SOLAR SYSTEM TREKS: ENABLING STEM ENGAGEMENT WITH NASA MISSION TOOLS (Invited Presentation)

NASA's Solar System Treks Project (SSTP) online portals provide web-based suites of interactive visualization and analysis tools to enable mission planners, scientists, students, and the public to access, visualize, and study data from many instruments aboard a variety of past and current missions for a growing list of planetary bodies. These portals are being used for site selection and analysis by NASA and its international and commercial partners supporting upcoming missions. The portals also offer great benefits for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and public outreach. As a component of NASA's Science Activation Infrastructure, they serve as resources for NASA STEM programs, and the greater STEM community. As new missions are planned across the Solar System, these tools facilitate public understanding of the missions and engage the public in mission science.

As of June 2024, 13 SSTP portals are online. These include portals for the Moon; the planets Mercury, Venus, and Mars; Mars’ moon Phobos; the dwarf planet Ceres; the asteroids Bennu, Ryugu, and Vesta; and the outer moons Titan, Europa, and Ganymede. The Icy Moons Trek portal features seven of Saturn’s smaller icy moons. More portals are currently in development. All portals are unified under a project home site (https://trek.nasa.gov) with supporting engagement content. As web-based toolsets, the portals do not require users to purchase or install any software beyond current web browsers.

Global audiences of K-12 students continue to be engaged through presentations and workshops for teachers and for students. These have included diverse communities including Silicon Valley, the Navajo Nation, Hawaiian Homeland Schools, Japan, South Korea, and many more. Direct applications of SSTP for education/engagement/citizen science include the “MoonDiff” citizen science project, the upcoming “VIPER Rocks” citizen science project, and a new “Investigating Impacts” classroom activity about cratering developed in partnership with the American Geosciences Institute. SSTP portals are used by high school students in LPI’s ExMASS program.

At the dawn of a new age of lunar exploration, SSTP’s Moon Trek portal is an outstanding tool for students and the public to become familiar with our proposed lunar landing sites, follow along as these missions unfold, and become participants in mission science.