What does it take to safely land a fragile payload on the Martian surface? Build a parachute and learn eggs-actly how one works: With some string, plastic wrap, tape, and other materials, members of AeroAstro’s American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics student chapter will help you build your own mini-parachute and tell you what's necessary for a soft landing in Martian gravity (.38 of earth's). Then, you’ll attach it to an egg and drop it off a balcony in AeroAstro’s Hangar to see if your ‘chute can deliver the egg to a landing from two stories high without it cracking up!

Representatives of AeroAstro’s Gas Turbine Lab will take you up close to three actual jet engines: a WW2-vintage Junkers Jumo 004that was once used to power the famed Messerschmitt Me 262; the WW2-era General Electric J31, which was the first working U.S.-produced engine; and the modern CFM56, most widely used to power the Boeing 737and the KC-135 Stratotanker

If you think that being small and skinny means being weak and delicate, you’ll be amazed to learn about carbon nanotubes! Join our nano-engineered composite aerospace structures consortium (necstlab) students and staff to learn about this exciting material that will be a vital component for next-generation aero and astro vehicles. See this futuristic but real material, and understand why and how it will make airplanes and satellites stronger, safer, and multifunctional.

Build a paper rocket, fire it off with a burst of compressed air from a vertical launch tube, and see if you can hit the target planet!