| The Space Academy series – sponsored
by APL, Comcast Cable and Discovery Networks – takes
students behind the scenes of APL space missions and introduces
them to the engineers and scientists on the projects. Past
events focused on NEAR, TIMED and CONTOUR; this latest Academy
covered Mars exploration and the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging
Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), a powerful camera APL is building
to search for chemical traces of past water on the Martian
surface. CRISM will fly aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter spacecraft, set for launch in 2005.
The students, from schools in Anne Arundel,
Montgomery and Howard counties, took part in a “press
conference” with CRISM Principal Investigator Scott
Murchie and Instrument Scientist Olivier Barnouin-Jha, gathering
information for stories they’ll submit to their teachers
and, perhaps, the CRISM Web site. Vince Bailey taught the
visitors how to put on a clean-room suit; Tony Scarpati and
Rusty Brunner showed what happens to various materials in
the harsh environment of outer space; and Marc Clayton opened
quite a few eyes and minds with his renowned “Groovy
Science” show. Anne Arundel County Executive Janet Owens
and APL Space Department Head Tom Krimigis were among several
speakers who welcomed the students to the Lab.
“We hope these hands-on, minds-on
learning experiences excite and inspire both the students
and the teachers,” says Kerri Beisser, the APL Space
Department’s education and public outreach administrator.
“We are very fortunate to have a wonderful team of experts
at APL willing to share their experiences with these students.”
|
With help from APL’s Vince
Bailey, a Meade Middle School student fits into an authentic
clean-room suit during Comcast-Discovery Space Academy: Mission
Mars. |
