Ever wanted to be an astronaut when you were little? Well, now you can! Well, no, you can’t, but you can get pretty darn close, by welding for NASA! Even if they won’t actually be able to live in the International Space Station, these students can get a taste of life in space by welding the very tables that those astronauts will eat off of!
Students work to create table for NASA
Friday, July 31, 2009 | 2:50 PM
LEAGUE CITY, TX — Teachers, mentors and students with the HUNCH program (High Schools United with NASA to Create Hardware) are working overtime this summer. NASA engineers are teaching high school students how to create flight ready hardware out of sheet metal.
Jacobs Engineering's Steve Rogers and Clear Creek HS teacher Bill Gibbs help Josh Hartnett learn the intricacies of making sheet metal flight ready for space.
At Clear Creek High School they are working on making a dining table for the International Space Station. The design is already NASA approved and now students are learning how to fabricate the table using wax molds and sheet metal that is flight tolerant. According to teacher Bill Gibbs, the table should be flown to the ISS in 2010.
Steve Rogers a NASA contractor with Jacobs Engineering explained, “These high school students are doing what engineers with 25 to 30 year experience are doing at NASA. These students are doing very well.”
From the design to the fabrication, students are also learning the tedious side of sending hardware into space.
