The Unconference

By Jonathan Hernandez, 10th grade

After one of the weakest winter New Jersey has seen in a few years, it was time to open that shell and break a new dawn of beginnings, because 2012 had the best everything; best things that came out, best experience, and not to mention the best summer.

This summer was a great summer for many INSPIRE students from all areas. There were tons of activities on INSPIRE, the VSE’s, and most of all, the Unconference; all to make this year a bit brighter. It was on the top of the list, the Unconference. Two months before, I got that letter during my class saying I am on the list. I literally jumped out of my chair with excitement and was so excited, I went into the bathroom to call my parents that I was going. Thankfully, it was a sub and not the actual teacher. It was a great honor to be able to attend the Unconference and was a great way to connect to other INSPIRE students from across the country, including Puerto Rico (which is a short distance from the Dominican Republic; part of my nationality).

It was exciting to see people that we have known for online, but there was the 1 hour of terror (like curiosity’s 7 minutes) most of us encountered when we were at KSC. There were a ton of people eating breakfast at the hotel, but nobody would know who was going where. I kind of understood because since most of us didn’t even know who we look liked. So when we entered into one of the buildings, Mr. Gerard greeted us with excitement, got our name tags, and sat down. This is where that hour started, and it was quiet. Many of us just sat and stayed quiet since we were just too afraid to say a word. While the Curiosity landing simulation was playing on the flat screen nearby, it was a few of us that just sat; so I looked at my phone and said “when was this terror going to stop?” At that moment, Steve Chance, the project manager of INSPIRE, and Mr. Gerard came to the front introduced themselves to us.


So now that the terror was over, we separated into teams and never saw the other group until, pretty much the last day. We did some amazing activities including one with LEGO MINDSTORM kits (oh, the middle school memories!) which was my favorite. In addition, we toured the famous rocket garden, saw (not one, but) two space shuttle, Atlantis and Endeavour, which we went under, and saw a helicopter randomly land in front of us with near precision 100 feet away while we say the star fighters.

Although it was fun and awesomeness, we did learn about some interesting things by learning about the RBSP Mission and Nicola Fox, a scientist involved in the Mission from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Also, we had our own student panel where we discussed our thoughts about making INSPIRE better. While doing that, we not only got that 1 hour of terror taken away, but got to meet a ton of people I did not know of at all. It was a blast to see many people I knew and many I did not. Uncon was probably best experience I’ve had and a way to but the icing on the cake for a summer well spent on.

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For All You NASA History Buffs

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By Cecilia Stoner

I’m a big Apollo-era fan. I have been since the day I was born. Ok... so maybe not that long. But my interest in NASA does extend way back to when I first watched Apollo 13 in fifth grade. Before then I didn’t know NASA existed, or anything much about the moon landings except for the fact that Neil Armstrong, not Lance, was the first man to walk there. I began researching and reading up on this agency that sends people blasting into space, and by ninth grade, I knew my NASA history front and back. Ask any of my friends – I am the most NASA-obsessed person to ever walked the planet. Why? I suppose space exploration just holds so much excitement and adventure to me. The idea of walking on the moon or doing experiments in microgravity while looking down on earth from above is thrilling. I simply can’t imagine anything more exciting. I’m always looking for someone to share my excitement for NASA and space exploration with, and few people have that. INSPIRE has given me a chance to develop that knowledge further, and I’m so happy to be a part of this community. But before I get too cheesy on y’all about just how much I love INSPIRE and NASA and STEM, I thought I’d share a couple of my sources of inspiration for those of you curious about learning more.

___ Carrying the Fire. This is an autobiography written by Michael Collins, the third and typically-overlooked astronaut aboard the Apollo 11 mission. He was actually turned down as an astronaut applicant 2 times before he was finally accepted, and he went on to be a reliable crew member and wonderful author. The book really puts you in the shoes of an astronaut, it’s great!

___ Gustav Holst’s The Planets. Holst wrote this orchestral suite to describe the planets, not just in terms of data and pictures, but through music. The segment on Jupiter is my personal favorite.

___ BBC’s From the Earth to the Moon Series. Starting with Alan Shepard’s flight and culminating with Apollo 17, the series depicts the processes and missions of NASA in its early days with the fledgling space program. I found the series not only informative (it’s where I got a bunch of my space knowledge!) but interesting as well. Each episode features either a specific mission, program, or event. I’d have to say my favorite is “Spider” where the story follows Tom Kelly and the development of the Lunar Module. :)

__ Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington D.C. While it’s not as thrilling or active as the NASA facilities and centers, the museum hosts the Wright Brothers’ first successful airplane as well as the Apollo 11 Command Module, Columbia.

___ The Alan Bean Gallery (http://www.alanbean.com/index.cfm). Alan Bean was the Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 12 and an astronaut aboard Skylab III. Now he is a painter, and much of his work is space-themed. I thought it was particularly interesting that he textures his paintings with footprints from the Apollo spacesuits and different tools from the lunar missions. Check out the link to see!

