SEARCH · Search NASA
Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
At JPL, the World-Wide Web has become an invaluable educational outreach mechanism. In the area of space flight mission operations, for example, we have been able to make publicly accessible two workbooks found to be of much wider interest than their original internal training purposes would have suggested.
Few tools reach out to capture the imagination and interests of children like video games do. As such, the development of educational applications that foster young minds' interest in science and technology become of the utmost importance. To this end, I spent my summer internship developing outreach and educational applications in conjunction with JPL's Space Place team. This small, but dedicated, team of people manages three NASA websites that focus on presenting science and technology information in such a manner that young children can understand it and develop an interest in the subjects. Besides the websites, with their plethora of educational content presented through hands-on activities, games and informative articles, the team also creates and coordinates the distribution of printed material to museums, astronomy clubs and a huge network of educators.
The life of a star, the supernova, related objects and their importance in astronomy and science in general are discussed. Written primarily for science teachers of secondary school chemistry, physics, and earth sciences, the booklet contains a glossary, reference sources, suggested topics for discussion, and projects for individual or group assignment.
The NASA Central Operation of Resources for Educators (CORE), established in cooperation with Lorain County Joint Vocational School, serves as the worldwide distribution center for NASA-produced educational materials. For a minimal charge, CORE will provide a valuable service to educators unable to visit one of the NASA Educator Resource Centers by making NASA educational audiovisual materials available through its mail order service. Through CORE's distribution network, the public has access to more than 200 videocassette, slide, and CD-ROM programs, chronicling NASA!s state-of-the-art research and technology. Through the use of these curriculum supplement materials, teachers can provide their students with the latest in aerospace information. NASAs educational materials on aeronautics and space provide a springboard for classroom discussion of life science, physical science, astronomy, energy, Earth resources, environment, mathematics, and career education.
After School Astronomy clubs are an important method of exposing students to astronomy at the critical middle school age when sparking an interest can inspire a lifelong career or hobby. We know that teachers complain that they can spend little time on astronomy in the classroom since they must teach to the test and the curriculum requirements do not have very extensive astronomy coverage. We also know that space is a very popular subject with students that can motivate them to join an after school club. One of the problems with after school astronomy clubs is that they don't often have a chance to observe the night sky. We propose to train club mentors on how to do daytime solar observing so students fulfill the IYA goal of looking through a telescope. We propose to provide a half day workshop for elementary and middle school teachers on starting and maintaining After School Astronomy clubs with special emphasis on observing the Sun not only in the visible spectrum but with radio waves and other parts of the spectrum as well. We will use NASA-oriented or NASA-funded educational materials and websites to bring a variety of ideas to the mentors and a broad knowledge of astronomy to the students. Attendees will be given an overview of the science of the Sun and how it can affect us on the Earth. They will be shown the dynamic nature of the Sun and what to look for to track the events happening there. The educators will be shown simple approaches to directly observing the Sun such as pinhole cameras, use of projection techniques with telescopes or binoculars, etc. They will be acquainted with sunspotter scopes and the advantages and disadvantages (such as expense) they pose for getting students involved. We will also point out the possibilities of using regular telescopes with solar filters and the specialized solar viewing telescopes such as the Coronado. Once the educators are comfortable with the simple approaches to viewing the Sun we will expose them to advanced topics such as remotely viewing the Sun using telescopes available on the web. Resources such as the Sun-Earth Viewer will allow them to study near real-time images of the Sun in multiple wavelengths. They will also be shown how they can monitor the Sun at radio wavelengths via remote telescopes or even how to purchase and build their own radio telescopes for hands-on monitoring of the Sun and other radio sources. We will conduct a brief evaluation of the participants knowledge of the Sun as they come into the workshop. We will also ask them to complete a brief knowledge survey at the end to determine if their knowledge and comfort level with solar science has improved significantly.
