LiveChat Roundup - April 27, 2012

By Jim Gerard, NASA INSPIRE Education Specialist

Last week we heard about the commercial spacecraft being readied to take Americans into low earth orbit and the International Space Station. (Note: SpaceX will make an attempt to launch it's Dragon spacecraft on May 7.) Last night, we heard from the NASA side of the house, where an new spacecraft is getting ready to explore beyond earth orbit.

The Orion spacecraft, now dubbed the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) is a robust capsule built along the lines of the Apollo spacecraft that will carry astronauts to the Moon, Mars, the asteroids and beyond. The spacecraft is currently undergoing testing as NASA develops new construction methods, like stir welding, to piece it together.

Barbara Zelon, Program Manager for Orion Outreach from Johnson Space Center, Texas, took 32 INSPIRE students through a virtual tour of the Orion spacecraft. She told of the design elements that will make it perfect for deep space exploration and the way we are testing it. First flight with a crew will take place sometime between 2018 and 2021.

Your chance to watch this chat come in the LiveChat archive. Stay on to the very end to find the passcode for the quiz, where you can earn 25 points! And sign up now on the Discussion Board for next week's chat where we will learn What's Next in human spaceflight!

Space Shuttle Discovery’s Final Flight on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA)

By Abdiel A. Santos Galindo, INSPIRE 12th Grade

April 17th of 2012, apart from being the day to return taxes, was a day that we will never forget. It was the moment when Discovery took its final flight but not to space, to the skies. This was done on top a modified Boeing 747. Let’s bring that momentous day back and talk a bit about our trip to see it. Since I live in Puerto Rico, this was an unforgettable opportunity that I will always cherish and want all of you to experience it through this blog.

We arrived at Florida on very early on April 13th. During the time we spent there before the flight my dad and I went to my future University, visited my sister and saw many places in Florida including obviously NASA. In the end, we traveled almost 900 miles of unforgettable experiences in only 5 days. Seeing people from my past internship and getting to meet new ones.

Our planned departure back to the island was on the 17th, the same day of the flight. We left our hotel at 3:30am in the morning and it took us about 1:30hours to get to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Discovery, its ride and escort will take off at 7:00am. So we went early to get a nice spot. An interesting thing about this is that a few days ago we weren’t even planning on being on the state nor going to the takeoff.

We arrived at the Complex at 5:00am looking forward to seeing it. The trip was spectacular, there was fog on the road, little to no traffic and once we got there an amazing unforgettable moon. Big and yellowish just illuminating the area for what was about to happen. Not only this but the most memorable moment of it all was seeing this to the sound of the song made by Elton John called Rocket Man. I didn’t put it on a CD or iPod, it just came up on the radio as we were arriving just as if the rocket man era was saying goodbye for some time. Symbolizing the ending of three decades of Spaceflight. Hearing the song seeing the view of the pads, moon, stars, complex and lights was a very emotional moment.

When we arrived, people where already arriving and we parked ourselves in a strategic place and settle for the waiting time. Soon we saw the NASA buses, but not the one for the guest but the NASA employees. A spectacular flashback passed through my mind because it all looked like the same day I went with the other interns and employees to see Space Shuttle Atlantis land one last time on STS-135.

Later on I took my phone and settled it on the dashboard to see NASA TV while me and my dad waited. They were giving great reviews of the mating process of Discovery and the SCA videos that I didn’t have the chance to see earlier. Soon enough, we were getting closer and closer to takeoff and through the same speakers on the Visitor Complex that took guest through the process of the NASA missions, audio was coming out from Discovery and its past missions -  another emotional moment.

Then as soon as the sun came out the SCA, Discovery and its escort spread their wings and took off. It did a series of impressive flybys and it was just spectacular seeing all of those great engineering marvels flying and waving goodbye to the people who were there to be part of history. The group of aircraft included a T-38, NASA helicopter and another NASA jet. It went from the Shuttle landing facility, to the VAB, the NASA industrial area, Cape Canaveral, Beaches, Patrick Air Force Base, over the Visitor Complex and one last past at the landing complex then later flying of into the sunrise to Washington DC were it gave another spectacular series of flybys. For me all of them were great we got chance to basically see all of the process of it going back and forth either through my phone or with our eyes in the sky.