___ NASA Centers! Lastly, try checking out any of the 10 NASA centers around the country. I’ve made it to 3 so far (Kennedy, Langley, and Stennis) and they all have been amazing sources of knowledge and activity in the NASA world.  
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LiveChat Round-Up 10/18/12

By Jim Gerard, INSPIRE Eduation Specialist, KSC, FL

Despite some technical difficulties, we had a great chat last night with returning guest Dr. Aprille Ericsson from Goddard Space Flight Center. 60 OLC members tuned in to hear "Dr. Doctor" (a nickname she picked up having a PhD and an honorary doctorate) talk about "Women in NASA" and specifically her story of becoming a 'rocket scientist'.

We started late as Dr. Aprille had some difficulties connecting to the Collaborate room, and then could not get her microphone to work. I found however by placing my iPhone near MY computer mic I could broadcast her voice and we were able to proceed. In a small way we were modeling one of the themes of Dr. Aprille's talk: Keep moving forward and persevere through the difficulties. And that we did. I hope her presentation was inspiring to young women and men alike. Please view the archive of the chat if you were unable to join us live.

Next week, we hear from NASA EDGE co-host Blair Allen as he talk to us about putting together the NASA EDGE program and other media as we continue our look "Behind the Scenes at NASA". See you then!

No Time to Breath

By Sarah Pearson

This past summer was one of the busiest I have ever had. I began the summer by attending the VSE: Rocketry. Over the 3-day livechat, we got to talk with experts, mainly from Dryden Flight Center and perform a wide variety of rocketry experiments. Some of our experiments included pop rockets, hero can engines, and building a two stage balloon rocket.

The week after the VSE, I left to attend a week long Aerospace Engineering camp at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Az. It was a week packed full of lectures and projects. There were about 70 students total, and I was one of only eight girls in attendance. We started off in Propulsion, where we launched rockets with B class engines and got to go see a turboprop engine running in the propulsion lab. Next we build sumo-bots using Lego Mindstorms. We also had a crash course in Matlab as well as in SolidWorks. In using SolidWorks, we designed bridges in teams that we would latter print out via the 3d printer and test in the structures lab. In our aerodynamics/wind tunnel class, we got to go to the wind tunnel lab and view demonstrations in the supersonic wind tunnel and in the larger open tunnel. They have a total of 8, including a hydro-tunnel. Our last project was to design a glider using Avery, build it out of balsa wood, and then test it against everyone else’s.  During the week, I lived on campus in the dorms, which are suite style. They are very roomy for a dorm room and include a fridge/freezer, stovetop and microwave in the lounge. We also got a tour of the campus which is very small, under 3,000 students, but was gorgeous none the less. Some of the other highlights of the campus are the meteorology lab, Air Traffic Control, Lab and the Jet Dragster workshop. The camp was a great opportunity to learn more about the campus and what the classes are like. I am diffidently applying to go her for college next year and just hope I get in.

Following the camp, I went on a road trip of Arizona and Southern California. Some of the many stops included Meteor Crater, Grand Canyon, Hoover dam, Disneyland, California Science Center, and Warner Bros. Studios, in addition to many others. I even met Duff Goldman owner of Charm City Cakes and food network star.

To round out the rest of my summer, I spent four weeks as an intern at The Discovery Museum: Science & Space Center of Sacramento .I helped the educators lead groups of 15-24 children ages 5-13 in various activities. Our themes included Robot Renegades, Destination Space for Girls, Imagine Moon and Imagine Mars. Some of the highlights were Challenger missions, planetarium presentations, robotic programming, and much, much more. I have now continued to volunteer at a regular basis at the museum.

So in the end, I had the best summer ever. I got to travel, learn about space, and create some unforgettable memories. I cannot wait to see what adventures this year will hold.

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Working with the WISE Guys

 By Andrew Lucas, Team Sirius

Over the summer, I had an internship at IPAC, the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, which is located at CalTech but officially a part of JPL. I worked on processing data from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. WISE was launched on December 14, 2009. Its mission was to image the entire sky in four specific bandwidths of infrared (3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 μm). It did so until August 6, 2010, when the solid hydrogen in the outer cryogen tank ran out. This meant that the telescope became too hot to image in the 22 μm band, but it continued imaging in the other three bands until the inner cryogen tank was exhausted. It still continued imaging in the 3.4 and 4.6 μm bands until Feb-ruary 1, 2011. This means that by the time I got around to examining the data, it had been thoroughly examined already in the intervening time.

WISE found many things in space, including black holes and asteroids, among other things. My job was to look through the data for comets. This involved a surprising amount of computer programming, including learning Unix from a manual published in 1972! It surprised me that most of it was still accurate!

The process consisted of downloading pictures from IR-SA, the Infrared Science Archive, and “stacking” them using AWAIC, A WISE Astronomical Image Co-adder. This long-named program did something rather simple: it took every image of the same region of sky taken by the telescope as it passed and mashed them together into one image. The final product looked something like the pictures on the left.

My experience at IPAC was my first introduction into “real” astronomy, by which I mean the kind of astronomy that actual astronomers do for a living, as opposed to learning things in a classroom or doing ac-tivities on INSPIRE. I was struck by two things in particular. One, infrared astronomy consists of a surprising amount of running computer programs and trying to pick out special white blips from noisy white blips. Two, looking at white blips on a black background is a surprisingly fascinating job.

