MEDIA CONTACT: 蒂姆·梁, Director of Communications & Community Relations, Contra Costa Community College District, 925-229-6823 and 凯蒂Livingood, External Relations, Office of Education, NASA Johnson Space Center, 281-244-1908

PROGRAM CONTACT: 弗朗西斯卡布里格斯, Engineering Professor/Faculty Advisor, 413-455-8650

From left to right: 弗朗西斯卡布里格斯, Marc Magarin, Justin Bullock, Victor Shaw, Elizabeth Castro, Kyle Mc Eachern, Jeffrey Johnson, Jeanne Bonner, Elizabeth Blome (NASA mentor)

一个人永远不知道机会会在哪里降临。 But a recent venture was just such an opportunity, opening even more doors for Engineering Tech. This Los Medanos College (LMC) student team (Haoran Sean Xu, Justin Bullock, Elizabeth Castro, Kyle Mc Eachern, Jeffrey Johnson, Marc A. Magarin, Guillermo Reyes, Claudio Roman, Victor Shaw, Jordan Stafford, Jackson Wise), along with two LMC faculty advisors, traveled to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas in early June. They had been invited as a NASA Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Team (Micro-g NExT) to test their spacewalk tool in NASA的620万加仑中性浮力实验室（NBL）, a 40-foot deep pool where astronauts train for spacewalks.

Micro-g NExT, a collaboration between NASA's Office of Education and Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, challenges undergraduate students from community colleges and universities to propose, design, and build a spacewalk device that could be used by NASA astronauts in the future - addressing current challenges based on real world space exploration needs. Participating teams have the opportunity to experimentally test their tool in the simulated microgravity environment of the NBL. The design concepts and lessons learned from the NBL testing will support the development of space-ready geology tools on NASA's Journey to Mars.

LMC's Engineering Tech team is composed of 11 engineering and physics undergraduate students working on this research project under the guidance of their faculty advisors: new full-time Engineering Professor 弗朗西斯卡布里格斯, and Physics Professor Jeanne Bonner. The team successfully proposed, designed, and manufactured a device - the Isolate Regolith Inspection Sampler (I.R.I.S.) - that enables an astronaut to obtain a core sample for loose, rocky material from an asteroid while maintaining the stratigraphy of the core. This is the second time LMC students were selected by NASA to conduct experimental research, with the first LMC student team selected in 2011 - guided by Professor Bonner, along with student advisor Jacqueline Gessner - to participate in NASA's Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program.

This more recent journey began in October 2015, when the team submitted their original technical design concept to NASA. On December 9, 2015, the team received notice that they would take part in this prestigious opportunity based on the technical merit, safety evaluation of tool usage, and community outreach plan. LMC team's concept progressed to the testing phase of Micro-g NExT along with 25 other teams from institutions across the country, including Virginia Tech, Purdue University, University of California San Diego, and Cornell University.

"Professor Bonner and I had all of these students in our engineering and physics classes last year. We gave them the information about this NASA project and from there they decided to form a NASA team, the Engineering Tech team, and participate in NASA Micro-g NExT 2016. 这对我们所有人来说都是一次很好的学习和有益的经历。 As Micro-g NExT visiting researchers, we worked alongside NASA engineers, scientists and astronauts, taking 澳门威尼斯人网上赌场 was learned in class and applying it to the real spacewalk tasks," explained Professor Briggs.

The overall experience included hands-on engineering design, experimental testing, and educational/public outreach. LMC's team spent countless hours writing technical reports, iterating the I.R.I.S. tool's concept and design, prototyping it, and testing it in and out of the water. 这个项目的很大一部分也是社区外展。 Students engaged with local high schools and social media throughout this project to share their story, and to spark others curiosity for science and its applications.

“我看到我们的学生把他们的想法和工程设计变成了现实。 I have seen them manufacturing the prototype, working on numerous technical presentations, collaborating as a team and working hard to meet the numerous NASA deadlines. I have seen students meeting weekly and working around the clock on this project. I can tell you they are driven, capable and motivated to succeed. The team is diverse in terms of student roles and academic background, characterized by students proficient as CAD modelers, welders, machinists, materials scientists and physicists. This is 澳门威尼斯人网上赌场 made the team really versatile and dynamic, and contributed to its success," said Professor Briggs.

