Posted by tourdemars to General News at November 11, 2011 10:47 AM

Manned space flight to Mars won't take place until at least the 2020s, so the today's kids could be our next astronauts. Now a University of Houston professor who has made learning about space accessible and relevant to Houston students will be expanding his outreach work with a grant from NASA. Physics and engineering professor Edgar Bering founded the Mars Rover Model Celebration and Exhibition in 2002 at the World Space Congress, inspired by his son's fourth-grade science project. The exhibition gives students an opportunity to build and design Mars rover models. Teams of kids from third grade through eighth grade research, design and construct a model rover with a specific scientific task to accomplish on Mars.