Discoveries of methane on Mars suggest it is actively being replenished. (Image: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, G Neukum)
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We’ve known about the methane in Mars’ atmosphere for over four years now. But we don’t know where it is coming from. On Earth, methane is produced from biological agents: rotting vegetation or flatulence from large animals like cows. But, of course, with our extensive explorations of Mars with rovers and high-resolution orbiting cameras, we’re fairly sure there are no Martian bovine equivalents chewing cud from the foliage on the Red Planet. Even if life existed in the past on Mars, methane is broken down quite quickly by sunlight, and scientists have calculated that methane should only exist for a few hundred years in the Martian atmosphere. The only possibility is that somehow, either chemically or biologically, the methane is being replaced on a regular basis. And now, two recent reports outlining separate discoveries on Mars make this methane mystery even more intriguing.
Methane was discovered on Mars by three independent groups in 2003 – 2004. One detection was made using the Mars Express spacecraft, another used observations from the Keck II and Gemini South telescopes, and the third used the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope.
And the mystery of how methane on Mars is being replenished has scientists continuing their observations in an effort to understand what’s happening on Mars. Michael Mumma of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland was one of the original methane discoverers. Observations he and his team have made over the last four years show methane is not spread evenly around Mars, but concentrated in a few “hotspots.” They have seen that methane clouds spanning hundreds of kilometers form over these hotspots and dissipate within a year – much shorter than the 300 – 600 years it was thought to take for atmospheric methane to be destroyed by sunlight. If methane is being destroyed so quickly, it also must be created at far higher rates than previously thought. Mumma reported these results at a planetary science conference last month.
One of the hotspots is Nili Fossae a fissure that has been eroded and partly filled in by sediments and clay-rich ejecta from a nearby crater. Could a living ecosystem be hidden here under the Martian surface? On Earth, subterranean microbes survive without sunlight, free oxygen, or contact with the surface. Additionally, the prospect becomes more intriguing when it is known on Earth, most deep-surface microbes are primitive, single-celled organisms that power their metabolism with chemical energy from their environment. These microbes are called “methanogens” because they make methane as a waste product.
Nili Fossae is one of the possible landing sites for the Mars Science Laboratory, the next generation of rover currently set to head off the Red Planet next year.
A pair of pit caves on Mars. Could life exist inside? Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
But astrobiologists aren’t ruling out the possibility of some type of ongoing chemical process on Mars, which could be producing the methane. But even this is intriguing, because it means there are active processes going on inside Mars. One idea proposed in a recent paper is that methane clathrates are near the Martian surface, and are constantly releasing small amounts of methane as temperatures and pressure near the surface change.
Methane clathrates are solid forms of water that contain a large amount of methane within its crystal structure.
Caroline Thomas and her colleagues at the Universite de Franche-Comte say the clathrates could only exist near the surface of Mars if the atmosphere had once been methane rich. Otherwise the clathrates could never have formed. One possibility is that the atmosphere was once temporarily enriched by a comet impact. Also, the discovery of gray crystalline hematite deposits on the surface could be a proof of an early methane-rich Martian atmosphere.
Otherwise, the researchers say, the only other possibility is a biological source.
“Our results show that methane enriched clathrate hydrates could be stable in the subsurface of Mars only if a primitive CH4-rich atmosphere has existed or if a subsurface source of CH4 has been (or is still) present,” the researchers write.
So what does all this mean? The Mars Science Laboratory rover might have the ability to find out, or at least bring us closer to solving this mystery. Otherwise it will take a fairly large breakthrough from the other spacecraft and telescopes observing Mars. But it’s possible we might not fully understand why Mars has methane until humans actually go there themselves to find out.
[/caption]In an initiative energized by Google Vice-President and Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf, the International Space Station could be testing a brand new way of communicating with Earth. In 2009, it is hoped that the ISS will play host to an Interplanetary Internet prototype that could standardize communications between Earth and space, possibly replacing point-to-point single use radio systems customized for each individual space mission since the beginning of the Space Age.
This partnership opens up some exciting new possibilities for the future of communicating across vast distances of the Solar System. Manned and robotic space craft will be interconnected via a robust interplanetary network without the problems associated with incompatible communication systems…
“The project started 10 years ago as an attempt to figure out what kind of technical networking standards would be useful to support interplanetary communication,” Cerf said in a recent interview. “Bear in mind, we have been flying robotic equipment to the inner and outer planets, asteroids, comets, and such since the 1960’s. We have been able to communicate with those robotic devices and with manned missions using point-to-point radio communications. In fact, for many of these missions, we used a dedicated communications system called the Deep Space Network (DSN), built by JPL in 1964.”
