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NASA NTRS2007

Renal Stone Risk During Space Flight: Assessment and Countermeasure Validation

NASA has focused its future on exploration class missions including the goal of returning to the moon and landing on Mars. With these objectives, humans will experience an extended exposure to the harsh environment of microgravity and the associated negative effects on all the physiological systems of the body. Exposure to microgravity affects human physiology and results in changes to the urinary chemical composition during and after space flight. These changes are associated with an increased risk of renal stone formation. The development of a renal stone would have health consequences for the crewmember and negatively impact the success of the mission. As of January 2007, 15 known symptomatic medical events consistent with urinary calculi have been experienced by 13 U.S. astronauts and Russian cosmonauts. Previous results from both MIR and Shuttle missions have demonstrated an increased risk for renal stone formation. These data have shown decreased urine volume, urinary pH and citrate levels and increased urinary calcium. Citrate, an important urinary inhibitor of calcium-containing renal stones binds with calcium in the urine, thereby reducing the amount of calcium available to form calcium oxalate stones. Urinary citrate also prevents calcium oxalate crystals from aggregating into larger crystals and into renal stones. In addition, citrate makes the urine less acidic which inhibits the development of uric acid stones. Potassium citrate supplementation has been successfully used to treat patients who have formed renal stones. The evaluation of potassium citrate as a countermeasure has been performed during the ISS Expeditions 3-6, 8, 11-13 and is currently in progress during the ISS Expedition 14 mission. Together with the assessment of stone risk and the evaluation of a countermeasure, this investigation provides an educational opportunity to all crewmembers. Individual urinary biochemical profiles are generated and the risk of stone formation is estimated. Increasing fluid intake is recommended to all crewmembers. These results can be used to lower the risk for stone formation through lifestyle, diet changes or therapeutic administration to minimize the risk for stone development. With human presence in microgravity a continuing presence and exploration class missions being planned, maintaining the health and welfare of all crewmembers is critical to the exploration of space.

Whitson, P. A.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Pieces of Other Worlds - Extraterrestrial Samples for Education and Public Outreach

During the Year of the Solar System spacecraft from NASA and our international partners will encounter two comets; orbit the asteroid Vesta, continue to explore Mars with rovers, and launch robotic explorers to the Moon and Mars. We have pieces of all these worlds in our laboratories, and their continued study provides incredibly valuable "ground truth" to complement space exploration missions. Extensive information about these unique materials, as well as actual lunar samples and meteorites, are available for display and education. The Johnson Space Center (JSC) has the unique responsibility to curate NASA's extraterrestrial samples from past and future missions. Curation includes documentation, preservation, preparation, and distribution of samples for research, education, and public outreach. At the current time JSC curates six types of extraterrestrial samples: (1) Moon rocks and soils collected by the Apollo astronauts (2) Meteorites collected on US expeditions to Antarctica (including rocks from the Moon, Mars, and many asteroids including Vesta) (3) "Cosmic dust" (asteroid and comet particles) collected by high-altitude aircraft (4) Solar wind atoms collected by the Genesis spacecraft (5) Comet particles collected by the Stardust spacecraft (6) Interstellar dust particles collected by the Stardust spacecraft These rocks, soils, dust particles, and atoms continue to be studied intensively by scientists around the world. Descriptions of the samples, research results, thousands of photographs, and information on how to request research samples are on the JSC Curation website: http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/ NASA provides a limited number of Moon rock samples for either short-term or long-term displays at museums, planetariums, expositions, and professional events that are open to the public. The JSC Public Affairs Office handles requests for such display samples. Requestors should apply in writing to Mr. Louis Parker, JSC Exhibits Manager. Mr. Parker will advise successful applicants regarding provisions for receipt, display, and return of the samples. All loans will be preceded by a signed loan agreement executed between NASA and the requestor's organization. Email address: louis.a.parker@nasa.gov Sets of twelve thin sections of Apollo lunar samples and sets of twelve thin sections of meteorites are available for short-term loan from JSC Curation. The thin sections are designed for use in college and university courses where petrographic microscopes are available for viewing. Requestors should contact the Ms. Mary Luckey, Education Sample Curator. Email address: mary.k.luckey@nasa.gov