“总的来说，很棒的设计，我看不出有什么需要改变的！”
——美国宇航局科学家

"It was evident from our arrival at NASA's NBL that there was interest in the team's tool. To see their Micro-g NExT project go from conception, to design, and through testing has been a sight to behold. The diversity of this team - life experiences, perspectives, strengths - clearly served them well. We are proud of 澳门威尼斯人网上赌场 they have accomplished," said Professor Bonner.

Students have been praised on multiple occasions for their innovative and effective engineering design, smooth tool operation and materials choice by NASA engineers and divers. The LMC students and faculty advisors have been encouraged by NASA to seek intellectual property rights for this device and protect it through patent attainment. This technical advancement and invention are being pursued through LMC senior leadership at this time, led by Professors Briggs and Bonner.

"LMC's campus community is tremendously proud of our students and faculty involved in this project, and we congratulate them on their ingenuity and hard work. They earned the respect and admiration of NASA engineers and staff, and the tool they developed will have a significant impact on the future of scientific exploration. The members of our Engineering Tech team are another example of the many opportunities available - and countless successes achieved - at Los Medanos College," said Dr. Bob Kratochvil, LMC President.

NASA的620万加仑中性浮力实验室（NBL）

Overall, the journey to Houston has been such an inspiration for both the students and faculty advisors on LMC's Engineering Tech team: working with NASA's distinguished staff, state-of-the-art equipment and facilities, and astronauts training in the NBL pool; 从NASA的科学家和工程师那里获得建设性和积极的反馈； and interacting with engineers from all over the country - even meeting an Apollo astronaut!

“这深深地激励了我们的每一位学生。 It is motivating them to reach for the stars and I couldn't be more proud of them. Most of them will be applying for internships at NASA," explained Professor Briggs.

这还不是全部！！ The Exploration EVA Tools Development Team (EETDT) at NASA's Johnson Space Center was also impressed by the tool design and will put the tool through additional testing during the 21st mission of the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) to be conducted later this summer. NEEMO is a NASA project that sends groups of astronauts, engineers, and scientists to live in Aquarius - the world's only undersea research station- for up to three weeks at a time to test tools and techniques for future spacewalks among other objectives. The opportunity to be a part of NEEMO 21 is just another outstanding accomplishment for LMC in terms of academic excellence and student success. Professor Briggs and Professor Bonner are now negotiating with NASA engineering and management contacts to carry on and formalize this new research and development opportunity.

“伟大的工作! 洛斯梅达诺斯学院激励了我们！”
- NASA Micro-g NExT教育专家

"We are very thankful for the opportunity we had to go to Johnson Space Center, and to meet and work alongside NASA. It has been very impressive and extremely inspiring for us all to contribute to design challenges and solutions for exploratory-based research. I can't express how proud we are as faculty advisors, and how inspired both we and the students are of the overall mission and NASA's confidence in us to help them (and us!) achieve success. After seeing the investments NASA is making in outreach and the overall devotion to duty that all NASA scientists exhibit, we are extremely motivated and inspired to help shape our next generation of scientists and engineers to possibly join the NASA team," said Professor Briggs.

邦纳教授再次被学生的创造力和激情所感动。 "It is deeply rewarding to see 澳门威尼斯人网上赌场 students can achieve when presented with an opportunity and given the support to explore their interests. We are so proud of LMC's Engineering Tech team!"

Los Medanos College (LMC) is one of three colleges in the Contra Costa Community College District. LMC prepares students to excel and succeed economically, socially and intellectually in an innovative, engaging and supportive learning environment. It provides quality programs and state-of-the-art facilities to serve the needs of a rapidly growing and changing East County while enhancing the quality of life of the diverse communities it serves. LMC is located on 120 acres between Pittsburg and Antioch, with an additional education center in Brentwood.

更多照片、视频和设计规范可在以下网址找到：

• 听从他们的 Facebook之旅！

查看与工具#MICROgNExT一起使用的NBL工具

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Los Medanos College (LMC) is one of three colleges in the Contra Costa Community College District. LMC prepares students to excel and succeed economically, socially and intellectually in an innovative, engaging and supportive learning environment. It provides quality programs and state-of-the-art facilities to serve the needs of a rapidly growing and changing East County while enhancing the quality of life of the diverse communities it serves. LMC is located on 120 acres between Pittsburg and Antioch, with an additional education center in Brentwood.