From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Fri Feb 13 2004 - 09:15:06 PST
>From: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory <info_at_jpl.nasa.gov>
>Reply-To: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory <info_at_jpl.nasa.gov>
>To: ljk4_at_msn.com
>Subject: Student Programs Tap into Mars Rover Adventures
>Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 16:27:13 -0600
>
>MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
>JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
>CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
>NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
>PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
>http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=nidk-cqfTw5O-3BCLCXxIg..
> http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=Mrv48lqlUlBO-3BCLCXxIg..
>
>Guy Webster (818) 354-5011
>Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
>
>Donald Savage (202) 358-1547
>NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
>
>NEWS RELEASE: 2004-58 February 12, 2004
>
>Student Programs Tap into Mars Rover Adventures
>
>NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers are not only providing scientists a
>flood of information about Mars -- including new insights today about
>winds -- they are also adding excitement to classrooms throughout the
>nation.
>
>An assortment of programs giving students first-hand opportunities to
>work with information from NASA Mars missions help young people "see
>themselves as scientists in the future because they understand the
>process of science," said Sheri Klug of Arizona State University,
>Tempe, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. She
>coordinates NASA Mars education programs for kindergarten through high
>school, part of the agency's goal to inspire the next generation of
>explorers.
>
>Silver Stage High School in Silver Springs, Nev., is one of 13 schools
>participating in one program that pairs selected students with
>researchers on the rover missions. "I actually get the opportunity to
>work with the scientists. It's really awesome!" said Shannon Theissen,
>16, a Silver Stage junior.
>
>Dr. Wendy Calvin, rover science team member from University of Nevada,
>Reno, and Shannon's mentor for a week at JPL, said, "This is the real
>stuff, not baby steps. The students are using the same tools we do."
>
>Hundreds of other students from around the country participate in
>programs using pictures and other information from NASA Mars orbiters,
>and more than 1,000 have sent in rocks for a project to compare Earth
>rocks with Mars rocks.
>
>Meanwhile, noted Art Thompson of JPL's rover flight team, "We have two
>very busy rovers on the surface of Mars." On Wednesday, Spirit broke
>its own record set earlier in the week for the longest one-day drive
>on Mars. The rover added 24.4 meters (80 feet) to its odometer,
>bringing the total to 57.4 meters (188 feet) and ending its day near a
>cluster of rocks dubbed "Stone Council."
>
>In coming weeks, scientists and engineers plan for Spirit to drive up
>to the rim of a crater dubbed "Bonneville," still more than two
>football-field lengths away, in hopes of peering inside and seeing
>rock layers that could tell the geologic history and the potential
>role of water at the Gusev site.
>
>Opportunity drove Friday morning to the fourth counterclockwise
>position in its survey of a rock outcrop along the inner slope of the
>crater in which it landed. Based on the survey, scientists will choose
>a small number of locations on the outcrop to come back to for more
>thorough examination later. The flight team has learned to compensate
>for wheel slippage in the soil on the slope. "When we attempt to drive
>up the slope we intentionally overdrive, and when we drive down a
>slope we intentionally underdrive," Thompson said.
>
>Both rovers have used an infrared sensing instrument called the
>miniature thermal emission spectrometer to study the sky, as well as
>the ground. These atmospheric observations are revealing rapid
>temperature changes in the lower atmosphere. In mid-morning, the air
>temperature at about the height of an eight-story building swings up
>and down by several degrees within a minute.
>
>"Warmer and colder blobs of air are intermittently passing over the
>rover," said Dr. Don Banfield, a rover science team collaborator from
>Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. "We're watching the overturning of
>the atmosphere as it's warming up in the morning." Rising warmer air
>carries heat to upper layers of the atmosphere. Observing the details
>of these changes helps scientists improve their models for
>understanding Mars' winds.
>
>Better understanding of Mars' winds is important not only for the
>design of future landings on the planet, but also for interpreting
>some features on the surface. "We've been talking a lot about water on
>Mars in the past, but wind is currently the important agent of change
>on Mars," Banfield said.
>
>Microscopic images indicate that windblown sand is eroding the outcrop
>that Opportunity is studying. Dr. Mark Lemmon, science team member
>from Texas A&M University, College Station, said that taking a series
>of images with that instrument at slightly different distances from
>the target allows creation of a three-dimensional view. "We're
>gathering as much information about the things we're looking at as we
>possibly can," he said.
>
>The main task for both rovers in coming weeks and months is to explore
>for evidence in rocks and soils about whether the landing-site areas
>ever had environments that were watery and possibly suitable for
>sustaining life.
>JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena,
>manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space
>Science, Washington, D.C. Images and additional information about the
>project are available from JPL at
>http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=uHSfn_QQz4lO-3BCLCXxIg.. and
>from Cornell University at
>http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=zP586w58RpRO-3BCLCXxIg.. . Information
>about NASA school projects is available at
>http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=i6_R9tZXqqFO-3BCLCXxIg.. .
> http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=mPfINJ--tF9O-3BCLCXxIg..
> http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=S6PUlJzpyfBO-3BCLCXxIg..
> http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=EAfKiO2va_BO-3BCLCXxIg..
>
>-end-
>
>
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