Indeed, the DSN has been the backbone of interplanetary communications for decades, but an upgrade is now required as we have a growing armada of robotic missions exploring everything from the surface of Mars to the outermost regions of the Solar System. Wouldn’t it be nice if a communication network could be standardized before manned missions begin moving beyond terrestrial orbit?
“When we launch a spacecraft with a unique set of sensors onboard, we often end up writing special communication and application software that is adapted to that spacecraft’s sensor systems and manipulators,” Cerf said in response to the challenges space missions face each time they are designed.
The Internet uses standard TCP/IP protocols so billions of online entities are always compatible. Although there are limitations to the Internet, it has proven to be a highly flexible and scalable system, so with the help of Google, NASA hopes to push the Internet beyond Earth. “The Interplanetary Internet project is primarily about developing a set of communication standards and technical specifications to support rich networking in space environments,” Cerf added.
This all sounds very interesting, but the challenges with building such a system require some novel techniques. How do you deal with the limitation of the speed of light? After all, it can take light 40 minutes to travel to-and-from Mars, and up to 12 hours to Pluto and back. How do you cater for planetary rotation? The transmitters/receivers won’t always be on the correct side of the planet. What happens if a satellite signal is blocked by a planet, the Sun or a moon?
Vint Cerf says the disruption of data transmission has to be confronted with a delay- and disruption-tolerant networking system, otherwise known as DTN. “It will allow us to maintain communications more effectively, getting much more data because we don’t have to be in direct line of sight with the ultimate recipient in order to transfer data,” he said.
DTN will be based on store-and-forward methods used by TCP/IP systems; if there is a disruption in signal, the transmitting station will hold data packets until the signal is re-established. However, DTN will be more robust, catering for long transmission lag-times (such as the many-hour light transmission times between Earth and the outer Solar System). “We have to cope with the fact that there is a really high potential for delay and disruption in the system,” he added.
Standard TCP/IP protocol should also work seamlessly with the DTN, allowing planetary missions to have their own distributed Internet whilst using DTN as a link through interplanetary space.
[/caption]There’s been a lot of bad news surrounding the development of the Constellation Program of late. We’ve had news of general design flaws, rebelling NASA engineers, failed parachute tests, budget overruns, vibrational issues and job losses. Now we have a new one to add to the mix, the Ares I launch vehicle could bump into the launch tower during blast-off. According to a Florida report, only a tiny gust of wind is required to cause the rocket to hit the tower or scorch it, causing catastrophic failure and/or costly damage to the pad.
You’d be forgiven for thinking Constellation is a failed project, that is obviously going to overrun, obviously going to cost too much and is obviously a waste of time. But forget the media naysayers for a moment. Despite the challenges faced by NASA engineers, a bumpy road on the way to launching the most advanced rocket system ever devised is well worth the ride…
The Orion parachute test drop didn't go so well... (NASA)
Back in August, I reported on the testing of the Ares and Orion parachute systems. Very little news was available about the Ares parachute successes, so the focus was placed on the spectacular failure of the Orion test vehicle, which fell to the ground like a stone (captured in full video glory). This wasn’t a critical failure of the technology, it was more of an experimental anomaly. After all, isn’t that what test flights are all about?
Ares V: Heavy lift capability comes with a price (NASA)Then there was much emphasis placed on the predicted vibrational problems facing Ares I during launch. Fortunately, as Nancy reported on August 19th, NASA engineers had a solution. Just when the NASA engineers thought they were winning, a few days later a report comes out saying the old Apollo era crawlerway would not be able to support the weight of a fully laden Ares rocket (cue more budget over-stretching).
More bad news has come from other areas too. During the transition from the Space Shuttle to Constellation, it was estimated that 8,000 jobs would probably be lost. Even after this projected number was reduced to 3,000-4,000 job losses, US Senator Bill Nelson said that NASA job losses and an increased dependence on Russian space vehicles will result in “generating jobs in Russia.” However, this argument may not hold water for much longer as the Russian Soyuz manufacturer has run out of money.