If I had to choose one it would be when it came over the visitor complex, just going at a mere 300 feet a top us and seeing that dear shuttle, the carrier and its escort going through the rocket garden. That moment will always be remembered in my mind and the pictures that were taken.

Just about half an hour after takeoff we all bid her farewell and a safe trip to her new home were she will be treated well for her success that will be remembered by all mankind. Even though this will soon be done again with Endeavor, every vehicle will carry a different memory that NASA employees and us will always take with us.

I really hope that this has been of great help for you in picturing my experience and I wish you the best in seeing Endeavor takeoff and seeing later on the shuttle in their final monuments in the museums and places around the states. Remember that as the Shuttle fleet says goodbye a new era of Spaceflight will soon begin an era where we will take part of and once again not make the sky our limit, instead it will be space and the entire unknown that it covers and will soon be DISCOVERED.

LiveChat Roundup: April 19,2012

By Jim Gerard, INSPIRE Education Specialist, KSC, FL

The space shuttle is retired to museums and America is left without a way to place astronauts in space. Is NASA over? The welcome answer is no! Thanks to the Commercial Crew Program, America has a bright future ahead. The Commercial Crew Program provides a NASA partnership to private industry to produce launch services that could be used by both government and commercial entities.

Last night, Kennedy Space Center engineer Brittani Sims talked to 37 OLC members about her work with the Commercial Crew Program. Students asked questions related to safety, costs, and timelines.

Four corporations, Blue Origin, Boeing, Sierra Nevada, and SpaceX, have funded agreements with NASA to develop and build a spacecraft capable of taking four astronauts to the International Space Station. Three other corporations, ATK, Excaliber Almaz, and United Launch Alliance, are in an unfunded agreement to develop spacecraft and boosters. That is seven independent groups that will be looking for future engineers, scientists, and astronauts to build and fly spacecraft. 

You can hear the entire presentation by navigating to the LiveChat archives and look for the "Commercial Space" LiveChat. Then, don't forget to take the associated quiz to earn your 25 points! And, you can sign up now for next week, when we will hear about NASA's entry in the next vehicle sweepstakes, the Orion spacecraft! See you then!

On the Trails of Stars

By Don Petit, Astronaut, ISS Expedition 30/31

The sky is not the limit for producing artistic compositions. Put a camera on a tripod, point at a dark starry sky, and hold the shutter open for about 10 minutes, and the image will show stars as circular arcs. Normally, these star trails are created as the Earth rotates on its axis, with the center being close to either Polaris, the north star, or the Southern Cross, depending on which hemisphere you are in.

I got the idea to do the same thing from Space Station; however, the physics of orbit adds a special twist. As Space Station orbits, it keeps one side always facing the Earth (the nadir direction from our point of view). This requires the Station to complete one revolution about its axis each orbit, just like the Moon. ISS rotates about its center of mass, which happens to be in the Unity, or Node 1 module. So it rotates almost aligned with the Station’s long, backbone-like truss.

Space Station makes one revolution every 90 minutes (the Moon takes 28 days). As a result, long-exposure pictures taken from the Station show star trails as circular arcs, with the center of rotation being the poles of Space Station (perpendicular to our orbital plane). Space Station is inclined 51.6° from Earth’s equator, so the “poles” are now at 38.4°.

My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes. However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. To achieve the longer exposures I do what many amateur astronomers do. I take multiple 30-second exposures, then “stack” them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure.

Due to our altitude, it is possible to see both the north and south axis of our orbit at the same time. This makes possible star trail images with two circles defined by arcs with opposite inflections. This geometry is hard to arrange from only one window so I use a fisheye lens, one with a full 180° image circle, to make this composition.

In addition to the star trails, many other phenomena of nature can be seen. But I’ll save that topic for another post.

