Category Archives: Space participation

Education, Rockets, Space participation

Galactic Unite lesson plans based on Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo test flights

Yesterday. Virgin Galactic‘s SpaceShipTwo (SS2)vehicle made its first rocket powered test flight. VG has created an education program called Galactic Unite with STEM lesson plans based around the SS2 test flights: Galactic Unite Lesson Plans are now live! – Virgin Galactic

Galactic Unite Lesson Plans are now live!

Virgin Galactic and Galactic Unite announce the first of their lesson plans and resources!

These aim to engage and inspire educators and students around Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo test flight milestones.

These aim to engage and inspire educators and students around Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo test flight milestones. You can now download free lesson plans, activities and resources from http://virg.in/zUehN , which are pitched at students aged 5-18. Teachers can use these to enhance technology and engineering lessons, as well as help develop aerospace career paths for students around the world. We hope this encourages many more fledgling rocket scientists out there to reach for the stars!

Stay tuned for more exciting news about Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo and our educational programs via our Galactic Unite website or Virgin Galactic website, Twitter and Facebook.

===

And here is a description of the lesson plans at  Virgin Unite – Galactic Unite:

Galactic Unite Lessons Plans for Educators

Virgin Galactic and Galactic Unite announce the first of their lesson plans and resources!

These aim to engage and inspire educators and students around Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo test flight milestones. You can now download free lesson plans, activities and resources below, which are pitched at students aged 5-18. Teachers can use these to enhance technology and engineering lessons, as well as help develop aerospace career paths for students around the world. We hope this encourages many more fledgling rocket scientists out there to reach for the stars!

The lesson plans are available here:

Lesson Plan #1: Paper Airplane Designs for Safe Landings 
As with the glider test flights of SpaceShipTwo, the most important part to ensure a successful mission is the ability to secure a safe landing.  Test a design’s effect on an aircraft’s landing ability with the first lesson plan ‘Paper Airplane Designs for Safe Landings’ where students will create different paper airplane designs, test and study them, to see which ones land the safest.

Lesson Plan #2: WhiteKnightTwo
In the second lesson plan, explore all the ins-and-outs of WhiteKnightTwo, one of the most unique aircrafts in the skies!

Lesson Plan #3: The Design and Test Flight Milestones of SpaceShipTwo
There are a lot of steps you have to take before you can go into space! In the third lesson plan, follow the timeline of SpaceShipTwo from design, to building the aircraft, and successful test flights.

Lesson Plan #4: Careers in Aerospace
Space exploration and commercial space travel is a growing field.  In this final lesson plan, students will learn about potential careers in aerospace.

Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Test Flight Lesson Plans Student Survey

Stay tuned for more exciting news about Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo and our educational programs via our Galactic Unite website or  Virgin Galactic website, Twitter and Facebook.

===

A video of yesterday’s SS2 flight:

Education, Eyes in the Sky, Space participation

Video: Students take EarthKAM images from ISS

This NASA video presents the EarthKAM program, which lets students control a camera on the International Space Station to take images of the earth.

Caption:

Since the earliest days of the space program, astronauts have taken photos of the Earth from space to capture the beauty of the planet and to document the impacts of man-made and natural events. While only a small percentage of people are fortunate enough to witness this view firsthand, since 2001 the EarthKAM investigation has enabled students to remotely program a camera positioned in an Earth-facing window of the International Space Station and capture their own photographs of the world from space.

Space Station Live commentator Pat Ryan recently spoke with several EarthKAM participants to learn more about how teachers and students are using this experiment to study our home planet.

Dave Curry, an 8th grade Earth and space science teacher at Holland Middle School in Holland, Pa., has incorporated EarthKAM in his classroom every year since 2006. Curry was drawn to the program because it allowed kids to get involved in doing something themselves and seeing a result from that. As Curry pointed out, “Middle school is really an age where we try to hook kids on science.”

Two of Curry’s students, Alison Castronuovo and Andrew Harman, shared with Space Station Live viewers some of the photos they captured from the station and the things they learned from studying these images. The students found more than they initially expected, because as Alison explained, “I never expected all that detail.”