Allen, Carlton C.↗

DOE OSTI2024

Involving the new generations in Fermilab endeavors

Since 1984 the Italian groups of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) and Italian Universities, collaborating with the DOE laboratory of Fermilab (US) have been running a two-month summer training program for Italian university students. While in the first year the program involved only four physics students of the University of Pisa, in the following years it was extended to engineering students. This extension was very successful and the engineering students have been since then extremely well accepted by the Fermilab Technical, Accelerator, and Scientific Computing Division groups. Over the many years of its existence, this program has proven to be the most effective way to engage new students in Fermilab endeavors. Many students have extended their collaboration with Fermilab with their Master’s Thesis and PhD. Since 2004 the program has been supported in part by DOE in the frame of an exchange agreement with INFN. Over its almost 40 years of history, the program has grown in scope and size and has involved more than 550 Italian students from more than 20 Italian Universities, Several Institutes of Research, including ASI and INAF in Italy, and the ISSNAF Foundation in the US, have provided additional financial support. Since the program does not exclude appropriately selected non-Italian students, a handful of students from European and non-European Universities were also accepted over the years. Each intern is supervised by a Fermilab Mentor responsible for performing the training program. Training programs spanned from Tevatron, CMS, Muon (g-2), Mu2e, and Short Baseline Neutrino Experiments and DUNE design and experimental data analysis, development of particle detectors (silicon trackers, calorimeters, drift chambers, neutrino and dark matter detectors), design of electronic and accelerator components, development of infrastructures and software for exascale data handling, research on superconductive elements and on accelerating cavities, and theory of particle accelerators. Since 2010, within an extended program supported by the Italian Space Agency and the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics, a total of 30 students in physics, astrophysics, and engineering have been hosted for two months in the summer at US space science Research Institutes and laboratories. In 2015 the University of Pisa included these programs within its educational programs. Accordingly, Summer School students are enrolled at the University of Pisa for the duration of the internship and are identified and ensured as such. At the end of the internship, the students are required to write summary reports on their achievements. After positive evaluation by a University Examining Board, interns are acknowledged credits for their Diploma Supplement. The program was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic but restarted successfully in 2022. We believe this program can be taken as a model and easily adopted by interested institutions.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

NASA NTRS2005

Coupling of the Inner Magnetosphere with the Underlying Atmosphere and Ionosphere

The following is a final report summarizing our very successful inner magnetosphere research program through which we have made significant contributions to: (1) research through data analysis, modeling and participation in community-wide campaigns, (2) the development of the space science discipline through leadership in national and international campaigns, service on steering committees, review panels and the development and maintenance of campaign and community web sites, (3) education and human resources by the participation of graduate, undergraduate and high school students in our research programs and (4) outreach through development of web-based materials and interactive games. We describe each of these activities below.

Sharber, James M.↗

NASA NTRS1984

NASA RECON: Course development, administration, and evaluation. A research and development proposal

This proposal addresses the development, administration, and evaluation of a set of transportable, college-level courses to educate science and engineering students in the effective use of automated scientific and technical information storage and retrieval systems, and, in particular, in the use of the NASA RECON system. Chapter 1 presents a brief introduction. Chapter 2 identifies general and specific objectives, i.e., needs analysis, course development, course administration, and course evaluation. Chapter 3 proposes the methodology to be used in successfully accomplishing these objectives. Chapter 4 highlights expected results and product deliverables, and Chapter 5 presents the project evaluation plan to be followed. Chapter 6 is a brief overview of the institutional resources available at the proposing institutions, i.e., at the University of Southwestern Louisiana and at Southern University to support the project. Chapter 7 proposes a budget, time schedule, and management plan. Chapter 8 is a summary of the foregoing.

