posted 03-11-2013 06:31 PM               

NASA to launch students' radiation shield on first Orion test flight

NASA is challenging schoolchildren to protect their future ride into space.

NASA's Exploration Design Challenge (EDC), announced Monday (March 11) during an event at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, engages U.S. students in kindergarten through high school in helping to solve the known problem of increased radiation exposure encountered on flights into deep space.

"If not all of us, most of us remember the immortal words associated with the 1970 Apollo 13 mission, 'Houston, we have a problem," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden while standing before a mockup of the agency's new Orion crew capsule. "Today, we are here to announce an effort in partnership with Lockheed Martin and the young people of America that will allow us to take about a year from now to proclaim, 'Houston, we have a solution.'"