MARS EXPLORATION AND EDUCATION PROGRAM: NASA JET PROPULSION LABORATORY AND TERC
Mars Pathfinder
On December 4,
1996, NASA launched Mars Pathfinder, an ambitious robotic mission to Mars.
If all goes as planned, it will land on Mars on July 4, 1997. Mars Pathfinder's
descent will be slowed by a heat shield, parachutes, and retro rockets.
Then airbags will inflate around the spacecraft, and it will bounce across
the surface until it comes to a stop. The balloons will deflate and petals
of the spacecraft will unfold like a flower, revealing the instruments and
a rover. The instruments on the Mars lander include a camera, which will
provide panoramic stereo views of the area around the landing site, and
weather instruments to monitor temperature, wind speed, wind direction,
and atmospheric pressure.
Mars Pathfinder also includes a mobile rover called Sojourner. It was
named by a middle school student after the African-American abolitionist
Sojourner Truth. The rover, which is about the size of a microwave oven,
will roll off the lander and explore the area within roughly 100 meters
of the lander. It is semi-autonomous in that a person on Earth will command
it to go to a location, and then Sojourner will proceed, using a laser guidance
system to go over or around rocks and pits in its way. Sojourner has three
cameras, so we will see the Martian landscape as the rover traverses the
surface. It also has an instrument called an alpha-proton x-ray spectrometer,
which can determine the elements in the rocks and soil it samples.
Mars Global Surveyor
A month earlier (November 7, 1996) a closely related Mars mission called
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) was successfully launched. While Mars Pathfinder
is a lander, Mars Global Surveyor is an orbiter that will use remote sensing
to explore Mars from a height of about 400 kilometers. MGS will arrive at
Mars in September 1997, take six months to aero-brake and stabilize its
orbit, and then begin a reconnaissance mission lasting at least a full Martian
year (687 Earth days).
Mars Global Surveyor has several instruments. Of primary interest in
the student and scientist collaboration are the Mars orbital cameras: a
wide-angle camera that will provide a daily overview of the entire planet
(useful for monitoring weather and dust storms) and a telephoto camera that
can show detailed close-up views of selected areas of Mars (1.4 meters/pixel).
The close-up views will enable scientists and students to get detailed views
of craters, channels, canyons, volcanoes, poles, and other important features
of Mars. Other instruments on Mars Global Surveyor include a thermal emission
spectrometer (to measure heat emitted from the planet), laser altimeter
(to measure the height of Martian surface features), ultra-stable oscillator
(for atmospheric science), and magnetometer and electron reflectometer (to
study magnetic fields of Mars). Collectively these instruments will map
the planet in new ways, provide rich resources for investigations, and potentially
reveal new discoveries that will change our understanding of Mars.
Mars Exploration and Education Program
Recognizing the tremendous educational potential of these Mars missions,
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which manages the Mars exploration
program, has developed an innovative educational program. This program will
enable students to participate in and learn from these ground-breaking space
missions. JPL's educational partner in this endeavor is TERC, a nonprofit
educational research and development company.
As a key starting point, a set of Mars education modules has been developed
to introduce students to Mars, planetary science, image analysis, and planetary
exploration. The modules feature a hands-on approach, using classroom experiments
and analysis of data and images from previous Mars missions as the basis
for student investigations. Students in hundreds of schools use these modules
in preparation for the more in-depth research partnerships described below.
As a second element of the Mars exploration program, NASA will post many
of the images and data from Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor on
the world wide web, making them available not only to scientists but also
to students and the general public worldwide. For the first time, teachers
and students will have direct access, in their classrooms and at home, to
live images and data from the surface of and orbit around Mars.
The third element is NASA's belief that students can participate directly
with scientists in meaningful and important ways in the exploration of Mars.
This collaboration is currently in the planning and development stage and
will be implemented when the Pathfinder and MGS spacecraft reach Mars. In
this potentially powerful win-win situation, scientists gain student collaborators
who can help with the planetary exploration and science research programs,
and students gain an exciting context for learning science and its processes
by participating directly in authentic missions and research.
Students and Scientists Exploring Mars
Together
The following
are three examples of the types of student and scientist collaborations
that are likely to take place in the Mars exploration program.
