The document outlines the story of the Astronaut Challenge, a competition created to encourage students' interest in STEM fields by having them design a space shuttle simulator. It describes how an aerospace company approached a university about creating a prize competition to address the need for more engineers and spark students' passion for STEM. This led to the creation of the Astronaut Challenge, which tasks student teams with designing a functional space shuttle simulator and offers a $10,000 prize. The goal is to attract the best and brightest STEM-minded students and give them an opportunity that could help address the lack of engineers while also inspiring future achievements.

3. • The Story
• The Need
• The Challenge
• The Students
• The Schools
• The Goal
• The Way You Can Help

4. How the Astronaut Challenge came about

5. THE STORY
Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (Referred to as STEM)

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The Prize: $10,000

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Space Shuttle Simulator
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Space Shuttle Simulator

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pro-bono software programming
and helps to build the actual “rolling”
Space Shuttle Simulator

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The “Astronaut Challenge” is born!
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“Yes. We’re the largest employer of engineers in Florida, this is perfect!”
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14. We don’t have enough engineers

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16. Here’s how it works...

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Figure 1: Simplified control bus layout. This is a closed loop because the return path is through vehicle ground (not shown
in diagram). PNL=Panel RPC =Remote Power Controller SNSR = Sensor

19. THE STORY

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22. The Best and Brightest Minds

23. THE STORY

24. An Opportunity to Focus and Channel

25. THE STORY

26. What else can we achieve?

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28. Be a part of our future

29. THE STORY