Kids to present new ideas for International Space Station

Honeywell Fiesta Bowl Aerospace ChallengeMore than 800 fifth- through eighth-grade students from 45 schools across Arizona will present their ideas for a new generation International Space Station that can sustain 100 people for two years during the Honeywell Fiesta Bowl Aerospace Challenge presented by The Arizona Republic featuring Microsoft Mission Control Preliminaries.

When/where

8 a.m. Monday-Tuesday at ASU at the West Campus, 4701 W. Thunderbird Road, Phoenix.

Details

The top three teams from each day of the preliminaries will win a Challenger Space Center Simulated Space Mission and will advance to finals on Jan. 2 at the Challenger Space Center in Peoria, where they will present their projects to a panel of NASA astronauts and Honeywell engineers. The first-place team and teacher at the finals will be awarded a VIP trip to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Tex., to experience a behind-the-scenes look at the NASA facilities. They will also be recognized on the field at the 38th annual Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.

About the challenge

Students are encouraged to develop plans for a new-generation International Space Station in teams of three to five people. Their comprehensive designs will include scale models of their space stations as well as scientific explanations on how they can sustain a crew of 100 people for two years. Their models include explanations of how they'll manage waste, deal with food and oxygen demands and other information pertaining to life on the space station.