Protesting over job losses (Canaveral Port Authority)Now prepare yourself for some more bad news. The Orlando Sentinel has published an article entitled “Is NASA’s Ares doomed?” Oh dear.
This headline comes in response to computer models that show the Ares I rocket could get blown into the launch tower during lift-off. Ares I could experience “liftoff drift”, a phenomenon that occurs when the rocket’s solid-fuel motor ignites, making the 309 ft (100 m) Ares I “jump” sideways. If this should occur during a breeze of a little over 12 mph (19 kmh), Ares I could fall into its launch tower, or cause severe and expensive damage to the tower under the extreme heat of its boosters.
“We were told by a person directly involved [in looking at the problem] that as they incorporate more variables into the liftoff-drift-curve model, the worse the curve becomes,” said an anonymous NASA contractor. Contractors are not authorized to talk about Ares development, but the contractor continued, “I get the impression that things are quickly going from bad to worse to unrecoverable.”
The future of space travel - Artist impression of Ares V on the launchpad (NASA)But are these problems insurmountable? Surely NASA engineers will find a solution to this difficulty (much in the same way as they found an answer to the vibrational problems)?
“There are always issues that crop up when you are developing a new rocket and many opinions about how to deal with them,” said Jeff Hanley, Constellation Program manager. “We have a lot of data and understanding of what it’s going to take to build this.”
The Orlando Sentinel also posted information about continuing rifts in NASA pointing out that a growing number of engineers are quitting the Constellation program through fears of unrealistic goals and safety concerns, calling the whole Constellation concept into question.
“If they push hard enough, yes, it will fly,” said one disgruntled NASA engineer working on Ares. “But there are going to be so many compromises to be able to launch it, and it will be so expensive and so behind schedule, that it may be better if didn’t fly at all.”
In my view, any massive project like Constellation will attract its critics. Ares and Orion are new technologies where NASA engineers will have to make some huge strides to make it work. As already mentioned, the Ares rocket system is going to fly, but it might overrun in spending and schedule. However, all these challenges will be worth it when we see the first Ares I launch from Cape Canaveral in six or seven years time.
Astronaut Eugene Cernan from Apollo 17, the last mission to the Moon (NASA)Never before have we had the opportunity to build a space technology not only used for transportation to the space station, it will be used to facilitate the next lunar mission, and eventually a trip to Mars. These projects come at a huge cost for the entire nation, but like the run-up to the Apollo missions in the 1960’s, the US needs to build an enthusiasm for the future of space flight. We are on the cusp of a huge advance for mankind, there’s no budget or timescale for that kind of achievement.
It may not be politically or economically realistic, but more money should be ploughed into NASA and Constellation. This is a momentous challenge requiring a momentous effort from the nation. Let’s just hope some of the spending promises of the presidential candidates last beyond November 4th…
The Soyuz TMA-13 is transported to its launchpad for the Oct. 10th flight (AFP)
[/caption]The Russian spacecraft producer Energiya has warned that it might only have enough money to launch the next two Soyuz flights unless funds are raised urgently.
This situation poses a difficult problem for future access to the International Space Station. The spacecraft producer requires funding in advance to pay for the construction of future Soyuz vehicles, so unless a solution is found, the launch of Expedition 19 that is expected to be carried by the Soyuz TMA-15 (around May 2009) could be the last…
Just when we thought getting access to the International Space Station (ISS) was hard enough, Energiya’s President Vitaly Lopota has announced his company has run out of money.
“We have vessels and funding for them for the next two trips, but I do not know what will happen with expeditions after that,” Lopota said on Friday. “We have no funds to produce new Soyuz craft. Unless we are granted loans or advance payment in the next two or three weeks, we cannot be responsible for future Soyuz production.”
According to other sources, the announcement came as Energiya failed to receive critical government-backed loans from commercial banks.
The Soyuz TMA-12 landed safely on Friday with cosmonauts Sergei Volkov, Oleg Kononenko and US space tourist Richard Garriott after being docked on the ISS for six months. Garriott did not stay for this period however, he was launched on October 12th with the crew of Expedition 18 (onboard Soyuz TMA-13 that will return in April next year). Friday was the first nominal landing of a Soyuz vehicle since TMA-9; both TMA-10 (Oct. 21st, 2007) and TMA-11 (April 19th, 2008) suffered separation anomalies, forcing “ballistic re-entries.” It must have been a relief for Volkov, Kononenko and Garriott to touch down on target, ending the spate of bad luck for Soyuz.