Discuss this blog here: http://tinyurl.com/bloginspire

Lunar and Planetary Science Conference

By Alex Dworzanczyk, INSPIRE 12th Grade

The INSPIRE program can be a gateway to new opportunities through NASA. During the summer of 2011, I worked with Dr. Scott Mest of Goddard Space Flight Center on a project of mapping areas of the Moon to determine the areas of the greatest scientific value for a future mission to investigate. This project gave me my first experience of work at NASA and my first interactions with NASA scientists, and would later serve as an opportunity to experience first-hand a major conference of space scientists and engineers.

In December, 2011, I received an e-mail from Dr. Mest in which he presented me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. His work on the results from the Dawn mission to Vesta left him with too many papers to present alone, and so he offered me the chance to present my work on mapping lunar regions of interest at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas! I immediately accepted his offer, and began working on the poster on which I would present my results.

After clearing my absence from school with the relevant officials, and printing out my poster, I got on the plane to Houston and arrived on Wednesday, March 21, 2012.

My first day was spent putting up my poster and examining the displays that the other presenters had here. Taking place at the same time and in the same building as the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) was the Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space (NETS) Conference. Engineers representing Pratt & Whitney, Lockheed-Martin, and various other corporations and many NASA centers were present here to discuss the role of nuclear power in space exploration, from the past and present use of Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) on space probes and during the Apollo program to the future use of very powerful nuclear reactors to propell crewed and scientific missions faster and farther than ever before!

I learned about new maps NASA scientists are producing of the dwarf planet Vesta, an entire new world not mapped in detail until the Dawn probe entered orbit just a few months ago. Here scientists see in craters millions of years old geological processes that reveal this world's dynamic evolution. I also met with veterans of the Desert RATS tests and the Mars Desert Research Station, who explained to me how their work is paving the way for future manned exploration of the asteroids and Mars by developing techniques for communicating effectively with Mission Control and planning a traverse of a region of scientific interest. I also learned about how scientists analyzing the Martian polar ice caps are using Greenland as a terrestrial analogue to form a hypothesis about how the ice beneath the polar ice cap's surface might look on Mars.

From the engineers of the NETS conference, I learned about topics in nuclear engineering ranging from the Stirling-cycle electricity generators to be used on future missions using radioisotopes, such as the Titan Mare Explorer, to Nuclear Thermal Rocketry, which uses a nuclear reactor to directly heat a working fluid to make thrust and electric power, to the development of nuclear fusion as a spacecraft propulsion mechanism in the farther future. I got to meet many engineers, including the world-famous Dr. Stanley Borowski, the lead nuclear thermal rocket engineer at Glenn Research Center.

My own presentation, given on Thursday night, focused on the work I did as part of the INSPIRE Summer STEM Experience in 2011. I talked about how my work on maps of the Copernicus Crater and Apollo 15 Regions of Interest helped identify areas of scientific interest there, like extinct volcanoes near the Apollo 15 landing site to the enormous central peak of Copernicus Crater.

I wouldn't have been able to attend this conference without the help of Dr. Mest and the NASA INSPIRE Program. Through the INSPIRE Program and thanks to Dr. Mest, I got to broaden my horizons and learn a lot about planetary science and engineering from the men and women who work on them first hand.

Discuss this blog here: http://tinyurl.com/bloginspire

Miss Teen Earth Pennsylvania

By Megan Rosenberg, INSPIRE OLC Member, 11th Grade

How can I make a difference? I started three years ago with a passion to make a difference through environmental research and it has brought me to the title of Miss Teen Earth Pennsylvania and an invitation to the White House Environmental Education Summit.
 
In 2004, when I was just 9 years old, my house was flooded by the tenth most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. I took the ten steps into my basement with my father and sooner than I realized my family lost so many memories in the soaking boxes. Five years later in 2009, I was invited with my engineering group to present our national “Future City” at the local Pittsburgh Water Authority. There I learned about a rain barrel! When I first heard about a rain barrel and the benefits such as reducing flooding, I became so passionate about bringing awareness to homes with out this device. I continue to think that if we had a rain barrel then, I didn’t have to lose my first science project or building blocks.