Dominick, Wayne D.↗

NASA NTRS1989

NASA/USRA University Advanced Design Program Fifth Annual Summer Conference

The NASA/USRA University Advanced Design Program is a unique program that brings together NASA engineers, students, and faculty from United States engineering schools by integrating current and future NASA space/aeronautics engineering design projects into the university curriculum. The Program was conceived in the fall of 1984 as a pilot project to foster engineering design education in the universities and to supplement NASA's in-house efforts in advanced planning for space and aeronautics design. Nine universities and five NASA centers participated in the first year of the pilot project. Close cooperation between the NASA centers and the universities, the careful selection of design topics, and the enthusiasm of the students has resulted in a very successful program than now includes forty universities and eight NASA centers. The study topics cover a broad range of potential space and aeronautics projects which could be undertaken during a 20-30 year period beginning with the deployment of the Space Station Freedom scheduled for the mid1990s. Both manned and unmanned endeavors are embraced, and the systems approach to the design problem is emphasized. The student teams pursue the chosen problem during their senior year in a one or two semester capstone design course and submit a comprehensive written report at the conclusion of the project. Finally, student representatives from each of the universities summarize their work in oral presentations at the annual Summer Conference, held at one of the NASA centers and attended by the university faculty, NASA and USRA personnel, and aerospace industry representatives.

Source record↗

DOE OSTI2026

Fostering Geothermal Machine Learning Success: Elevating Big Data Accessibility and Automated Data Standardization in the Geothermal Data Repository

The Department of Energy's (DOE) Geothermal Data Repository (GDR) has implemented improvements to both its data lakes and its data standards and automated data pipelines. The GDR data lakes have reduced storage and compute-related barriers to using large geothermal datasets, enabling these large datasets to be accessed by anyone with a modern computer and internet access. More recently, the GDR has been working to further reduce barriers through streamlining the data intake process, educating users on the process and requirements, and aiding users in accessing data from the data lakes. These improvements have augmented the quantity of datasets the GDR is able to accept into its data lakes and have enabled users who are new to cloud tools to access these datasets more easily, overall increasing the accessibility of big geothermal data for use in machine learning and other projects. In addition, the GDR now has built-in data standards and pipelines for drilling data, geospatial data, and distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) data. These standardization efforts aim to enhance the real-world applicability of geothermal machine learning outcomes by improving the quality of training data. Specifically, through standardizing high-value datasets, the GDR is reducing project-specific data curation requirements, thus allowing more time for actual research. By automating this process, the burden of standardization is lifted from the user, ultimately increasing the availability of standardized data.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Small Satellite Reliability Initiative (SSRI) Knowledge Base Tool: Use Case Review and Future Functionality and Content Direction

The Small Satellite Reliability Initiative (SSRI) Knowledge Base is a comprehensive and searchable online tool that consolidates and organizes resources, best practices, and lessons learned from previous small satellite missions sponsored by NASA, other government agencies, and academia. This free, publicly available tool is available to the entire SmallSat Community. The SSRI Knowledge Base provides vetted, high-quality sources of information on elements that are key to successful small satellite missions. These resources include SSRI working group generated documents and presentations in addition to existing guides, publications, standards, software tools, websites, and books. The Knowledge Base is fully searchable, offers downloadable content when possible, and otherwise links to or references content directly from within the tool. This presentation and paper will discuss the motivation for the SSRI Knowledge Base, review educational use cases, and outline plans for further development. The SSRI is a collaborative activity with broad participation from civil, U.S. Department of Defense, and both national and international commercial space systems providers and stakeholders. NASA’s Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute (S3VI) funds the SSRI Knowledge Base. The S3VI is jointly sponsored by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and Science Mission Directorate. This presentation and paper will discuss the motivation for the SSRI Knowledge Base, review educational use case(s), and outline plans for further development.

