MaxIQ Space
The MaxIQ Space STEM sensor kit allows students to collect data.
November 10, 2022
Maine students blasting off with new space program
Courtesy/bluShift Aerospace
An engine test conducted by blueShift Aerospace, based in Brunswick.The company is collaborating to provide a STEM-based program at 15 Maine schools.
Maine educators can now get onboard for new space STEM programs that aim to accelerate career opportunities in the state's growing aerospace sector.
Brunswick-based bluShift Aerospace and the Maine Space Grant Consortium will deliver programs to 15 schools selected for NASA-funded programming in 2023.
“This program is specifically designed to ensure that the Maine space sector can grow to its full potential by giving students the opportunities they need,” said Terry Shehata, executive director of the Maine Space Grant Consortium.
The grant consortium invests in NASA space grants. NASA EPSCoR, which funds Maine faculty, students and educators, is collaborating with Educate Maine and MaxIQ Space.
MaxIQ Space will be customizing its K-12 Space STEM program specifically for Maine students and teachers. The kits are web-enabled, connect to a data dashboard, and support data science, coding, big data and robotics. MaxIQ Space will also provide support from trained facilitators and provide teacher support materials.
The kits will include a high-altitude balloon and model rockets, engine tests and suborbital space launches of the students’ final satellite payloads.
Shehata led the effort to establish the Maine Space Complex, which launched last spring when Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill to create the Maine Space Corporation.
The $90,000 grant is the result of 2021 Congressional funding. MaxIQ provided an additional $67,000, bringing total funding to $157,000.
“We are grateful to Educate Maine and to U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who helped secure the grant as part of a larger $400,000 NASA award to Educate Maine in the senator’s FY21 Congressionally Directed Funding request, as well as new support from the National Space Council, a coalition of space companies focused on increasing the space industry’s skilled technical workforce,” said Shehata.
MaxIQ Space was established to serve the broader space industry by delivering educational and skills development programs. The primary goal of the MaxIQ team is to inspire future space industry professionals through space STEM programs.
BluShift, founded in 2014, has designed a bio-derived rocket fuel and a modular hybrid rocket engine and is working toward a small rocket that can bring payloads to low-Earth orbit.
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