It can change lives! I soon became curious if there was any way to additionally enhance the rain barrel to help the environment. In two years of research and multiple engineering designs, I successfully added a hydroelectric generator to my rain barrel that I installed in my backyard, and I started sharing my idea with the world. I contacted Create Change Africa to learn about their water crisis relief efforts in Ghana and how rain barrels impact developing countries with a limited supply of drinking water. In the past three years, I have worked with this community in Africa to help others become more aware of their water crisis and their environment.

Last month, I was crowned Miss Teen Earth Pennsylvania 2012. I am very honored to receive this title and be recognized for my efforts to keep our planet more environmentally friendly. I am the 2011 awardee of the President’s Environment Protection Agency Youth Award for my state and six state region.

Miss Teen Earth is a beauty pageant that carries the message of environmental activism of confident young women to the rest of the world. The words “Beauties for a Cause” describe these young women, like myself, as role models who preserve the beauty and integrity of our own lives while we continue to inspire and encourage new generations to protect the living world and all its creatures. My platform, Green4Good, encourages everyone to conscienciously help our environment. Through my activism, I am aiming to encourage others to become eco-friendly and “green for good!” As an environmental advocate, my goal is to bring awareness throughout my community, my state, and our nation about the importance of taking care of our planet, Mother Earth. I will be representing Pennsylvania at the national Miss Teen Earth United States Pageant in August 2012 in Long Beach, California.

Unfortunately, there are many misconceptions about “going green” and proposed “green initiatives”, as the biggest misunderstanding is that the movement to help our planet is too expensive. Contrary to this belief, I am spreading my platform’s message that going green is simple, and everyone can help. Did you know? Recycling one ton of paper saves 20 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, three cubic yards of landfill space, 60 pounds of air pollutants, and saves enough energy to power the average home for six months.

My title has given me the opportunity to spread the message of environmental awareness with so many individuals more than I ever thought I could reach. I had the opportunity to be an honored “green” guest at the Pittsburgh’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade where I got to share my message with everyone from Congressmen to kids. I waved to Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Ambassador to Ireland and Steelers chairman emeritus Dan Rooney. And keep an eye out for me this weekend marching with the USA Science and Engineering Festival contingent and Grand Marshal Buzz Aldrin in the 2012 Cherry Blossom Parade Festival! It will be an out-of-this-world experience! On Monday, April 16, I was invited by President Obama to attend the White House Environmental Education Summit.

You CAN make a difference on the environment! For more ways to help and to follow my journey visit: http://www.facebook.com/missteenearthpennsylvania2012.

I have been a part of the NASA INSPIRE program for the past three years and a Huntsville, Alabama Space Camp Academy Alumna. It is because of the NASA INSPIRE program that I have a sincere appreciation for science and technology. THANK YOU INSPIRE!

LiveChat Roundup: April 12, 2012

By Jim Gerard, INSPIRE Education Specialist, KSC, FL

On the 31st anniversary of the first launch of the Space Shuttle, 44 INSPIRE OLC members gathered to hear my presentation on the History of the Space Shuttle. My goal was to show students some of the engineering design process that went on in the 70's and 80's that led to the vehicle we have today. My hope is that they saw some parallels between that time and where we are today waiting for the next vehicle that will launch Americans to space.

I also talked about the retirement of the orbiters and where they will eventually be placed on display. Kennedy Space Center right now is gearing up for the immanent departure of Discovery, which will fly up the east coast on the back of the 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (find out more of the orbiter's arrival in Washington DC here: ow.ly/acok3). How close will you be to one of these historical craft, or the astronaut trainers that will also find their way to museums?

Before each LiveChat we are opening the floor to encourage students to opine about a Pre-chat Topic Question. Our question for last night was "Did we retire the Orbiters to early?" We had a lively discussion with most students think we should have had a new vehicle in place before setting aside the old one. Try to log in early and be part of the fun!

Next week, Brittani Sims from the Commercial Crew office here at KSC will talk about the different vehicles competing to be the next American orbiter. Find out what the future holds by signing up now for the LiveChat on April 19 at 8pm CT!

Discuss this blog here: http://tinyurl.com/bloginspire