Small Spacecraft↗

DOE OSTI2024

Fostering Geothermal Machine Learning Success: Elevating Big Data Accessibility and Automated Data Standardization in the Geothermal Data Repository: Preprint

accessibility↗

DOE OSTI2025

Fostering Geothermal Machine Learning Success: Elevating Big Data Accessibility and Automated Data Standardization in the Geothermal Data Repository

The Department of Energy's (DOE's) Geothermal Data Repository (GDR) has implemented improvements to both its data lakes and its data standards and automated data pipelines. The GDR data lakes have reduced storage and compute-related barriers to using large geothermal datasets, enabling these large datasets to be accessed by anyone with a modern computer and internet access. More recently, the GDR has been working to further reduce barriers through streamlining the data intake process, educating users on the process and requirements, and helping users access data from the data lakes. These improvements have augmented the quantity of datasets the GDR is able to accept into its data lakes and have enabled users who are new to cloud tools to access these datasets more easily, overall increasing the accessibility of big geothermal data for use in machine learning and other projects. In addition, the GDR now has built-in data standards and pipelines for drilling data, geospatial data, and distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) data. These standardization efforts aim to enhance the real-world applicability of geothermal machine learning outcomes by improving the quality of training data. Specifically, through standardizing high-value datasets, the GDR is reducing project-specific data curation requirements, thus allowing more time for actual research. By automating this process, the burden of standardization is lifted from the user, ultimately increasing the availability of standardized data. This paper provides an update on recent improvements made to the GDR's data lakes and automated data pipelines, including: (1) streamlining the data lake intake process, (2) better educating users on the process and requirements through a new data lakes page, (3) adding data lake direct access links to GDR data lake submission pages, (4) implementing a DAS data pipeline to convert DAS data uploaded in SEG-Y format to a standardized hierarchical data format v5 (HDF5), (5) extending this pipeline to encompass data in the GDR data lake, (6) adding metadata requirements for geospatial data, (7) making user interface/user experience (UX) enhancements to the data pipelines' documentation pages, and (8) improving the GDR's data standards and pipelines pages to better guide users in ensuring that their data is standardized by the GDR's automated data pipelines. 2024 Geothermal Resources Council. All rights reserved.

accessibility↗

NASA NTRS1994

NASA's Space Life Sciences Training Program

The Space Life Sciences Training Program (SLSTP) is an intensive, six-week training program held every summer since 1985 at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). A major goal of the SLSTP is to develop a cadre of qualified scientists and engineers to support future space life sciences and engineering challenges. Hand-picked, undergraduate college students participate in lectures, laboratory sessions, facility tours, and special projects: including work on actual Space Shuttle flight experiments and baseline data collection. At NASA Headquarters (HQ), the SLSTP is jointly sponsored by the Life Sciences Division and the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs: it has been very successful in attracting minority students and women to the fields of space science and engineering. In honor of the International Space Year (ISY), 17 international students participated in this summer's program. An SLSTP Symposium was held in Washington D. C., just prior to the World Space Congress. The Symposium attracted over 150 SLSTP graduates for a day of scientific discussions and briefings concerning educational and employment opportunities within NASA and the aerospace community. Future plans for the SLSTP include expansion to the Johnson Space Center in 1995.

Coulter, G.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Developing the Foundations of an Exploration Class Medical System: Bridging the Capability Gap between LEO and Mars

NASA's overarching mission is to drive advances in science, technology, aeronautics, and space exploration to enhance knowledge, education, innovation, economic vitality, and Earth stewardship. Its Artemis Program encompasses the next steps in human space exploration, critical elements of which include the Orion vehicle and Gateway outpost in lunar orbit. Artemis is the first "exploration class" space travel system with the stated mission to establish sustainable exploration of the lunar surface and serve as a bridge to future human exploration of Mars. Success requires understanding both the commonalities and the differences between our experience to date, predominantly in Low-Earth-Orbit, and the challenges expected in long-duration exploration missions. In addition, these missions will incur significant constraints on both vehicle and human systems. To that end, NASA Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) element clinicians, engineers, and scientists are developing the "foundation" for a fully vehicle-integrated exploration-class medical system using model-based systems engineering to trace and leverage clinical and engineering content to expand and refine the fidelity and confidence in the medical system itself.

