Engineering topics

Nicholson, James H.

Publications and source records attributed to Nicholson, James H..

4 records

NASA NTRS1995

Photographing the Earth G324: The Can Do GeoCam payload

The flight of the Charleston County School District Can Do Project GeoCam payload on STS-57 was the climax of a decade long endeavor to bring the promise and excitement of the space program directly into the classroom. The payload carried four cameras designed to take high resolution photographs of the Earth under the direction of children operating the first ever student control room. During the course of the flight, the students followed the Shuttle's orbital tract, satellite weather images and selected a target list that was sent up to the crew each night as part of the execute package. Targets from this list, as well as ones chosen by the crew visually, resulted in the successful collection of photographic runs at many interesting sites on three on three continents.

Nicholson, James H.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Small passive student experiments on G324 261 individual quests for student knowledge

The Charleston County School District CAN DO Project payload on STS-57 had a primary goal of photographing the Earth with the GeoCam camera system. In addition, the payload carried 261 passive student experiments representing the efforts of several thousand students throughout the district and in four other states. These experiments represented the individual concepts of teams ranging in age from pre-school to high school. Consequently, a tremendous variety of samples from collard green seeds to microscopic 'water bears' were flown. Each prospective team was provided a simple kit equipped with five vials. Each student team submitted five coded samples, one for space flight and four control samples. The control samples were exposed to radiation, cold and centrifugation respectively while one negative control sample was passively stored. The students received the samples back still coded so that they were unaware of which samples were flown. They then investigated their samples according to their individual research protocols. The results were presented in poster and platform form at a student research symposium. Space Trees grown from tree seeds flown in the payload have been planted at all district schools, and at many guest schools. These seeds represented another way in which to involve additional classes and students. Both the passive experiments and the space trees were housed in what otherwise would have been wasted space within the payload. They extended the GAS programs worthwhile ballast concept to another level. The opportunity to fly an experiment in space is too previous not to be extended to the greatest number of students possible.

Nicholson, James H.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Earth observation photography: Looking back 20 years after Skylab

A committee of trained classroom teachers, backed by a volunteer team of technical experts and academic advisors has developed a program for earth science based on photographs obtained from low earth orbit. In selecting targeting objectives, immediate note was made of the fact nearly one generation (20 years) has passed since the United States' ambitious SKYLAB program was conducted. A critical part of those missions was the acquisition of earth photography using a six camera, multi-spectral camera system. This objective was systematically furthered through the term of three separate crew visits to the Space Station. Not merely an exercise in randomly photographing the Earth below, the purpose of the Earth Resource Experiment Package (EREP) was to determine what kind, and how much, photographic data could be acquired of the broad variety of Earth features witnessed on the mission's ground track. The collection of 35,000 photos produced by EREP represents the most complete coverage of Earth. However, it remains under used. GAS 324 intends to revisit, and to add a tier of relevancy to this inventory. The photography of GAS 324 should allow a direct examination and comparison of the changes in the globe in the last 20 years. format in both coverage and quality. The photogra phy acquired by CAN DO should allow a direct examination and comparison of the changes that have occured to the Globe in the last twenty years.

Nicholson, James H.↗

NASA NTRS1987

To catch a child's imagination 2: Educational update on CAN-DO

At the G.A.S. Symposium last year, the Charleston County Public School CAN DO Project outlined an ambitious educational program revolving around the photography of Comet Halley from the Shuttle using a GAS canister. The target flight was STS 61-E scheduled for a March, 1986, launch. Such strict time constraints and highly specific mission requirements made the CAN DO program even more risky than normal. In spite of this, almost all of the planned educational goals were achieved, even after the postponement of all Shuttle activities in January of 1986. This follow-up paper summarizes the effects of events on the program as proposed and the attempts to carry out as many of the activities as possible. It is hoped that this paper will suggest constructive ways in which to cope with the delays and mishaps that are the invariable lot of pioneers who break new ground and attempt the new and untried.

Nicholson, James H.↗