2020 NASA Planetary Science Summer School Applications Due April 13

Now through April 13, 2020, NASA is accepting applications for its 32nd Annual Planetary Science Summer School. Offered by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, PSSS is a 3-month long early career development experience to help prepare the next generation of planetary science and engineering mission leaders. Participants learn the process of developing a hypothesis-driven robotic space mission in a concurrent engineering environment while getting an in-depth, first-hand look at mission design, life cycle, costs, schedule and the trade-offs inherent in each.

Science and engineering doctoral candidates, recent PhDs, postdocs, junior faculty, and certain master’s degree students, who are U.S. Citizens or legal permanent residents (and a very limited number of Foreign Nationals from non-designated counties), are eligible. Applicants from diverse backgrounds are particularly encouraged to apply. Partial financial support is available for a limited number of individuals.

Session 1: Preparatory Sessions May 11-July 17. Culminating Week at JPL July 20-24
Session 2: Preparatory Sessions May 11-July 31. Culminating Week at JPL August 3-7

Roughly equivalent in workload to a rigorous 3-hour graduate-level course, participants spend the first 10-11 weeks in preparatory webinars acting as a science mission team, prior to spending the final culminating week at JPL being mentored by JPL’s Advance Project Design Team, or “Team X” to refine their planetary science mission concept design, then present it to a mock expert review board.

The deadline is April 13, 2020. To apply and learn more about the NASA Science Mission Design Schools: http://go.nasa.gov/missiondesignschools

Update: An informational session, with chat Q&A, on the topic of applying to the 2020 Planetary Science Summer School or Heliophysics Mission Design School, will be held on April 7, 2020 at 11:00 am ET / 8:00 am PT.  Registration is required to participate. Register at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SMDS_InfoSession. A recording will be made available after the session for those unable to attend live.