MEDICAL SYSTEMS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Customer outcomes in Pay-As-You-Save programs

We review the energy and financial outcomes of households participating in several programs based on successive versions of the Pay As You Save¯ (PAYS¯) system. PAYS¯ programs offer non-debt financing for energy efficiency (and sometimes other technologies) in residential buildings through a tariff attached to the home’s utility meter, designed to be offset by project savings. We find that the five programs we study generally serve customers living in zip codes with levels of income and education below the national average and unemployment rates above the national average, demonstrating their potential to improve equity in energy efficiency adoption. Using weather-normalized analysis of energy consumption data, we show that most customers of Midwest Energy’s program reduce annual electricity and gas consumption, averaging 15% and 26% reductions respectively. Changes in energy consumption calculated using this method represent a combination of project effects and changes in occupant behavior. These results are similar to existing analyses of PAYS¯ programs in North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee. About half of participating Midwest households generate sufficient energy cost savings to cover their monthly tariff. Various factors, including changes in occupant behavior, program error, causes independent of the customer or program, or some combination thereof may explain lower-than-expected cost reductions in some projects. Given the inherent variability in annual household electricity consumption, we feel these programs are enabling energy efficiency improvements and their attendant co-benefits, including occupant health and comfort and reduced carbon emissions, while reasonably balancing energy savings and tariff costs. Pairing PAYS¯ with additional financial assistance, as well as promoting cost-effective measures such as air and duct sealing, could further broaden program participation by enabling additional projects to meet PAYS¯ program eligibility rules.

Deason, Jeff↗

DOE OSTI2023

2023 SAGE-Camp Report

The 7 th Summer Physics Camp for Young Women was successfully held in person in 2023 from June 5 th to 16 th at the New Mexico School for the Arts in Santa Fe, NM at Hilo Intermediate School in Hawaii. This year’s camp was dedicated to the topic of Energy Security and was made possible thanks to the strong collaboration of Los Alamos, Sandia and Hawaii teams and the logistical and financial support of Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico Consortium, SAGE- Moore Foundation, LANL Foundation, ACS, IEE, APS four corners, N3B, Hawaii Museum of Science and Technology, New Mexico School for the Arts (NMSA) and Tech Source. The camp mobilized more than 120 volunteers who made the camp a success. The camp is free of charge to the students and included free lunch and snacks for the busy brains to have plenty of energy, also included all materials needed for the hands-on activities (like drone building, crystal structure, solar panels, wind turbine fabrication, soldering, coding etc) and also a stipend for students who attended for the full two weeks and for two educators and two student mentors in NM. The camp offered 32 high school students from New Mexico and 8 from Hawaii a unique opportunity to explore science topics and meet a broad range of role model professionals across STEM fields including astrophysics, cybersecurity, Energy fields, space science, engineering, biophysics, environmental science, robotics, computer science, nuclear engineering, radiological science, physics and chemistry. With nearly 120 volunteers who came mainly from Los Alamos National Laboratory (66%) and Sandia national laboratories (18%), two funded educators from NM, Dr. Weldon Beauchamp and Dr. Ellee Cook, and two educators from Hilo, Dr. Pascale Creek Pinner and LeAnn Ragasa, the camp was educationally sound and extremely varied. The collaboration with school educators is critical for the goal of this camp to not only impact students' lives but also improve STEM education in NM and Hawaii. The ultimate goal of the camp is to increase higher education aspirations of students, empower them to consider careers in STEM and learn more about the opportunities available to them in our local colleges and DOE National Laboratories. In addition, the camp also hired 2 past students as student mentors, Megan Odom and Elisea Jackson, who currently attend NMSA and were students at the camp in 2022 when it was virtual. The in-person camp which aims at empowering under-represented minorities in STEM in our community received more than 52 applications this year from all over NM and 8 applications from Hawaii. Our selection criteria are based on diversity, equity and inclusion, and students for whom the camp can be a life-changing opportunity are given a chance to attend the camp. During COVID, the camp was held virtually and gave the opportunity to students from remote areas in NM and Hawaii to attend from their homes. This year, fantastic families supported students everyday even when home was in remote areas in NM like Lea county, Sandoval county, Bernalillo or Mora county. The organizers hope next year they can offer a residential option for students from remote areas.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