Soyuz is the primary method to get to and from the ISS (as you can probably guess from the above paragraph), and when the shuttle is retired in 2010, it will be the only method for the US to access the orbital outpost. However, this is a solution to the “5-year gap” between shuttle retirement and Constellation launch (scheduled for 2015) that many find difficult to come to terms with, especially with the increasing political discord between the US and Russia.
Whether the warning from Energiya’s president should be taken seriously or not, once again US space flight is being restricted by internal problems in other countries. More initiatives like NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Program need to be considered to further stimulate private sector space flight. Wouldn’t it make more sense to purchase US rocket launches with SpaceX after 2010 rather than buying Soyuz flights? Fortunately the private sector is catching onto this idea, so hopefully we’ll have dependable means to transport cargo to the ISS — possibly even crew — after 2010…
A Dornier Alpha Jet, similar to the one brought by Brin and Page (Adrian Pingstone)
[/caption]A company owned by Google’s founders has just bought a 1982 light attack Dornier Alpha Jet. H211 LLC owns several aircraft that are frequently used by Google Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and in an “unusual” agreement signed last year, H211 managed to get the rights to operate from an airstrip ten minutes away from Google HQ near the south end of San Francisco Bay, California. This isn’t any ordinary airstrip, it is Moffett Field, owned by the NASA Ames Research Center…
Not just anyone can land their private jet at Moffett Field. Located right next to Silicon Valley, it has had a lot of interest from the hi-tech billionaires to get permission to fly in and out of there. But there’s a problem, Moffett Field isn’t an ordinary airstrip, it is owned by NASA. NASA is a government department and with that comes certain rules. Unless the aircraft has a direct relationship with the NASA research being carried out, or a military flight, you’ll have to find somewhere else to land. So whether you’re Bill Gates or Queen Elizabeth — unless you need to land in an emergency — you cannot use the airstrip, unless you’re carrying out NASA business.
But, in an agreement that was described as a “win-win” situation for NASA, on July 31st, 2007 Ken Ambrose, Vice President of H211, signed a lease contract to park four aircraft at Moffett Field. These passenger aircraft included a Boeing 757, Boeing 767 and two Gulfstream Vs, regularly used by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to conduct business for H211 and Google (although both companies are separate entities). So how did they do this?
In exchange for use of the NASA site, H211 agreed that NASA could use its aircraft for scientific research (thereby helping NASA out with certain experiments in the fields of atmospheric chemistry, ozone depletion and wildfire monitoring), plus the cool sum of $1.3 million/year in rent.
But there was a problem, in order for NASA to use the fleet of four aircraft, it has to modify them. Each modification would require new certifications from the Federal Aviation Administration as the aircraft are passenger planes. This has been the main stumbling block, possibly causing Page and Brin to lose their aircraft parking spot.
So, H211 has bought a military aircraft to get around the FAA problem and still deliver on its promise for NASA to use its aircraft. The 26 year-old German-built light attack Dornier Alpha Jet can be modified by NASA, so it is currently being made ready for civilian use in Seattle before experiments can be carried out.
“The Alpha Jet they are bringing on board is considered an experimental aircraft, so we don’t have the same issues as with a passenger plane,” said Steve Zornetzer, associate director of the NASA Ames Research Center.
The Google executives flights account for less than 1% of the annual air traffic at Moffett Field. 88 flights out of approximately 19,000 of the last year’s flights were for Google business.
Or alternatively, Google is planning a (very) hostile takeover of Microsoft…
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The Mars Science Laboratory, the next generation of Mars rovers slated to head to Mars in 2009, is still alive, for the time being. The car-sized rover designed to look for life on Mars is over budget and behind schedule due to technical problems, and NASA officials met today to discuss their options. Potentially, Congress could pull the plug on the mission if cost overruns go too high. NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and Science Associate Administrator Ed Weiler were briefed, and met with mission managers in attempt to work out a potential solution. In a press briefing today, Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA headquarters said the rover’s progress will be assessed again in January, but the mission will need more money. “This is a really important scientific mission,” McCuistion said. “This is truly the push into the next decade for the Mars program and for the discovery for the potential for life on other planets…I fully believe that Congress will support us as we go forward on this because they recognize the importance of the mission as well.”
