STEM supporters unite to encourage students in ‘Stellar’ exploration

Oren Harper and Garrett Farrar prepare for the Air Force Association StellarXplorers space system design competition in November 2016. Both students at Coffee County Central High School are members of the Air Force Junior ROTC. They recently competed in March as the Coffee County High School Team One and placed second in the competition for the East Region. The High School had two teams who competed in the Prestige Division. As part of the competition, teams must present solutions to a typical space design problem, such as orbit determination, satellite component selection and launch vehicle planning, as outlined in a scenario describing the system’s mission and constraints. The AEDC Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Center coordinator, Jere Matty, and the Women in Defense membership director, Kim Nelson, provided support that enabled the team to compete. (Courtesy photo)