NASA NTRS2016

Expanded Benefits for Humanity from the International Space Station

In 2012, the International Space Station (ISS) partnership published the updated International Space Station Benefits for Humanity, 2nd edition, a compilation of stories about the many benefits being realized in the areas of human health, Earth observations and disaster response, and global education. This compilation has recently been revised to include updated statistics on the impacts of the benefits, and new benefits that have developed since the first publication. Two new sections have also been added to the book, economic development of space and innovative technology. This paper will summarize the updates on behalf of the ISS Program Science Forum, made up of senior science representatives across the international partnership. The new section on "Economic Development of Space" highlights case studies from public-private partnerships that are leading to a new economy in low earth orbit (LEO). Businesses provide both transportation to the ISS as well as some research facilities and services. These relationships promote a paradigm shift of government-funded, contractor-provided goods and services to commercially-provided goods purchased by government agencies. Other examples include commercial firms spending research and development dollars to conduct investigations on ISS and commercial service providers selling services directly to ISS users. This section provides examples of ISS as a test bed for new business relationships, and illustrates successful partnerships. The second new section, Innovative Technology, merges technology demonstration and physical science findings that promise to return Earth benefits through continued research. Robotic refueling concepts for life extensions of costly satellites in geo-synchronous orbit have applications to robotics in industry on Earth. Flame behavior experiments reveal insight into how fuel burns in microgravity leading to the possibility of improving engine efficiency on Earth. Nanostructures and smart fluids are examples of materials improvements that are being developed using data from ISS. The publication also expands the benefits of research results in human health, environmental change and disaster response and in education activities developed to capture student imaginations in support of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, education internationally. Applications to human health of the knowledge gained on ISS continues to grow and improve healthcare technologies and our understanding of human physiology. Distinct benefits return to Earth from the only orbiting multi-disciplinary laboratory of its kind. The ISS is a stepping stone for future space exploration by providing findings that develop LEO and improve life on our planet.

Rai, Amelia↗

DOE OSTI2023

A comparative analysis of US state-level policies and programs to advance energy justice

Abstract The US energy system is undergoing massive changes that have environmental, technological, and societal implications. Decisions and actions taken now will dramatically alter the trajectory of our future energy system. Though new technologies can lessen the dangers of anthropogenic climate change, an effective and sustainable transition requires addressing social justice issues as a priority. To this end, many states have implemented policies and programs that address energy justice. A formal survey of state-level energy justice policies and programs is needed to better understand the methods used to assist communities targeted and the impacts of these efforts. Such an analysis should include an analysis of the metrics used to judge the effectiveness of the enacted policies and programs. In this paper, we analyze the energy justice policies and programs of seven different US states. From this analysis, we identify three important aspects of state energy policies. First, most policies and programs do not articulate their goals, nor cite metrics to judge their successes. This lack of transparency and accountability is a major roadblock to truly just solutions. Second, states focus on a very narrow range of solutions for energy justice issues. The most prevalent being utility bill assistance, which does not address the systemic and enduring challenges faced by many low-income or historically marginalized communities. Lastly, comprehensive energy policy does not acknowledge and address housing, employment, education, and healthcare inequities that exacerbate energy system inequities. The work presented in this paper sheds light on the progress of state-level energy justice policies and programs across the United States, and we argue more work needs to be done to understand best practices in energy justice policymaking.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Bishop Paiute Single Family Solar Home Project: Phase 4 (Final Technical Report)

