Here to Observe (H20) and Europa Clipper

Introduction: The Here to Observe (H₂O) program was established in 2021 to pair mission teams with institutions with large populations of underrepresented and historically marginalized students, to provide an opportunity for participants in the program an insider’s view of how NASA missions operate, as well as one-on-one mentorship of the students by science team members [1]. By pairing a mission team directly with faculty and student leads, the goal was to co-create a program that is tailored to the students’ needs, schedules, and interests, without adding significant additional burden to the mission’s science team. For the initial pilot program, the Europa Clipper team was paired with the University of Puerto Rico. With the formal announcement of the program in ROSES, Europa Clipper is now paired with a partnership between the Ohio Space Grant and Puerto Rico Space Grant Consortia.

H₂O Program History: The initial concept of inviting students to observe a science team meeting was piloted in 2020, when graduate students were invited to submit short statements of interest and several missions agreed to invite them to attend a virtual science team meeting. This initial pilot has mixed success, as there was little time for engagement before the meetings, and students who were not already familiar with mission work had little frame of reference to understand a lot of the jargon and technical details that they observed.

Based on feedback from this process, NASA initiated a formal pilot program in 2021, championed by David Smith. The pilot aimed to co-create the program with specific institutions, specifically targeting those without active involvement with NASA missions. Unlike the initial formulation, in this pilot, the goal was to pair undergraduate, rather than graduate, students with mentors from missions. Although faculty contacts were involved, the university side of project was spearheaded by student leaders, who helped coordinate the student teams and provide input on how to tailor program activities to meet students’ needs and interests. On the mission side, the goal was to provide a welcoming environment and direct interactions with scientists, but, importantly, to be non-intrusive to mission activities.

Three mission teams agreed to participate in the formal pilot: Europa Clipper, Dragonfly, and Lucy, and their university partners were the University of Puerto Rico, Virginia State University, and Howard University. For this pilot, teams worked to design a school-year-long program that would provide background sessions to prepare the students before the science team observing opportunities, and, ideally, also provide additional opportunities to the students to sit in on mission activities throughout the year.

Europa Clipper H₂O Pilot Results: The H₂O cohort in Puerto Rico was initially led by two students, Jorge Y. Coppin-Massanet and Andrea Ortiz-Cana. With contacts at the university and within the Puerto Rico Space Grant, student applications were solicited, with over 100 student applications received each year. The student leaders worked to down-select to 10 students, plus alternates, in case students became overburdened and needed to withdraw from the program. Likewise, the list of mission mentors included backup mentors, to ensure that each student would have a mentor, even if their assigned mentor was no longer able to support meetings.

Mentors and students were asked to expect to meet one-on-one for ~1 hour per month, and students were also provided one organized event per month, as well. In addition, science-team-wide activities, including monthly mission updates as well as a bi-weekly lecture series, which is often focused on discussing science topics, were made open to students, whenever possible. The organized events each month included open discussions with team members, a career panel in Spanish, introductory presentations about NASA missions as well as the Europa Clipper mission.

Each year, two students from the past year stepped into the role as student leads, providing continuity and experience as the team worked to improve the program. The program was very successful, largely in part to the hard work and dedication of the original student leaders, who remained involved in an advisory capacity throughout the program.

Local Engagement: In 2023, the decision was made by the Clipper Project to host a Europa Clipper science team meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to provide an opportunity for students and alumni of the H2O program to meet the scientists they had interacted with in person (Fig. 1). The team worked with the contacts at the University of Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico Space Grant to design and run a number of public engagement activities, which were attended by hundreds of students from middle school through university (Fig. 2).

Further Evolution of the H2O Program: Beginning in 2023, the H₂O program was formalized in the NASA ROSES call, with applicants funded to support student involvement. The new program, described in detail in [1], includes additional infrastructure for mentoring, formal program evaluation, and mission advocate support. Students are also provided self-guided modules with additional background information about planetary exploration. NASA is committed to the success of this program, and supportive of additional mission involvement.

Europa Clipper is currently officially partnered with both the Ohio and Puerto Rico Space Grant Consortia, with six students participating from each consortium. Activities are similar to those offered in the past, but with the goal of at least one visit to each home institution. The team looks forward to interacting with students from both regions, to share the excitement of Europa exploration.

 Acknowledgments: We are grateful to NASA and Europa Clipper for enduring support of the H₂O program. 

References: [1] D. Smith et al. (2024), Updates from Planetary Science Division’s Here to Observe (H2O) Program. LPSC 55th, this volume.