.
- Learn how to become a student International Space Station Flight Controller at Camp NASA through videos and NASA cards.
- Check out the list of high school campuses that participate in the HUNCH program currently, and all the schools involved.
- Visit links to the HUNCH program’s history.
- Follow on Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube.
- Learn more about NASA.
Learn more about the participating NASA HUNCH Facilities:
They include the:
- Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center is one of ten National Aeronautics and Space Administration field centers, and is NASA’s Center of Excellence for launch and payload processing systems.
- Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Manned Spacecraft Center, where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted.
- Langley Research Center Langley Research Center is the oldest of NASA’s field centers, located in Hampton, Virginia, United States. It directly borders Poquoson, Virginia and Langley Field.
- Glenn Research Center NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field is a NASA center, located within the cities of Brook Park, Cleveland, and Fairview Park, Ohio.
- Goddard Space Center The Goddard Space Flight Center is a major NASA space research laboratory established on May 1, 1959 as NASA’s first space flight center.
- Marshall Space Center The Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) is the U.S. government’s civilian rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center.
Do no hesitate to Contact the HUNCH initiative advisors at any of the above facilities, if you have questions.
