Seven students at Comal ISD’s Hill Country College Preparatory High School (HCCPHS) on Dec. 11 will send an application they developed to NASA that displays the proposed flight path for the agency’s upcoming Artemis II mission.
Artemis will send four astronauts on a 10-day flight around the Moon in late 2025 as part of NASA’s plans to establish a long-term presence for science and exploration.
If students win NASA’s App Development Challenge (ADC) they will be invited to an event at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“One of the biggest parts of this project is seeing how our work can actually help the Artemis mission,” said Keshav Singh, who discovered the challenge and brought it to the attention of computer science and cybersecurity teacher Rena Keinrath.
“We can easily get lost in the details, but one of the most-exciting parts is the practical application. While we are ultimately competing and doing our best to win, the larger applications are always top of mind.”
Also on HCCPHS’s team are students Ty Fonseca, Breck Leon, Dyllon McCormick, Brennan McKee, Jackson Olivarez and Sara Ziegler
ADC is a coding challenge created by NASA to present technical problems to middle- and high-school students who want to contribute to deep-space exploration missions.
By submitting their app, HCCPHS students engaged in the Artemis Generation’s endeavors to land American astronauts, including the first woman and first person of color, on the Moon.
HCCPHS students worked on trajectory calculations and visualization, gathering data, and creating a storyboard for the video including a script, graphic design and images.
“These students are learning real-world applications with real-world data while interacting and engaging with NASA coders and engineers throughout this challenge with four live virtual events and weekly office hours,” Keinrath said.
In 2023, eight HCCHS engineering students submitted a proposed experiment that was among 60 in the nation selected for a $1,500 grant from NASA’s TechRise student challenge.