The Bishop Paiute Tribe is committed to energy efficiency, renewable energy, and environmental protection and has a vision to install solar energy systems on all buildings on the Reservation where technically feasible. Through completion of the Bishop Paiute Tribe Residential Solar Program – Phase 4, Bishop Paiute Tribe continued its successful model partnering with non-profit solar installer GRID Alternatives to advance its vision and build energy self-sufficiency on the Bishop Paiute Reservation. The Bishop Paiute Tribe Residential Solar Program – Phase IV deployed 67 kW-AC of new clean, renewable energy through grid-tied, net-metered rooftop solar electric systems installed on a total of 20 (one more than the planned 19) existing owner-occupied, single-family homes for low-income families on the Reservation. This represents nearly 14% of the Reservation’s total “unsolarized” homes. These systems were provided at no cost to the homeowners, who will also receive energy efficiency education to further reduce energy consumption and lower electric bills. GRID led a solar installation for three (3) of the homes where Tribal/community members, were given an opportunity in participating in on-the-roof trainings to gain new skills while installing solar for their low-income community members. Subcontractors through GRID Sub Contractor Partnership Program (GRID SPP) led solar installations for seventeen (17) of the homes. Each installation provided paid employment for a solar trainee trainees hired by the SPP subcontractors as entry level solar installers. It is estimated that the installed 67 kW-AC of solar will produce at least 120,000 kWh/year, displacing at least 30-75% of the 20 homes’ total electricity use for a combined system lifetime electricity cost savings for the low-income homeowners of about $\$$500,000. It is further estimated that the installed renewable energy systems installed will prevent greenhouse gases by about 1,000 tons, equivalent to planting approximately 25,000 trees. Following the successful completed installations, it is expected that the Reservation and surrounding communities will benefit from improved air quality via reduced wood stove use for heating. Cumulatively with other initiatives, the project will result in nearly 40% of the Reservation’s solarizable homes being solarized. Overall, the triple impact of the phase 4 of the Bishop Paiute Tribe Residential Solar Program – Phase 4 is: 1) affordable energy for low-income families; 2) on-site clean energy production, 3) hands on training and paid solar installation work for local tribal/community workers. These impacts will support and grow the Tribe’s energy, economic, environmental, and social self-sufficiency and sovereignty amongst the neediest on the Reservation.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

We Are All Potential Role Models: How We Can Support Scientist Engagement with Youth and the General Public

We all have the opportunity to be positive STEM role models. Yet scientists rarely identify themselves as a possible role model. In the training, “Empowering Effective STEM Role Models,” scientists practice research based strategies for engaging youth, particularly girls. This type of training is complementary to science communication, but is focused on equipping scientists with the skills needed to successfully encourage youth to pursue STEM careers. This training has been provided to over 150 STEM professionals at NASA and 14 federal agencies participated in a Train-the-Trainer version, organized by the White House Council for Women and Girls in STEM Working Group. Participants in this training reported that learning and practicing how to connect with and inspire children in STEM made them more confident stepping into further engagement opportunities. Confident, inspiring scientists are a highlight of a successful engagement event, but other factors make a positive experience possible.It’s important that all partners are thoughtful and intentional in preparing for public engagement events. The logistics are crucial, especially now while many engagements have moved to virtual platforms. Additional technology considerations make preparation essential. Two examples of virtual engagement highlight the support provided that led to successful engagements. The GLOBE Mission Earth project engages scientists in virtual classroom visits. To ensure both teacher and scientist expectations are met, a coordinator facilitates up front preparation by providing slide templates for the scientist to customize and providing video and other resources to the teacher and students to prompt student questions. Another example leverages the power of social media, particularly NASA Facebook. The NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative organizes citizen science challenges and engages the public on social. For one event, scientists were asked to share their connection to the investigation, but without access to NASA’s video production studio, the plans shifted. Scientists prepared audio files instead of videos and collaborated with communications leads to help craft their message. This weekly series has been flexible, adjusting to scientist's comfort levels, and has resulted in fresh and creative engagement.

Jessica Elaine Taylor↗