Example 1: Studying Images
Mars Global Surveyor will orbit Mars for at least a full Martian year
(687 days). As it orbits, it will use a variety of instruments to study
Mars. Most notable are the cameras that will take wide-angle and close-up
pictures of Mars, producing images faster than scientists can review and
catalog them. When properly trained, students can provide a first-pass review
of selected images, looking for specific features such as evidence of dust
storms or valley fog. Since dust storms and fog are short-duration events,
students finding such features will quickly notify the scientists, who can
then launch more detailed examinations. Students can also extend their learning
by examining these images in more detail on their own.
Benefits of this collaboration are that scientists gain an "early-warning
system" and that students gain an entry point into the study of current
images from Mars.
Example 2: Explaining Mars Research
to the Public
Every week, the Mars exploration program will release a new set of images
to the public, available on JPL's web site. It is not enough, however, simply
to post the images. Interested people need focusing questions and some guidance
to help them engage in thinking about the images. Students who have experience
in image analysis, understand key concepts in Mars science, and know how
to communicate concepts clearly can serve as "translators" from
technical science to language and concepts the general public can understand.
They can also suggest "mini-investigations," such as crater counts
or comparing different types of channels. Students may serve as spokespeople
for local newspapers or television stations. Such students will need to
be "certified" to assure the accuracy of the information they
communicate.
Benefits of this collaboration are that scientists gain improved public
support and understanding of the Mars missions and that students develop
science content knowledge and communication skills.
Example 3: Aiding in the Search
for Life on Mars
The most advanced collaboration involves teams of high school students
and a select group of NASA scientists involved with the Mars exploration
program. The students will work directly with the scientists to understand
the challenges of the search for evidence of past or present life on Mars.
The student and scientist team will develop recommendations for strategies
to pursue this search and propose real and substantive ways that students
can be active collaborators in this scientific research over the next decade.
The project will operate as a national network. Four regional teams will
be identified, each with a scientist, teacher, and students. Each team will
have a focal domain: exobiology, geology, climatology, or engineering. The
focal domains enable the scientists and students to work intensively within
each domain, while the collaboration enables the work of the teams to be
coordinated and proceed toward a cohesive set of recommendations. The recommendations
will be reviewed and seriously considered by JPL's Mars exploration program.
Benefits of this collaboration include scientists gaining a fresh new
perspective and potentially innovative ideas that can help improve the Mars
exploration program. Also, students gain the opportunity to work directly
with some of the world's leading planetary scientists, to have access to
the latest data and images from Mars, and to have responsibility for preparing
recommendations to NASA.
A Grand Experiment
This student and scientist partnership in Mars exploration is an experiment.
Never before have precollege students and scientists worked together in
such a multifaceted collaboration in planetary exploration. We don't yet
know how effective this partnership will be in meeting the goals of the
scientists or the goals of the students. The potential for both sides to
gain, however, inspires us to move forward in the planning, implementation,
and careful review of this innovative and ambitious collaboration.
The educators believe that students will gain an exciting and powerful
context and stimulus for learning science content and for experiencing the
real process of science. This science education program can be a stellar
example of the reforms called for by the National Science Education Standards.
By providing opportunities for students to participate in real planetary
research and work directly with NASA scientists, students will
- conduct inquiry-based learning by asking questions and finding answers
using primary data;
- engage in real science by exploring questions at the cutting edge of
science;
- use scientific thinking and problem solving skills by working with
scientists as they plan for, conduct, and use data from robotic missions
to Mars;
- use technology to access data and images in real time and to telecommunicate
with other students and scientists; and
- integrate the science disciplines as they explore issues that combine
astronomy, geology, meteorology, biology, hydrology, and comparative planetology.
The scientists believe that educational outreach is an essential component
of the space exploration program and that this program provides an interesting
new approach to this outreach. They are genuinely intrigued by the potential
for student collaborations to help them with their own research in the primary
research domains of the Mars exploration program: the search for evidence
of past or present life on Mars; better understanding the role of water
and the hydrologic systems of Mars; and identifying resources on Mars to
support further explorations.
Perhaps the most important gain will be the realization by both students
and scientists that the work they each do is not so different. Both scientists
and students do their work best when they are actively engaged in hands-on
investigations of real-world problems of personal interest.
To participate in the Mars Exploration
and Education Programs or to obtain copies of Mars education materials contact:
Kathy Davis
Mars Exploration Public Outreach and Education Programs
NASA Jet Propulsion Lab
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109
(818) 354-6111
Web Site (to monitor progress and obtain images and data from the Mars missions):http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mars/