The present volume on engineering, construction, and operations in space discusses surface structures on the moon and Mars, surface equipment, construction, and transportation on the moon and Mars, in situ materials use and processing, and space energy. Attention is given to such orbital structures as LEO and the space station, space mining and excavation, space materials, space automation and robotics, and space life support systems. Topics addressed include lunar-based astronomy, space systems integration, terrestrial support for space functions, and space education. Also discussed are space plans, policy, and history, space science and engineering, geoengineering and space exploration, and the construction and development of a human habitat on Mars.
The Condensed Matter and Materials Research Committee (CMMRC) is one of five standing committees of the National Academies’ Board on Physics and Astronomy (BPA) and is charged with assisting the BPA in achieving its goals—monitoring the health of physics and astronomy, identifying important new developments at the scientific forefronts, fostering interactions with other fields, strengthening connections to technology, facilitating effective service to the nation, and enhancing education in physics. CMMRC carries out its functions in several ways – providing expert advice to the BPA in monitoring the health of condensed matter and materials research and providing perspective on issues that arise in those fields; assisting other National Academies’ boards in developing proposals and initiating studies that impact these fields; providing long-term stewardship of National Academies reports that it has played a role in initiating and that are of importance to the condensed matter and materials research communities, and providing a means for dialog with federal agencies on these and related fields.
NASA's airborne astronomy program offers a unique opportunity for K-12 science teacher enrichment and for NASA to reach out and serve the educational community. Learning from a combination of summer workshops, curriculum supplement materials, training in Internet skills and ultimately flying on NASA's C-141 airborne observatory, the teachers are able to share the excitement of scientific discovery with their students and convey that excitement from first hand experience rather than just from reading about science in a textbook. This year the program has expanded to include teachers from the eleven western states served by NASA Ames Research Center's Educational Programs Office as well as teachers from communities from around the country where the scientist who fly on the observatory reside. Through teacher workshops and inservice presentations, the FOSTER (Flight Opportunities for Science Teacher EnRichment) teachers are sharing the resources and experiences with many hundreds of other teachers. Ultimately, the students are learning first hand about the excitement of science, the scientific method in practice, the team work involved, the relevance of science to their daily lives and the importance of a firm foundation in math and science in today's technologically oriented world.
Here, we present MESA-Web,a cloud resource with an online interface to the Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) software instrument. MESA-Web allows learners to evolve stellar models without the need to download and install MESA. Since being released in 2015, MESA-Web has delivered over 17,000 calculations to over 2,200 unique learners and currently performs about 11 jobs per day. MESA-Web can be used as an educational tool for stars in the classroom or for scientific investigations. We report on new capabilities of MESA-Web introduced since its 2015 release including learner-supplied nuclear reaction rates, custom stopping conditions, and an expanded selection of input parameters. To foster collaboration we have created a Zenodo MESA-Web community hub, where instructors can openly share examples of using MESA-Web in the classroom. We discuss two examples in the current community hub. The first example is a lesson module on Red Giant Branch stars that includes a suite of exercises designed to fit a range of learners and a Jupyter workbook for additional analysis. The second example is lesson materials for an upper-level Astronomy majors course in Stars and Radiation that includes an assignment verifying some of the expected trends that are presented in a popular stellar physics textbook.
Lay-oriented speakers aids, articles, a booklet, and a press kit were developed to inform the press and the general public with background information on the space transportation system, Spacelab, and Spacelab 1 experiments. Educational materials relating to solar-terrestrial physics and its potential benefits to mankind were also written. A basic network for distributing audiovisual and printed materials to regional secondary schools and universities was developed. Suggested scripts to be used with visual aids describing materials science and technology and astronomy and solar physics are presented.
SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) will be a telescope with 2.5 m effective aperture operating at altitudes of 12.5 to 13.7 km in a Boeing 747 aircraft. It will enable astronomers on board to make observations which are impossible from the ground at wavelengths between 0.3 microns and 1.5 mm. Diffraction-limited imaging will be possible at wavelengths beyond about 10 microns. SOFIA's mobility will assure all-sky coverage and access to transient events from anywhere in the world. Some of the science topics to be studied will be star and planet formation, origin and evolution of biogenic materials, comets and planetary atmospheres in the solar system, the interstellar media of other galaxies, and phenomena at our galactic center. The SOFIA concept is based on 21 years of experience with NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO), which has been retired to help fund the project. As with the KAO, state-of-the-art focal plane instruments and a vigorous educational outreach program will be features of this new airborne astronomy facility. A more intensive flight program, approximately 150 flights per year, will accommodate many more guest investigators however. Planned as a collaboration between the United States and Germany, SOFIA is scheduled to begin a 20 year operating lifetime in 2001.
Radio JOVE is an education and outreach project intended to give students and other interested individuals hands-on experience in learning radio astronomy. They can do this through building a radio telescope from a relatively inexpensive kit that includes the parts for a receiver and an antenna as well as software for a computer chart recorder emulator (Radio Skypipe) and other reference materials
Radio JOVE is an education and outreach project intended to give students and other interested individuals hands-on experience in learning radio astronomy. They can do this through building a radio telescope from a relatively inexpensive kit that includes the parts for a receiver and an antenna as well as software for a computer chart recorder emulator (Radio Skypipe) and other reference materials
The Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) is the deepest underground science facility in the United States. SURF hosts world-leading experiments in neutrino, astroparticle and nuclear physics, as well as projects in biology, geology, and engineering, and is home to a major excavation project making space for Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory’s Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF), which will power the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). An emphasis on outreach and education is embedded in SURF’s mission statement: “to advance world-class science and inspire learning across generations.” To achieve this mission, SURF goes beyond established science communication methods, including operating an open-to-the-public visitor center, hosting multiple public outreach events per month, and an annual city-wide science festival. Furthermore, SURF is training K-12 science educators, developing school curriculum units, and providing classroom materials, based on science researched at the laboratory. The strategic approach, specific methods, and successful outcomes of these programs, which are based on SURF’s science, location, and community, may serve as examples for effective science education, public outreach, and community engagement.
The NASA Faculty Fellowship Program (NFFP) is designed to give college and university faculty members a rewarding personal as well as enriching professional experience. Fellowships are awarded to engineering and science faculty for work on collaborative research projects of mutual interest to the fellow and his or her JPL host colleague. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have participated in the NASA Faculty Fellowship Program for more than 25 years. Administrative offices are maintained both at the Caltech Campus and at JPL; however, most of the activity takes place at JPL. The Campus handles all fiscal matters. The duration of the program is ten continuous weeks. Fellows are required to conduct their research on-site. To be eligible to participate in the program, fellows must be a U.S. citizen and hold a teaching or research appointment at a U.S. university or college. The American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) contracts with NASA and manages program recruitment. Over the past several years, we have made attempts to increase the diversity of the participants in the NFFP Program. A great deal of attention has been given to candidates from minority-serving institutions. There were approximately 100 applicants for the 34 positions in 2002. JPL was the first-choice location for more than half of them. Faculty from 16 minority-serving institutions participated as well as four women. The summer began with an orientation meeting that included introduction of key program personnel, and introduction of the fellows to each other. During this welcome, the fellows were briefed on their obligations to the program and to their JPL colleagues. They were also given a short historical perspective on JPL and its relationship to Caltech and NASA. All fellows received a package, which included information on administrative procedures, roster of fellows, seminar program, housing questionnaire, directions to JPL, maps of the local area, and a copy of the JPL Universe (a JPL newsletter). A calendar of events for the 2002 NFFP Program was designed to expose the fellows to the full range of JPL activities, seminars, tours, and trips to NASA Dryden, Goldstone, and Palomar Observatory. Weekly brown-bag lunches were also scheduled. The lunches provided a time for airing problems that may have arisen during the previous week, soliciting suggestions for program enhancement, announcements, and general socializing. Professor and Mrs. Albee also hosted the annual Summer Faculty Welcome Party at their home. During their ten-week tenure at JPL, the visiting faculty carried out projects in a wide variety of JPL's science, engineering, and technology disciplines, including communication, planetary science, materials research, reliability and quality assurance, astronomy, guidance and control, and micro-sensors. At the end of the NFFP Program, all fellows were required to complete a one-page summary of their summer s work. This was in addition to any documentation required by their host organization. Distribution of the final paycheck was dependent upon submission of this one-page summary and completion of NASA's NFFP evaluation in the EdCATS system. Fellows were also asked to complete a questionnaire for JPL, which enables the program administrators to make any appropriate changes to make the program more beneficial and effective for all involved. The 2002 NFFP Program at JPUCaltech was considered unanimously highly successful by both fellows and JPL colleagues. It provided a significant experience to most faculty members and fresh ideas to JPL researchers. Each year, suggestions for improvement include expansion of the program, longer terms, larger stipends, funds to support graduate students, and funds to continue collaborative research. The NASA Faculty Fellowship Program continues to occupy a significant place in JPL programs and serves to strengthen the ties between NASA, JPL, Caltech, and t academic community. This program is an important part of NASA's commitment to education. No inventions or patents were created during this program.
