Are you ready for this year’s NASA TechRise Student challenge? From researching Earth’s environment to designing experiments for space exploration, schools are invited to join NASA in its mission to inspire the world through discovery. If you are in sixth to 12th grade at a U.S. public, private, or charter school – including those in U.S. territories – your challenge is to team up with your schoolmates and develop a science or technology experiment idea for this year’s NASA TechRise flight vehicle – the high-altitude balloon!

The High-Altitude Balloon will offer approximately four to eight hours of flight time at approximately 70,000 to 95,000 feet and exposure to Earth’s atmosphere, high-altitude radiation, and perspective views of our planet.

A total of 60 winning teams will be selected to build their proposed experiment. Each winning team will be awarded:

• $1,500 to build their experiment
• A flight box in which to build it
• An assigned spot to test their experiment on a NASA-sponsored flight
• Technical support during the experiment build phase from Future Engineers' advisors, who will help students learn the skills they need to turn their experiment idea into reality.

Note that no experience is necessary to participate in the NASA TechRise Challenge! The steps below will help your team plan and submit your experiment idea.