Education: December 2009 Archives

CU Students to Build Tiny Spacecraft to Observe 'Space Weather' Environment

"The University of Colorado at Boulder has been awarded $840,000 from the National Science Foundation for students to build a tiny spacecraft to observe energetic particles in space that should give scientists a better understanding of solar flares and their interaction with Earth's atmosphere. Known as the Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment, or CSSWE, the instruments package is expected to weigh less than 5 pounds."

NASA Launches Web Site for Teenagers That Want More Class

"NASA has launched a new Web site created specifically for teenagers that provides teens access to current NASA spacecraft data for use in school science projects, allows them to conduct real experiments with NASA scientists, and helps them locate space-related summer internships."

Keith's note: Nice website. One big problem: no mention of human spaceflight or aeronautics. If NASA is going to launch a site like this it really should be run by the NASA Education Office and it should cover all that NASA does, not some subset thereof. I guess its too much to ask for SMD, ESMD, and SOMD to pool their separate EPO budgets to help the NASA Education Office do something like this - in a coordinated fashion such that all of the things that NASA does are included. (Sigh) more stove pipes.

P.S. With regard to the press release title: what sort of clunky grammar is NASA now using?

Mom, the Eagle Has Landed!, Slate

"... And yet my boys are in love. They ask for library books about outer space. They had a DVD of the moon landing. They go to the local planetarium. They recite facts about planetary gasses and burned-up stars and black holes and something else called a white hole. "Mom, did you know?" they ask before launching into a minilecture. I never do. Nor, if I'm honest, do I care to find out. The other day, Eli interrupted himself in the middle of a shooting star explanation and said, sagely, "Mom, sometimes you don't really listen to me." This leaves me with a guilty question: What do you do when your children's interests don't match your own? Do you do your utmost to cultivate genuine enthusiasm and expertise? Do you fake it? Or do you keep the faith with your own passions, figuring you're teaching a lesson about assertion of selfhood and independence?"

NASA Nebula: Enabling Participatory Exploration Through Open Data APIs

"One of the projects Nebula has been very excited to support enables the public to view and explore the surfaces of the Moon and Mars in unprecedented resolution in both Google Earth and Microsoft World Wide Telescope. The NASA team responsible for these projects leveraged Nebula to perform sophisticated large-scale image processing and hosting of hundreds of thousands of high-resolution images and over 100 terabytes of data."

Keith's note: On Thursday, 10 December 2009, we'll be doing a live webcast from the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) at "McMoon's" i.e. Building 596 at the NASA Ames Research Park.

Keith's update: The webcast has been archived below.

Aerojet's Glenn Mahone and Jacobs Technology's Jeannie Kranz to guide the Coalition for Space Exploration Public Affairs Team in 2010

"Two veteran aerospace communicators will lead the Coalition for Space Exploration's Public Affairs Team in 2010. Aerojet's Glenn Mahone and Jacobs Technology's Jeannie Kranz were recently named the organization's new chair and deputy chair, respectively. Each will serve a one-year term, effective January through December 2010."

Moon Work Design Contest Offers NASA Internships to Winners

"The 2010 NASA Moon Work engineering design challenge seeks to motivate college students by giving them first-hand experience with the process of developing new technologies. To participate in the contest, students will submit their original design for tools or instruments that can help astronauts live and work on the moon. Top-ranked students will be offered a chance to intern with a team from NASA's Exploration Technology Development Program."