High School Division
2010 Challenge
Environmentally Responsible
(Green) Aviation High School Student Challenge
NASA invites students to propose ideas and designs for
future aircraft that use less fuel, produce less harmful
emissions, and make less noise.
Background
In order to engage and inspire the next generation of
engineers and scientists, NASA offers technical challenges
for both high school and college level students in the
area of environmentally responsible aviation. These challenges
are open to both US citizens and foreign students.
Today's current generation of aircraft benefit from
past NASA investments in aeronautical research that have
improved fuel efficiencies, lowered noise levels and
lessened harmful emissions. Although substantial progress
has been made, much more needs to be done. The nation’s
air transportation system will continue to expand by
an average of two to three percent per year over the
next couple of decades, potentially increasing aviation's
contribution to climate change. Therefore, the next generation
of environmentally responsible airliners should have
lower noise, lower emissions, and less fuel burn than
today’s aircraft.
The NASA Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA)
project explores and documents the feasibility, benefits,
and technical risks associated with vehicle concepts
and enabling technologies that will help mitigate the
impact of aviation on the environment. Through system-level
analysis, promising vehicle and propulsion concepts and
technologies will be developed based on their potential
benefit toward simultaneously achieving fuel burn, noise
and emissions metrics as shown in the green outlined
area of the table below (N+2, 2020 timeframe). Students
are invited to submit their ideas and designs for vehicle
or propulsion concepts and technologies that will assist
in meeting the N+2 goals. Those include:
- Non-conventional aircraft architectures that enable
simultaneous achievement of noise, Landing Take Off
(LTO) NOx and fuel burn metrics in the N+2 timeframe
- Drag
reduction through laminar flow
- Advanced propulsion architectures
(open rotor, geared and direct drive turbofans)
- Advanced
composite structural concepts for weight reduction
- Low
NOx, fuel-flexible combustors
- Propulsion and airframe
integration for noise reduction and fuel burn improvements
 A challenge suitable for each of three levels of students
is presented below.
High School Students—Teams or Individuals
Two options to enter: May 1, 2010 or December 15, 2010
Write a well-documented essay to describe your ideas
for a large commercial air transport vehicle (200 passenger
minimum) that will incorporate advanced materials, advanced
propulsion systems, including unconventional architectures,
non-conventional aircraft designs, produce less harmful
emissions, less noise, and greater fuel efficiency than
commercial passenger vehicles used in today’s aviation
industry.
Together with your essay, provide a one-minute video
to describe your best idea. The video will count as ten
percent of your overall score.
Submission & Evaluation for high school
level entries
Submission and format requirements will be posted soon.
NASA personnel will evaluate the papers and videos against
a set of criteria including: creativity, credible resources,
organization and clarity. A set of detailed criteria
and point values for both essays and videos will be posted
to the contest web site soon.
Eligibility & Awards for high school students
or teams
All competitors should be full time students at an accredited
institution of secondary education. Foreign students
are invited to enter but are not eligible for financial
awards. Through a NASA cooperative agreement with a Virginia-based
university, US citizens may win cash awards; non-citizens
may win trophies and certificates. The winning student
or team of students may be invited to display their video
at a NASA sponsored event. |
