Education and Public Outreach

Working with Project Management at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, SSU personnel will support press communications, outreach events and scientific illustrations on behalf of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory scientific missions. Dr. Cominsky is a scientific Co-Investigator for both missions, and also serves as press officer. Aurore Simonnet's illustrations of previous Fermi and Swift high-energy discoveries have included covers of two issues of Science magazine, and one issue of Nature.

Working with the Science Museum of Minnesota, SSU faculty, staff, and students create, test, and review hands-on activity toolkits and professional development opportunities & resources for museums and science center staff and volunteers. This work is a part of NASA's Space and Earth Informal STEM Education Project. Dr.

Working with the University of New Hampshire (UNH, PI institution) and Howard University, SSU faculty, staff, and students plan, design, build, and test a CubeSat with faculty, staff, and students at UNH and Howard. One CubeSat is built at each institution. By participating in this CubeSat project, SSU students will support scientists' research of electron heating in the ionosphere and ion outflow from Earth's magnetic boundary between open and closed magnetic fields. Dr. Peticolas, PI of the SSU effort, provides scientific expertise, mentors students, and manages the overall SSU effort.