If I managed to interest you with my long blog post, you can learn more about WISE from the WISE All-Sky Explanatory Supplement, where I found the pictures and any specific information I couldn’t remember.

http://wise2.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/release/allsky/expsup/index.html

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LiveChat Round Up 10/11/12

By Jim Gerard, NASA INSPIRE Education Specialist, KSC, FL

What would YOU do with a retired Space Shuttle? 3 years ago the decision was made as to where the decommissioned orbiters would spend out their days. This is no small decision, as the spacecraft are not easily moved. Once placed, it would take an extraordinary effort to relocate them. So, what planning must be done to prepare for the arrival of this historic artifact?

Our LiveChat last night introduced to the INSPIRE Online Learning Community my good friend Luis Berrios who also works here at Kennedy Space Center. Luis is responsible for the creation of a new home for orbiter Atlantis. 40 participants were on hand to hear Luis talk about the planning involved to design a facility that will tell the story of the space shuttle. As Luis quoted a mentor of his, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." Luis described the archeticture of the building: "A metallic upward swoosh to signify the ascent, and the orange returning swoosh to signify reentry of the reusable vehicle".

Inside, guests will be led through a series of galleries to explain the development and history of the shuttle, ending with a dramatic reveal of the Atlantis portrayed as it flew in space. With payload bay doors open, the orbiter will be mounted in front of an LED wall that will display orbital sunrise and sunset with coordinated lighting to give the impression of orbiting the earth. From this main display hall, smaller galleries will offer insight to living in space, the construction of the International Space Station, and the Hubble Space Telescope (featuring a full size model). There will also be a memorial gallery to honor the memory of Challenger, Columbia, and their crews.

As this is being written, Endeavour is being transported from LAX in Los Angelos to its new home at the California Science Center. Atlantis will make the short trek to its new home net month. Discovery is already installed at the Udvar-Hazy Center near the Dulles International Airport. Are you close to any of these? Why not visit and share your experience in a blog? Just post in the drop box named Blog and you can receive 10 points!

Next week, our theme 'Behind the Scenes at NASA' will continue with 'Women at NASA' presented by returning guest Aprille Ericson from GSFC. Remember, no need to sign up, just click on the link on the home page! Come early to be part of the INSPIRE Cafe, a time of fun discussion, Q & A with staff, and a few surprises! See you next Thursday!

Mars Exploration and Colonization

By Fiona McGroarty

"Why should we colonize Mars?" you might ask. "Aren't we fine here on Earth?" Technically, yes, we are fine on Earth. But colonizing Mars is about more than just about "what will humanity do when the Earth's resources run out?" and "what if we wipe ourselves out by war?".

We need to explore and colonize Mars because exploring new worlds is at the heart of human nature. Throughout history, humans have been exploring unknown corners of the earth and settling in new lands. Europe, Asia, Australia, and North and South Americas are examples. Exploreres, searching for better lands and more food, came and settled. The USA would not exist if people had not been willing to make the voyage over and settle. And the entire point of the Western Expansion was settling the new land. It is the same for Mars. We must settle Mars because exploring and settling new lands is what humans do.

On top of this, Mars is a treasure trove of scientific data. Mars has or has had every type of geologic process known on its surface. It once had oceans, and the possibility of life, even microbial life, fascinates astrobiologists. Mars once was like Earth, before it got too cold. It is the logical place to really begin our expansion into space.

How are we going to make it to Mars? Right now, it takes almost 2 years to make it to Mars. This is too long for humans to travel. But NASA propulsion engineers are currently working on faster ships to carry us to the Red Planet within a matter of months, and once this is accomplished, we will be ready to begin the next phase of the Mars Mission.

How will we survive on Mars? The first step to surviving on Mars is to build a base to keep the colonists safe from the Martian elements. The Mars base must be able to protect against the following:

• Temperature 
• Dust
• Radiation 
• Little Green Men 

The Martian temperature ranges from -143 to 27 C (-225 to 81 F). The Mars base must be insulated to protect against the extreme temperature range of the Martian surface.

Martian dust is similar to moon dust, and moon dust has been known to cause lung damage when it is inhaled. (Moon dust from astronauts' suits got into the Apollo capsules and caused serious damage to the astronauts lungs). Martian dust is worse because of the iron oxide; the rust in the iron will do even worse damage to lungs than moon dust. The Mars base must have the proper air filters to keep the dust from being breathed by colonists.

The Martian atmosphere is thinner than Earth's, and it's magnetic field is very weak. This means that although Mars is farther from the sun than Earth, it is bombarded by much more radiation. The Martian base will have to be lined all over with protective materials. Lead is a possibility, but it is very heavy and will be expensive to transport because of its weight. Special plastics are currently being developed to protect against radiation while being lightweight and easy and cheap to transport.

There are many challenges that stand in the way of exploration and colonization of Mars. But NASA is working on solving these issues, and is planning on a fully operative Mars base within the foreseeable future.

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