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>> Josh Byerly: NASA has a
fairly innovative education

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program that we work with high
school and junior high students

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with called High School
Students United with NASA

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to Create Hardware
or HUNCH for short.

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This has been ongoing
for several years.

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And students have
worked to create hardware

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for the International Space
Station such as storage lockers

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and things such as that.

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Here recently, three
students and their teacher

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at Cypress Woods High School
in Cypress Texas, which is just

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to the northwest of us here in
Houston, got together and came

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up with a test model for one
of the more important pieces

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of the International Space
Station called the microgravity

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sciences glovebox or
MSG as we call it.

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It's basically a large -- what
looks like a big aquarium,

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but it's got two holes there
you see for the crew to reach in

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and wear some gloves
that are built into it.

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And do some experiments inside

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that that are contained
away from them.

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We're going to talk now
with these three students

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who are joining us live from
Cypress Woods High School.

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Ben Halloway, Helmut
Brenner, and Robert Lipham,

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along with their
teacher Mike Bennett.

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How are you guys doing?

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>> Great.

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>> We're good today.

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>> Josh Byerly: So let's
talk about how you came

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up with this plan to build
this test object called the

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microgravity sciences glovebox.

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How did you guys come
up with the idea?

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>> Well, we've kind of
been working with NASA.

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And they came to us and
said, we need a couple more

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of these to work with.

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Because they had one built,
but they needed someone

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that could deliver quite well,
and they wanted to work with us.

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So they gave us some
preliminaries on it.

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And we improved them to
fix the design to be easier

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to manufacturer, to be
better for a mockup.

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And we put them together,
and we delivered.

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>> Josh Byerly: So I'm taking a
look at this photo that we have

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of you guys have built this.

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It looks pretty much just like
the one that's up on orbit.

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I'm not sure that me
or anybody that I knew

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in high school could have built
something [brief laughter] quite

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like that.

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So, you know, what kind of
classes do you guys take

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where you learn to actually
build something like this?

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>> Well, obviously, it
wasn't solely us three.

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We had a lot of different
classes

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across the board
helping us build this.

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We had Precision Metals,
manufacturing classes.

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We, ourselves, were

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in an Advanced Engineering
class using AutoCAD, Inventor,

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and whatnot to create
these pieces.

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And then handing them
over to the engineers

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to manufacture them.

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>> Josh Byerly: So,
you know, did --

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I'm assuming you got
some sort of, you know --

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I guess it's fairly exciting to
build something that, you know,

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the astronauts and crews can
actually use and train with.

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Is it a little bit different
than building something else

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that you typically
would in a class,

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knowing that NASA
actually want to use this?

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>> It was definitely an
interesting experiment --

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like experience knowing that
NASA was going to be able

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to use what we were designing.

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And definitely a little bit
different than normal classwork.

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It was tough work, but I really
think it was good experience

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for us to all have.

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>> Josh Byerly: So about
how long did it take to --

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you know, from beginning to end,
to design it and to build it?

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>> I would say approximately
five months.

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Oh, wait. I'm getting three
months here [brief laughter].

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Time blurs when you're
working on a project

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like this [brief laughter].

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>> Josh Byerly: So we'll say
between three and five months.

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We'll just go with that.

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So let's talk about the
Technology Students Association.

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This is -- you know, tell us a
little bit about what that is.

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And you guys are
going to the finals

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of that competition, correct?

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>> Not us completely.

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I am, personally.

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My name is Robert, by the way.

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We're actually taking --

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we're actually going to
nationals after state.

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And the Technology Students
Association is basically our

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tech club.

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It's where we send projects,

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where we go to onsite
competitions in things

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like drafting, architecture,
welding,

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building basic tech programs.

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And after going to state, me and
another student are going to go

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to nationals with it as well.

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>> Josh Byerly: So what
grade are you guys in?

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>> Me and Helmut
and Ben are seniors.

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And Robert is a junior.

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>> So what's next for you guys?

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Have you guys decided which
college you're going to go to,

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what you're going to study?

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>> I've been accepted to Brigham
Young University in Utah.

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>> I'll be attending
the University

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of North Texas in Denton.

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>> And I'm hopefully
going to apply

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for A&M coming up this summer.

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>> Josh Byerly: Yeah, well,
I know the school very well.

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So let's talk about, you
know, as you guys do this,

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does it kind of make you want
to go become astronauts or come

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to work for NASA or do something
like this once you kind of get

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out of school and
finish your studying?

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>> Well, funnily enough, my
dad's a mechanical engineer,

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and, you know, I'd
always thought

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that perhaps I would,
too, become one.

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But stuff comes up.

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And I think I'm actually going
to go the way of finance.

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But this has actually been
an invaluable experience

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in terms of problem solving.

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I can't tell you how many
times we had to go back

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to the drawing board
and just find out what

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in the world's wrong with
this thing [brief laughter].

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So, you know, despite not going
into mechanical engineering,

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it still definitely
helped a lot.

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>> Josh Byerly: So you guys are
almost finished with school.

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This competition, you're talking

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about the Technology
Students Association,

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the nationals you're going to,

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that's taking place
this summer, correct?

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>> Yeah, it's taking place
during the summer from June 28th

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to July 2nd in Orlando, Florida.

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And we'll be going
to do two onsite --

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a drafting and architecture
contest there.

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>> Josh Byerly: Well,
hopefully, you get a chance

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to go visit our friends down at
the Kennedy Space Center while

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you're there in the
neighborhood.

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It's an interesting
place to go tour.

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>> Yeah, I believe we're
going to be heading over there

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as well during one time
that we're down there.

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>> Josh Byerly: Yeah,
well, listen,

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we're proud of the work
you guys have done.

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It's always amazing
to see what you

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and your fellow high school
students come up with,

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especially as part of
this HUNCH Program.

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We've seen quite some excellent
work come out of you guys.

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And it's phenomenal, the
work that you guys have done.

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So we thank you for it.