View Alison’s EarthKAM photo: http://images.earthkam.ucsd.edu/main….
View Andrew’s EarthKAM photo: http://images.earthkam.ucsd.edu/main….

Teachers interested in incorporating EarthKAM into their own classrooms are invited to visit the EarthKAM site and sign up for the next mission.

https://earthkam.ucsd.edu/home

DIY space, Simulators, Space participation

The Space Show: Chuck Killian and the Mars Desert Research Station

1 Comment

Chuck Killian of the Mars Society came to the Space Show on Friday and talked about the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah where they have been simulating Mars missions for ten years: Charles (Chuck) Killian, Friday, 4-26-13 | Thespaceshow’s Blog.

Contests and Games, Space participation

Pluto moons named Vulcan and Cerberus

The public selection of names of two moons of Pluto at Pluto Rocks! has finished and the winners announced: Scientists go with people’s choice for Pluto moons: Vulcan, Cerberus – Cosmic Log

Astronomy, Contests and Games, Space participation

Winner announced in Alpha Centauri planet naming contest

Nature has this report on the naming of  exoplanets and Pluto’s moons: Moon and planet names spark battle: Company clashes with International Astronomical Union over popular labels for exoplanets – Nature News & Comment

===

Meanwhile, the Uwingu contest to name a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri has a winner:

Uwingu Announces A Name for the Planet Orbiting Alpha Centauri

Space company Uwingu announced the winner of its public engagement contest to solicit and vote on a popular name for the only known planet orbiting the nearest star to the Sun, Alpha Centauri.
Apr. 24, 2013 – BOULDER, Colo. — Space company Uwingu™TM announced the winner of its public engagement contest to solicit and vote on a popular name for the only known planet orbiting the nearest star to the Sun, Alpha Centauri.

The winning name from Uwingu’s competition to select a name for the planet is “Albertus Alauda”. This nomination was entered into Uwingu’s public planet name nomination database last November by Jason Lark, in honor of his late grandfather, Albert Lark. In the citation Lark entered into Uwingu’s database, Lark said, “His name in Latin means Noble or Bright and to praise or extol. I think this is an apt description as my Grandfather was a noble man and bright of character and in this nomination I wish to honour (extol) him.”

12123939-uwingus-efforts-seek-to-better-connect-the-public-to-space-and-astronomy[1]
The second through fifth place name nominations in the competition were Rakhat, Caleo, Amara, and Tiber, with origins in science fiction literature, science, and a man’s love for his fiancée.

Over 1,240 name nominations were received in total. “This really shows that ordinary people like to engage in astronomy and space exploration this new way, and at Uwingu we’re very happy that we could help demonstrate that. We’re also ready to now give people new ways to engage in public sector exoplanet naming” said Uwingu’s CEO Dr. Alan Stern.

Uwingu’s mission is twofold: To help the public better connect to space and the sky, and to create a new kind of grant fund for space researchers and educators using proceeds from our web site. Uwingu’s name means sky in Swahili. Uwingu’s web site can be found at www.uwingu.com.

Uwingu Fund grant dollars from the Alpha Centauri planet naming competition will be used to help space educators and educator projects.

 ####

About Uwingu: Uwingu (which means “sky” in Swahili, and is pronounced “oo-wing-oo”)

was formed by a team of leading astronomers, planetary scientists, former space program executives, and educators. The company includes space historian and author Andrew Chaikin, space educator Dr. Emily CoBabe-Ammann, citizen science leader Dr. Pamela Gay, author and former museum science director Dr. David Grinspoon, planet hunter Dr. Geoff Marcy, planetary scientist and aerospace executive Dr. Teresa Segura, planetary scientist and former NASA science boss Dr. Alan Stern, planetary scientist and CEO of the Planetary Science Institute, Dr. Mark Sykes, former Executive Director of the Planetary Society Dr. Louis Friedman, and space artists Jon Lomberg and Dan Durda. In September, Uwingu successfully concluded one of the 25 largest Indiegogo crowd-funding campaigns ever to launch an ongoing series of public engagement projects. Visit Uwingu’s web site at www.uwingu.com to learn more.