The panel of NASA officials at the briefing wouldn’t say where the money will come from or exactly how much will be needed to keep the rover on schedule and provide the engineers the resources they need to overcome the technical problems. But NASA will seek additional money from Congress and/or realign funds from other missions.
“If we’re going to launch in 2009 or 2011 additional budget resources are going to be necessary. The sources of that we cannot release until we get approval from the Office of Management and Budget and Congress,” said McCuistion.
Costs for MSL have already gone from the initial $1.5 billion to $1.9 billion. Launch is scheduled sometime between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15, 2009, but could be delayed until 2011 if the problems take more time to be resolved. Earth and Mars come closest to each other approximately every 26 months, providing favorable launch windows.
Problems with parachutes, actuators and other materials have delayed construction of the rover, and currently the contractors are working multiple shifts to make up for lost time. Mission managers hope tests of the rover can begin in November or December.
MSL will be three times as heavy and twice the width of the Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs) that landed in 2004, and will be able to travel twice as far. It will carry ten advanced scientific instruments and cameras. It will make the first precise landing and a predetermined site, using a guided entry system and a soft-landing system called the Sky Crane.
Matt Gasch of NASA Ames and Betsy Pugel of NASA Goddard examine the remains of a 1966 Apollo test vehicle heat shield (Smithsonian Museum/Eric Long)
[/caption]NASA scientists currently working on the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle had the rare opportunity to unpack a little piece of history. A visit to Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum led them to uncover crates containing the heat shields used during the development of the Apollo Program, some 35 years ago. The shielding has not seen light of day since 1966 when it was dropped from low Earth orbit and protected a test vehicle from fiery re-entry. The NASA scientists hope to learn more about the thermal response of the old heat shield to improve the shielding of the Orion return vessel a whole generation after the pioneering lunar missions…
On July 31st and August 1st, the NASA crew descended on Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum Garber Facility to do a bit of space-age archaeology. The facility makes it their job to collect, preserve and restore anything space and aircraft related, ensuring the Apollo heatshieilds were in perfect condition (or as “perfect” as they can be after undergoing re-entry over three decades ago) for the Orion development teams from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. What they unpacked was a space geek’s dream.
“We started working together at the end of June to track down any Apollo-era heat shields that they had in storage,” said Elizabeth Pugel from the Detector Systems Branch at Goddard. “We located one and opened it. It was like a nerd Christmas for us!”
Scientists examine the 1966 Apollo test vehicle heat shield (Smithsonian Museum/Eric Long)
The NASA team managed to eventually track down heat shield material from a test re-entry from low Earth orbit on August 26th, 1966. This material will prove useful in the continuing development of the Constellation Program’s Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle so more information can be gained about the material’s reaction to extreme heat as it was dropped through the atmosphere.
“We are examining the design of the carrier structure (the metal structure that connects the heat shield to the vessel that contains the astronauts) and the heat shield material’s thermal response,” Pugel added.
“The Smithsonian has been generous in their providing large pieces of the heat shield that we will be doing destructive and non-destructive testing on during the months before Orion’s Preliminary Design Review,” said Matthew Gasch from NASA Ames. “This information will further our confidence in our design and materials development.”
It might seem strange that NASA scientists are researching re-entry technology from the Apollo era, after all the Orion cone-like design borrows its shape from the Apollo Program’s Saturn V Command Module (amongst others), but that is where the 20th century similarity ends. Orion will be packed with the most advanced 21st century computing, electronics, life support, propulsion and heat protection systems.
Orion aside, I would have loved to have been there when the NASA Orion scientists cracked open the wooden Apollo crates (using crowbars, naturally), to find them filled with the dusty artefacts from the beginning of the space age (but then again, I might be watching way too much Indiana Jones movies…).
NASA turns 50 years old today. On Oct. 1, 1958 the National Advisory Council on Aeronautics (NACA) officially became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “It was a relatively easy transition,” said Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong in a rare public appearance commemorating NASA’s anniversary. “We were already riding on rockets and research aircraft…We had merely to paint over the “C” in NACA and replace it with an “S” on our airplanes, our trucks and vans.” But beyond those cosmetic changes, what has NASA meant to the average citizen, the US and the world?
