Life aboard the ISS.
Astronauts conduct demanding scientific work on highly scheduled missions. Gravity Games explored how play and recreation could contribute to the human experience of living and working in orbit.
Mission File / Orbital Experiment / ISS
A student-led STEM initiative built around one deceptively simple question: what kind of game could only be played in microgravity? The answer became StarCatcher, manufactured and demonstrated aboard the International Space Station.
● NOW TRANSMITTING
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GRAVITY GAMES®
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STARCATCHER
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ZERO-G 3D PRINTING
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ISS / EXP 50–51
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MISSION PRINCIPLE
What kind of game could only be played in space?
OUR STORY
From classroom idea
to orbital reality.
Gravity Games brought together high school STEM students, engineers, educators, and aerospace innovators around one deceptively simple question.
Commander Peggy Whitson / ISS / February 2017 Credit: NASA
01 / STARCATCHER
The first game made and played in space.
Students designed StarCatcher specifically for microgravity.
Working alongside Made In Space, students developed a game that could take advantage of conditions found aboard the International Space Station.
The project became an unprecedented collaboration between education and the commercial space industry, culminating in a game manufactured aboard the ISS using a zero-gravity 3D printer.
- Environment
- Microgravity / Low Earth Orbit
- Platform
- International Space Station
- Mission
- Expedition 50 / 51
02 / MISSION SYSTEM
Three pieces.
One orbital first.
Gravity Games brought together the environment of the ISS, emerging orbital manufacturing technology, and students willing to design for conditions they had never experienced.
Manufacturing in orbit.
Made In Space pioneered additive manufacturing aboard the International Space Station, making it possible to produce tools and objects directly in microgravity.
Students as contributors.
Bay Area STEM students became active participants in a real aerospace project, applying creativity, engineering, and iteration to an unusual design challenge.
03 / RELATED STUDENT INNOVATION
PROJECT MOONDUST
A student-built answer to a problem that could shape the future of lunar exploration.
As creator and principal investigator, MJ led a collaboration between NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's SEE Lab and Aerospace Systems Management students to design a device that captures levitating lunar dust simulant found at the Moon's south pole.
The project proposed that lofted dust could indicate what is contained in the regolith below, with downstream analysis providing verification. Students presented findings from the proof-of-concept device at the annual Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium meeting.
- Environment
- Lunar south pole
- Focus
- Regolith capture
- Impact
- Research supporting lunar safety, construction, and resource planning for future Artemis missions.
04 / MISSION LOG
From concept
to orbit.
CONCEPT / AIAA
Gravity Games enters the aerospace conversation as a new way to connect students with authentic spaceflight problem solving.
DEVELOPMENT / MADE IN SPACE
Students collaborate with Made In Space to refine StarCatcher for manufacturing in microgravity.
FLIGHT / ISS EXP 50–51
StarCatcher is manufactured aboard the International Space Station and demonstrated in orbit by Commander Peggy Whitson.
CONTINUING IMPACT
The Gravity Games model continues to inform educational technology and STEM initiatives built around active participation rather than passive learning.
05 / EDUCATIONAL IMPACT
Student imagination
reached orbit.
Gravity Games demonstrated the extraordinary potential of hands-on STEM education by connecting students with engineers, aerospace innovators, and the commercial space industry.
As an early example of student innovation reaching low Earth orbit, Gravity Games showed that education can do more than simulate the future. It can participate in it.
OPEN CHANNEL / EDUCATION · RESEARCH · COLLABORATION