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The Space Gazette

Space for Everyone      -     April 1, 2002     -         Vol. 2 No.7

The Spacefaring Web 2.5:
Answers in the Form of a Question

John Carter McKnight

Today space is the answer to questions no one is asking. This will change. As I've argued, we're right now not irrevocably post-Space Age but rather between the past space phase of the Industrial Age and a coming space phase of the Network, or perhaps more importantly, Biotech Age. In advocating space exploration, enterprise and settlement, we have three choices. We can continue to offer antiquated platitudes; we can answer questions few have yet thought to ask; or we can hasten the day when the answers we stock will be in demand. The third way is the hardest, difficult to conceive and even more challenging to execute. It's the only way, though, that has us doing more than preaching to the choir.

continue...

Space Music * Education

AstroCappella - Music that's Simply Astronomical
AstroCappella 2.0
On the AstroCappella 2.0 CD, The Chromatics use a marvelous a cappella sound to produce the best toe-tapping astonomy lessons you ever heard!

The musical project AstroCappella: Astronomy by Music! is "a marriage of astronomy and music, developed by astronomers and professionally recorded by the a cappella group The Chromatics".

This talented group of singers, some of whom work for NASA, bring a fresh approach and wonderful sense of musical fun to the teaching of astronomy.

Each song involves an astronomy theme and is combined with an activity and lesson plan.

For example, the Sun Song (hear the MP3 version) describes the workings of the sun and its chromosphere. They provide background info on the sun and a lesson plan.

They recently released a "new 13-song AstroCappella 2.0 CD/CD-ROM, including all our songs, plus lesson plans, new activities, games, quizzes, music videos, and more!"

The songs and materials will appeal for science classes in the K-12 range and "were created through a partnership of scientists and educators, and are teacher- and classroom-tested."

Note: For other educational and fun space music for kids, see the newly revised Space Music for Young People section.


Space Education , Space Science

Students Begin Mars Picture Taking Odyssey

The 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft recently reached operational status and has begun releasing daily images of the Mars surface.

Some of the images will have been taken by students in grades 5 through 12,and college undergraduates who choose for themselves what part of Mars to view.

The Mars Student Imaging Project, discussed here last November, is an outreach project of JPL and of the group at the Arizona State University that built and now operates the Mars Odyssey THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System) camera.

Student teams send in proposals and the winners will come to ASU to carry out the observation project or do it via the internet depending on the particular "mission" plan chosen. A curriculum package and other resources are available for teachers who want to get their students involved.

 


Space Education , SpaceCamping

Sally Ride Encourages Girls in Science, Math & Engineering

Sally Ride, the first female American astronaut, has launched Imaginary Lines, which aims to encourage the interest of young girls in science and engineering. The group now offers several programs that attempt to involve girls in activities related to science, math and technology.

Sally Ride Science Club invites upper elementary and middle school girls in the US who share a common interest in science, math and technology to interact and collaborate on projects. Activities include meetings with women astronauts and other role models.

The club organizes Sally Ride Science Festivals that feature games, contests, workshops and other fun science-oriented activities in a one day fair with hundreds of girls.

Sally Ride Space Camp offers a special parent and daughter weekend program designed for girls between 7 and 11 years of age at the Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. The program means to "instill self-confidence and self-reliance in young girls. This is accomplished by exposing them to both traditional and non-traditional fields of work and supporting their interests in math and science."

Sally Ride Aims to Launch American Girls on to High-Tech Careers - Space.com - Mar.15.02

Sally Ride leads Space Camp for girls - Florida Today - Mar.21.02

Activism , Space Science

Busy Time for the Mars Society

The Mars Society has seen an upsurge in activity and media attention recently:

** The Desert Research Station and its ongoing crews inspired a number of articles and TV reports. These included:

The 4th crew is currently manning the station. See some spectacular pictures at the photo gallery of the site and the Mars-like terrain .

** Starchaser Industries, which is developing an reusable suborbital rocket for the X-Prize contest, made a substantial contribution to the UK chapter of the Mars Society:

STARCHASER INDUSTRIES Makes Major Donation To European Research Station - Mars Society - Mar.20.2002

The money will be used to develop an European research station (European Mars Analogue Research Station or EuroMARS) similar to the Devon Island and Utah stations.

** Another big contribution came from Lord Camrose, a well know author and science reporter. Lord Camrose Makes Major Donation to Mars Society - Mars Society - Mar.25.02.

**The MarsLife project continues to progress. A small spacecraft will be built to test the affects of using centrifugal force in a spinning structure to produce artificial gravity for a colony of mice. Read the latest reports on the projects development.

The 5th International Mars Society Convention will take place during August 8-11 on the campus of the University of Colorado at Boulder.


Find previous space news in
Articles Index 1999-2002

 

See also  
Space Headlines
RLV News
News Links

The Art of C. Sergent Lindsey

Satellite Building

Kolibri Student Satellite Launched from ISS:
Russian & Australian Students use amateur radio to monitor spacecraft

The Kolibri 2000 satellite, mentioned here earlier, was released on March 20th from a Progress vehicle just after the re-supply ship separated from the International Space Station.

Students in both Russia and Australia will communicate with the satellite over amateur space radio bands and will monitor and analyze data from several scientific instruments on board.

Space Movies

Apollo 13 Film
Transformed for IMAX Screens

Ron Howard's Apollo 13 film starring Tom Hanks will come soon to the giant IMAX screens.

A special new process developed by IMAX allows regular 35mm film to be transformed to the much larger IMAX format without significant graininess or distortions.

Both Howard and Hanks report being very impressed with early test samples of Apollo 13 that they previewed on the IMAX screen.

IMAX, Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment to Make Motion Picture History With Release of 'Apollo 13:The IMAX Experience(R)' This Summer - IMAX - Mar.21.02

Revolutionary IMAX(R) DMR(TM) Transforms Hollywood Movies Into the IMAX Experience(R) - IMAX PR - Mar.21.02

Imax Deal for 'Apollo 13' Takes Big Movies Bigger - Yahoo! News - Mar.21.02

Astromomy

Amateurs Discover
Two Comets

The amateur astronomer Doug Snyder in Arizona on March 11 was the first to spot a new comet in the Aquila constellation with his 20in telescope .

Just a few hours later, the Japanese amateur Shigeki Murakami saw the comet as well.

The International Astronomical Union's Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (CBAT) confirmed their sightings and named the new body as Comet Snyder-Murakami.

Earlier in the year, the Comet Ikeya-Zhang was discovered by the amateur astronomers Daqing Zhang of China and Kaoru Ikeya of Japan. (Ikeya has discovered 5 comets in fact.)

It will be visible with the naked eye in early April while a telescope or pair of binoculars will be needed for Synder-Murakami.

Snyder-Murakami

New Amateur Comet - Sky and Telescope - Mar.20.02

Amateurs Discover a New Comet - Astronomy.com - Mar.19.02

Ikeya-Zhang

Future looks bright for new comet - CNN.com - Mar.13.02

Newly Spotted Comet Will Soon Grace Night Skies - Space.com - Feb.19.02

[A Bonanza of Comets - Sky and Telescope - Apr.02 ]

 
 
 
 
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