Because of NASA, Armstrong said, “Our knowledge of the universe around us has increased a thousand fold and more. We learned that Homo sapiens was not forever imprisoned by the gravitational field of Earth. Performance, efficiency, reliability and safety of aircraft have improved remarkably. We’ve sent probes throughout the solar system and beyond. We’ve seen deeply into our universe and looked backward nearly to the beginning of time.”
Armstrong didn’t say the space race of the 1960’s prevented a war between the US and the USSR, but said it was a diversion. “It was intense,” he said. “It did allow both sides to take the high road with the objectives of science and learning and exploration.”
But eventually, the competition became cooperation, and while the current partnership between the US, Russia and 14 other countries who have joined together to create the International Space Station isn’t perfect, it is a platform for continued collaboration between the various entities.
As for how NASA has directly affected the average citizen, there’s a plethora of everyday devices and technologies we take for granted that might not be at our disposal without NASA. There’s a nice list here, and everyone should take a look at NASA’s Spinoff website.
Some say NASA is in a midlife crisis. Some say NASA is out of touch. Some look at NASA and think of what could have been. In a speech at the same gala event where Armstrong spoke, NASA’s own administrator Mike Griffin said, “We’re not, on our 50th anniversary, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the first [human] landing on Mars – and we could have been.”
NASA gets plenty of criticism. Some is deserved; some things are out of the space agency’s control. Some argue NASA needs more funding, some say NASA doesn’t manage the funds they have very well. Nonetheless, current estimates say for every dollar we spend on the space program, the U.S. economy receives about $8 of economic benefit. That’s an excellent rate of return, whether we’re in good economic times or bad.
While not everything about NASA can be measured in monetary terms, NASA is an investment.
Personally, NASA has been in existence my entire life. My sister and I camped out in front of the television set for each moon landing. Even though I was pretty young and didn’t understand everything, I knew the events I was watching unfold were bigger than just two men bouncing around on the Moon’s surface and bigger than the country whose flag was planted in the lunar regolith. This was humanity at its best, and a triumph of the spirit and ingenuity that lies within each of us. But those qualities aren’t only in NASA’s past; they’re here right now, too. I still feel that spirit, ingenuity and excitement when I get to share the latest events of a space mission, or have the opportunity to talk with a NASA engineer who helped with an important mission milestone, or an astronomer who just made an incredible discovery.
“Our highest and most important hope is that the human race will improve its intelligence, its character, and its wisdom,” said Armstrong, as he concluded his speech.
NASA, as well as all the world’s space agencies and organizations, have helped in that effort, and given humanity the opportunity to strive for those qualities.
Happy birthday, NASA, and many more.
Source of quotes for Armstrong and Griffin: New Scientist
Christa McAuliffe. Credit: Challenger's Lost Lessons
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Christa McAuliffe’s life tragically ended on January 28th, 1986 when Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven crewmembers. She was about to make history, becoming the first teacher in space, giving unique lessons from orbit to students back on Earth. McAuliffe never had the chance to fulfill her dream of teaching from space and in the aftermath of the accident, her lesson plans were filed away by NASA with sadness and grief. The lessons were incomplete, unfinished, and most regrettably, they were never were taught. But now, 22 years later, the lessons are alive again, brought back to life by NASA engineer Jerry Woodfill who says he came across McAuliffe’s lessons by accident.
Woodfill has worked for NASA for 43 years as an electrical engineer. Most notably, he helped design the alarm system for the Apollo program. So, on Apollo 13 when Jim Lovell said, “Houston, we’ve had a problem,” Woodfill was monitoring the spacecraft.
But in 1989 Woodfill joined the New Initiatives Office, where NASA employees were asked to come up with new concepts on how to make NASA information public and easily accessible. This was about the time that PC’s and Macs were becoming popular. Woodfill had the idea of taking NASA resources that were public domain, scanning them and putting them on diskettes. He was especially interested in the educational materials NASA had. “In fact, if I hadn’t been an engineer I probably would have enjoyed being a teacher,” he said. “I like to communicate to children and adults as well, especially about science and the space program.”
Woodfill worked on compiling the NASA educational materials, and created the Space Educator’s Handbook. It was on diskettes and free for teachers. Woodfill put the word out and distributed hundreds of them. This wasn’t his day job, however. At that time he was designing concepts for going to Mars or returning to the moon. But he was able to devote some of his working hours to the New Initiatives program and the Space Educator’s Handbook, although he worked on it on his own time as well. He tried to be innovative. “I tried to create a space education encyclopedia with an attitude,” he said. “There are space comic books and coloring books, all kinds of things you wouldn’t find on an erudite space or astronomy site.”
