Frequently Asked Questions
Generally, there are two launches per year. One in the spring and one in the fall. Anyone starting their experiments in the summer or fall are typically slated for the Spring launch. Those that start in the Spring semester are slated for the fall launch.
The next launch will be in Spring 2018. Date TBD. Manifest is completed and we will know specific launch date in the Oct/Nov timeframe.
Data will be returned within 30 business days of the launch barring any unforeseen circumstances or events.
In general, schools starting in the fall will need to have their experiment completed by mid-December of that year. This allows the Quest engineering team to provide all the required mission critical quality and safety testing.
The manpower required is dependent upon the proficiency of the students involved. Generally speaking, for the Introductory and Intermediate programs a teacher or mentor with a science or math program should be sufficient. For the Advanced program it is required that the teacher or mentor have an engineering and/or computer programming background. They will be required to know electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and basic software engineering.
For more information on pricing, please contact us at info@thequestinstitute.com.
– Experiment platform
– LEGO Mindstorms coding platform
– Experiment Manual
– LEGO Mindstorms coding platform
– Experiment Manual
The above plus…
– 40+/- hours of licensed content/curriculum for up to 30 students
– Portal access
– 24/7 technical support
– Access to other developers/partners (best practices, shared experiences, community building, etc.)
– Training
Your experiment is uploaded and run on the ISS with data feedback
– 40+/- hours of licensed content/curriculum for up to 30 students
– Portal access
– 24/7 technical support
– Access to other developers/partners (best practices, shared experiences, community building, etc.)
– Training
Your experiment is uploaded and run on the ISS with data feedback
Customized experiment platform that is defined and built by you. We provide the infrastructure that will allow you to create your own custom science experiment that will be flown up to the ISS. Your experiment data and results will be retrieved 30 days after flight and optionally your custom experiment can be returned to you for a fee.
– Training/documentation
– 24/7 support
– NASA safety review
– NanoLab Experiment management hardware platform
– Flight up to the ISS
– Return flight from the ISS
– All data logs
– Training/documentation
– 24/7 support
– NASA safety review
– NanoLab Experiment management hardware platform
– Flight up to the ISS
– Return flight from the ISS
– All data logs
Which program is most suitable to you is dependent upon the proficiency of the students involved.
Every two years we will be creating new science based experiment templates. In the current platform, the two primary experiments are about convection and humidity.
Heat Absorption and Radiation – This experiment will investigate basic heat absorption and radiation properties of different colored materials.
Natural Convection – This experiment will investigate heating and cooling effects from natural air convection, based upon heat transfer due to movement of air.
Forced Convection – experiment will investigate heating and cooling effects from forced air convection.
Conduction – This experiment will investigate the cooling effects from conduction
Heat and Humidity – This experiment will investigate the relative humidity decrease from exposure of air inside the sealed cube to a desiccant.
There are two supplemental modules on heat transfer by conduction and radiation as well. Additionally, other supplemental materials include a plethora of space science modules, heat transfer, internal energy, thermodynamics, the ideal gas law, circuitry, electricity, magnetism, and the conservation of different types of energy.
Along with extensive science training, students will receive training in electrical engineering through reading a schematic and wiring a breadboard, mechanical engineering through the heat engine of the ground unit, as well as programming through the Lego Mindstorms platform. There are also lesson plans relating to introductory data analysis and communication and presentation skills.
Teachers and mentors have the option to receive in-person training or web based training based on their needs and timing.
– Lego Mindstorms coding platform
– Team selection and project management
– Basic electronics
– Scientific method
– Team selection and project management
– Basic electronics
– Scientific method
LabVIEW based data analytics for the ground unit and comparison of the same data retrieved from the experiment running on board the ISS.
The Quest for Space portal provides a private online community where Partners can submit Help requests, participate in discussion threads, view recent news, and download education support materials.
The experiment platform was not designed to have unlimited uses. It was intended to be used once for the purpose of the current experiment only. Yet, the current one likely is reusable but there is no guarantee. Feel free to conduct the experiment on the ground as often as you wish. However, we only have allotted for one experiment per license period per 30 students to be uploaded into the ISS. If you want to have more than one uploaded to the ISS, please contact us directly.
You will have full access through the portal to all content that we provide. This access will be open and available to you for 9 months from the signing of the QFS agreement.
This is completely up to you but one recommendation is to prepare, describe, and present the steps taken, hypothesis proposed, and conclusions derived from doing the experiment. This can then be used to thank donors and supporters of your program as well as be used in any materials you may provide to local media outlets. We will provide materials and content on how to prepare this. There are numerous challenges related to space that come up through the year such as Future Engineers, NASA, and Lockheed Martin, to name a few. These challenges will be announced on the Portal. Also, In the last unit of the lesson plans, we point to online activities and projects that are worth reviewing.
– Ground Unit: This has no impact as no experiment is conducted on the ISS
– Flight Unit: We will endeavor to get the experiment run once a replacement manifest and payload can be secured.
– Custom Flight Unit: In the unlikely event of an unfortunate accident we recommend that each school looks into insuring their investment.
– Flight Unit: We will endeavor to get the experiment run once a replacement manifest and payload can be secured.
– Custom Flight Unit: In the unlikely event of an unfortunate accident we recommend that each school looks into insuring their investment.
This may occur from time to time at no fault of the Quest Institute. If this does occur we will abide by the agreement and provide data back to your organization within 30 days of launch.
There are many avenues you may pursue for potential sources of funding. Following please find some suggestions you may consider:
– Grants – links to a few we are aware of are provided below:
http://www.toshiba.com/taf/index.jsp
– Grants – links to a few we are aware of are provided below:
http://www.toshiba.com/taf/index.jsp
http://captainplanetfoundation.org/apply-for-grants/
https://www.educatorsusa.org/educator-and-technology-grants
– Parents and relatives
– Local corporations
– Fundraisers
– PTA’s
– Local science clubs