Incorporated as part of the NASA experience, and working in conjunction with other NASA and engineering organizations, student teams will participate in a minimum of three videoconferences as part of a systems engineering design challenge through the Digital Learning Network (DLN). The three major areas of emphasis will be an initial interview to present ideas on a proposed flight project; an overview of systems engineering with a NASA systems engineer; and a connection to provide information on the Moon and Mars environment from a NASA subject matter expert. The videoconference connection via the DLN is a way to connect NASA system engineers and other NASA specialists to participating teams in order to gather the information necessary to understand, research, and test their proposed design project. These connections also allow a multitude of opportunities for NASA to share information about systems engineering through connections back to other university students and faculty across the country.

During stage one; teams will present their proposed projects to a committee of specialists in order to compete for the flight projects with NASA. Schools will present a brief overview of their project to the committee for project assignment. Selection and assignment to flight projects will occur after this competition stage has been completed for all teams.

During stage two; teams will connect through the DLN to a NASA Systems Engineer to learn about how NASA uses systems engineering in current projects, and how it can be incorporated into their own flight projects. Students will be able to discuss real world applications to systems engineering in a working environment, as well as application to their own flight projects.

During stage three: teams will connect through the DLN to their experiment NASA mentor and Reduced Gravity Education staff. This connection will allow students to share test abstract, baseline data collected in 1-G, test procedures for the flight, how flight data will be compared to ground data, and a tour of completed hardware (rig). This presentation will allow the NASA mentor and Reduced Gravity Education staff to gauge team's progress.

For teams selected for lunar experiments; teams will connect via the DLN to a Moon or Mars specialist to explain about these environments and students can then assess how this could possibly impact their design. This is another opportunity to further explore their system engineering skills and communicate their flight projects with NASA specialists and other teams.

The culmination of these events will be flying the experiment aboard the Reduced Gravity aircraft during flight week. During a post-flight event, teams will be able to connect back to their universities to share their design experience with others. This would enable each team to share their findings and flying experiences with their university and other teams that may not have been selected to participate.