This quarter we are celebrating the 25 th anniversary of Actinide Research Quarterly. The publication was established in 1995 by the former Nuclear Materials Technology Division of TA-55 at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), before later becoming part of the Glenn T. Seaborg Institute and the National Security Education Center. A total of 64 issues have been produced, covering the full spectrum of topics related to actinide science and research, including contributions from esteemed scientists such as Glenn Seaborg and Siegfried Hecker. This back catalog is available electronically at www.lanl.gov/arq.
NASA/Spacelink is a collection of NASA information and educational materials stored on a computer at the MSFC. It is provided by the NASA Educational Affairs Division and is operated by the Education Branch of the Marshall Center Public Affairs Office. It is designed to communicate with a wide variety of computers and modems, especially those most commonly found in classrooms and homes. It was made available to the public in February, 1988. The system may be accessed by educators and the public over regular telephone lines. NASA/Spacelink is free except for the cost of long distance calls. Overhauling and updating Spacelink was done to refurbish NASA/Spacelink, a very valuable resource medium. Several new classroom activities and miscellaneous topics were edited and entered into Spacelink. One of the areas that received a major overhaul (under the guidance of Amos Crisp) was the SPINOFFS BENEFITS, the great benefits resulting from America's space explorations. The Spinoff Benefits include information on a variety of topics including agriculture, communication, the computer, consumer, energy, equipment and materials, food, health, home, industry, medicine, natural resources, public services, recreation, safety, sports, and transportation. In addition to the Space Program Spinoff Benefits, the following is a partial list of some of the material updated and introduced: Astronaut Biographies, Miscellaneous Aeronautics Classroom Activities, Miscellaneous Astronomy Classroom Activities, Miscellaneous Rocketry Classroom Activities, Miscellaneous Classroom Activities, NASA and Its Center, NASA Areas of Research, NASA Patents, Licensing, NASA Technology Transfer, Pictures from Space Classroom Activities, Status of Current NASA Projects, Using Art to Teach Science, and Word Puzzles for Use in the Classroom.
Two dates in 1999 can serve as pivots for space-related educational outreach. On August 11 a total solar eclipse will sweep across Europe and also across the Near East, where it will come remarkably close to matching the ancient eclipse (probably in 129 BC) used by Hipparchus to estimate the distance of the Moon. Using published eclipse data, students may conduct a similar calculation for 1999 and in the process obtain insights about astronomy, history and the way scientists work. October 19, 1999 will be the 100th anniversary of the day when a teen-age Robert Goddard climbed a cherry tree near the Worcester home where his family was staying, intending to prune it. Sitting in that tree, Goddard began daydreaming about space flight, and by the time he came down he had resolved to dedicate his life to implementing that dream. He later marked that day as "Anniversary day," a personal holiday. Material on both subjects can be reached from http://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Sintro.htm, sections 8a and 26. The section on Goddard includes his experiments with a ballistic pendulum and the DeLaval nozzle, which laid the essential scientific foundation of spaceflight and which is also suitable for classroom presentation.