When the internet came into vogue, Woodfill created a website and put the Space Educator’s Handbook online. He tried to keep things up to date, adding new astronaut biographies and educational materials from the various NASA missions. “All this stuff is owned by the American people who pay their taxes to support NASA,” said Woodfill.
But there were a lot of materials for one man to manage it all. “I had file cabinets full of old materials; astronaut biographies, old Toys in Space information and other things on aviation, etc.,” he said. “So last September (2007) I was thinking after working here 43 years, I should try to straighten things up a bit.”
As Woodfill was going through folder after folder of papers he came across an article about 30 pages long that included a study by an education specialist named Bob Mayfield about the Challenger mission. It proposed how Christa McAuliffe’s eight lessons would be performed on orbit.
Woodfill was intrigued. These papers probably hadn’t seen the light of day for over 20 years.
Christa McAuliffe. Credit: Challenger's Lost Lessons
“This article by Bob Mayfield was descriptions only, no sketches or anything,” said Woodfill. “But it was an excellent narrative. He did a wonderful job of writing this, but I’ve never been able to locate him. He went into great detail to consider how these things would work in Zero G, and how the experiments might affect the environment in the crew cabin – if it would be safe. I was so impressed with it. I thought, I’ve always wanted to do something about the fact that Christa and the crew never got to perform those lessons. Challenger was lost and the lessons were lost, too in that tragedy. I thought it would be wonderful if I could resurrect them in some fashion.”
So Woodfill set to work. As good as Mayfield’s narrative was, it was incomplete without McAuliffe’s input of actually doing the lessons in space. Woodfill was trying to piece everything together into cohesive lesson plans that teachers today could use, but it was difficult. At the end of Mayfield’s article was a list of videos that had been shot of McAuliffe, her backup Barbara Morgan, and Mayfield practicing and choreographing how the lessons would be done.
Woodfill thought the videos might be helpful. He started hunting for them, but had a little trouble. These videos would have been recorded in 1985, and 22 years later Woodfill wasn’t even sure they would still be in NASA’s archives. But after a few days of searching, with the help from various people in several different NASA offices, the videos were found.
They showed McAuliffe, Morgan and Mayfield, as well as some of the crew including pilot Mike Smith, and mission specialist Judy Resnick practicing the experiments. They were just short snippets, shot 20-30 seconds at a time in a shuttle simulator or in a KC-135 spacecraft (the Vomit Comet) that provided short periods of zero G to test out the procedures. Woodfill converted the videos to DVD and went through 2-3 hours of videos frame by frame to sort everything out.
Using the videos, Bob Mayfield’s paper and his own background in education in creating the Space Educator’s Handbook, Woodfill began re-creating the lessons for classroom use. Woodfill worked on the project for three months, 2-4 hours a day, some of it after hours on his own time. “I had a desire to see Christa’s work brought back to life,” he said. “There was pride, but there’s sadness and a real loss comes through because you see the crew and you remember that they didn’t survive. That motivated and drove me. It was kind of heart wrenching to work on it.”
Christa McAuliffe. Credit: Challenger's Lost Lessons
Woodfill said Mayfield’s paper covered about 15-20 per cent of all the information needed. The other 80 per cent Woodfill had to re-create. “Bob had a goal for each lesson, but I had to find the theory behind each lesson and create the materials lists, step by step processes, what the results might be and follow-up questions.
For example in the hydroponics lesson, Mayfield described it, but Woodfill had to go to the video and enlarge the frames and examine it very closely to correlate everything. Woodfill added sketches, and since there weren’t any high resolution photos of McAuliffe practicing her lessons, Woodfill captured a few good screen shots from the videos.
Christa McAuliffe. Credit: Challenger's Lost Lessons
Finally, when Woodfill finished putting everything together, he decided the best place for these lessons would be with the Challenger Learning Center, the educational centers created in memory of the Challenger crew. He sent out the completed lessons to a few of the 50 Challenger Centers, including to Rita Karl, the Director of Educational Programs at the Challenger Learning Center headquarters in Virginia.
