For anyone who is of school age, or even an adult, who wants to do something in the aerospace world but doesn’t know how to get started, one my favorite recommendations is to be a participant in the annual NASA Space Apps Challenge.

This is a weekend hackathon where people form teams, pick one of the projects or “challenges” defined by NASA, and then use open source data from NASA to create proposals or solutions or prototypes that solve these actual problems on Earth or in space.

This year’s Space Apps Challenge has moved from October to November. It is the weekend of November 14-15 in cities around the world, and online.

I’m happy and excited to be the Local Lead for our regional event in Folsom, California, USA. It’s going to be an amazing event at our nearby community college, Folsom Lake College.

Whatever your skill level, or age (if you are 14 and up), if you want a rewarding weekend of learning, creativity, making new friends, and being inspired to create innovative solutions to interesting problems, this is the event for you. It’s free to attend, thanks to NASA and the sponsors who help to make the local events possible.

Have fun joining a team and doing something new in a weekend!