“As you can imagine, I’ve been looking for these lessons my entire career,” said Karl, who was familiar with Woodfill from his Space Educator’s Handbook. “For Jerry to actually work with the material that was available and put these lessons together in a way that teachers could use it was really wonderful. As soon as we saw them, we immediately asked if we could host the lessons on our website.”
The lessons are now complete and available on the Challenger Center website for teachers and students around the world to use and experience what McAuliffe undoubtedly wanted to share from space.
“These lessons are really perfect for teachers who are trying to recognize the Teacher in Space mission, both Christa’s and Barbara’s and also for getting kids interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” said Karl. “That’s what the Challenger families intended when they started the Challenger Center. Personally, this is a great moment, as if everything has come full circle to get these lessons available online.”
The Challenger Center recently put out a press release to let teachers know the “Challenger Lost Lessons,” as they are called, are now available. “It’s exciting to see teachers starting to use the lessons, and hopefully by the end of the year we’ll have some really good feedback. My feeling is that Christa’s lessons will be really popular,” said Karl.
Included with the lessons are clips taken from the videos of McAuliffe practicing her lessons from space. Christa McAuliffe practices teaching from space. Credit: Challenger's Lost Lessons
“If you watch the videos, Christa’s personality and her excitement really come through,” said Woodfill. “I got to know her from working with this. You really see what a bright person she was and how innovative she was. You can see all the things she contributed to the performance of the lessons.”
Woodfill says he has received calls and emails from many people, including Barbara Morgan, thanking him for his efforts in bringing back the Lost Lessons. “It’s remarkable that I came across them,” said Woodfill. “I think after the accident, nothing was done with them because Christa never got to teach the lessons from space. But it’s appropriate to do it now, because of the technology available. There’s no way you could have given this kind of treatment of these materials even 15 years ago. But now you can watch the videos and watch Christa perform her lessons. So it does resurrect them, it really does. It’s Christa’s work and it gives honor to her.”
Thanks to Woodfill, McAuliffe’s often-used quote of “I touch the future, I teach” was never more true.
Below is the Challenger Center’s video about the Lost Lessons:
Little yellow ducks, the new face of fighing climate change (Wikimedia Commons)
[/caption]NASA scientists have dropped 90 yellow rubber ducks into holes in Greenland’s Jakobshavn glacier in an attempt to understand why glaciers speed up during summer months as they slip into the sea. The ducks, attached to a football-sized probe, have an email address and message prompting anyone who discovers the ducks to contact NASA to reveal where and when the duck was found. There is an undisclosed award for anyone who finds one of these rubber global warming crusaders. The NASA scientists, based at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, hope this campaign will shed new light on the melting mechanisms behind Greenland’s fastest moving glacier…
This story brings back memories of when 30,000 rubber ducks were washed off a cargo ship bound for the US from China back in 1992. Since then, these intrepid explorers have travelled on the world’s ocean currents, ending up as far afield as the middle of the Pacific to the coast of England. Although they have lost their yellow colouring after years of high seas and Sun damage, the duck-shaped pieces of plastic have provided scientists with a valuable insight into ocean circulation and are still found on beaches today. They have also become a commodity (changing hands for over £500 or $1000), been the focus of children’s story books and provided data for a computer model called the Ocean Surface Currents Simulation (used to help fisheries and find people lost at sea). So, in the footsteps of their forefathers, these new NASA rubber recruits hope to provide climatologists with information about the current global warming trend and impacts on polar ice.
Alberto Behar, one of the JPL scientists working with the army of rubber ducks explains, “Right now it’s not understood what causes the glaciers themselves to surge in the summer.” The rubber ducks will help to tackle this problem by carrying a probe with them so their progress can be tracked via GPS. The football sized probe will also relay information about the glacier’s innards as the rubber ducks flow with the ice into the sea.
So far, nobody has reported finding a duck or a probe, but Behar is hopeful that a fisherman or hunter might do in the near future. “We haven’t heard back but it may take some time until somebody actually finds it and decides to send us an e-mail that they have found it,” he said. “These are places that are quite remote so there aren’t people walking around.” Let’s hope the promise of a reward will be enough incentive for the finder to make contact with NASA (otherwise we might see them being advertised on eBay for £500 or $1000…).
The Jakobshavn Glacier is famous in its own right. The iceberg that sank the Titanic in 1912 is thought to originate from it and the glacier has a phenomenal ice discharge rate today, responsible for nearly 7% of the ice flowing from Greenland.
