Check out NASA Images.org

Ever wanted to search through NASA's awesome images in one place? Well, now you can. NASA Images is a service of Internet Archive, a non-profit library, to offer public access to NASA's collections. The goal of NASA Images is to increase our understanding of the Earth, Solar System and Universe in order to benefit humanity. NASA Images will continue to grow with the addition of current media from NASA as well as newly digitized media from the NASA archives.

Users can search through images of the Universe, Solar System, Earth, and astronauts. In addition, you can use a handy time line to search for images by date and missions/programs, all the way from Explorer I in 1959 through current missions to the International Space Station. The image above is the first image of the Earth and Moon in a single frame. It was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1977 when it was 7.25 million miles from Earth. Enjoy!!

Back in MD after a successful and interesting LPSC

Last week Steph and I attended the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in TX. We had a great time, caught up with old friends, met new ones, and learned a lot. The two education workshops, one on the Moon and one on Mercury and Pluto, went well. Our poster presentation on Tuesday night was also a hit. We had tons of people stop by from various NASA centers and missions, universities, and even the European Space Agency (ESA). While most of the visitors to our poster had heard of Second Life before, not many of them had ever tried it out. All were surprised to learn about all of the space-and science-related activities already occurring there and were very intrigued by our suggestions for how it could be used for participatory exploration.

For a great account of the week's events and some of the major scientific presentations from LPSC, visit this Nature reporter's blog.

39th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference

Geosteph and I are leaving this weekend to travel to TX for the 39th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. It's a week-long conference for international planetary scientists and educators to present their current research and mission results. The conference consists of both talks and poster presentations on a variety of subjects. View the enitre program, which includes links to the abstracts.

On Sunday, Geosteph will help lead a workshop called Reaching the Moon for planetary scientists and educators. Then on Wednesday we'll both lead a workshop for educators called Fire and Ice about the MESSENGER mission to Mercury and the New Horizons mission to Pluto. There may still be slots available for these workshops. Click here to learn more.

On Tuesday, we will be presenting a poster on Tuesday night in the Education and Public Outreach Programs session to accompany our abstract, which is about how NASA might use Second Life for informal space science education and participatory exploration.

If we're lucky, Geosteph might tweet from the meeting so stay tuned!

How much ice might be on Mercury? Use math to find out!

The NASA MESSENGER spacecraft performed its first flyby of Mercury on January 14, 2008. In addition to mapping the entire surface of the planet, one of its goals is to shed new light on the existence of ice in the polar regions of this hot planet. Ice on Mercury? It's not as strange as it seems! Click here to learn more and to access a pdf that provides a series of space math questions (and an answer key) related to this topic. For more classroom activities related to ice in on Mercury and elsewhere in our solar system click here. For more space math problems visit http://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov. A new space math problem is added every week!

A New Mnemonic to Help You Remember the Planets

Ten year old Maryn Smith from Montana recently won a contest to create a new mnemonic for remembering the newly assigned 11 planets, including 3 dwarf planets, in our solar system. The 11 planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Eris. The dwarf planets are Ceres, Pluto, and Eris. Her mnemonic is:

My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants.

To read the full story about Maryn's mnemonic, which will be published in a book and recorded in a song to be released in March, click here.
To learn more about dwarf planets, click here.

"Follow the Carbon." Follow the What??

Recently I had the pleasure of writing an article about the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite of instruments onboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) for the February 2008 issue of ChemMatters, which is a publication of the American Chemical Society for high school classrooms. Below is an excerpt from the article. To download and read the entire article (including a Spanish translation) and issue, as well as to access the accompanying teacher's guide, click here.

“Follow the yellow brick road”. “Follow the leader”. You’re probably familiar with both of these phrases. But who would want to “follow the carbon” and what does that even mean? To NASA, “follow the carbon” means to identify carbon-bearing compounds, their sources, and the processes that transform them in order to evaluate the habitability of Mars. And that is exactly what the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite of instruments onboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) intends to do. MSL is scheduled to launch in late 2009 and will land on the surface of Mars in mid 2010, where it will spend at least one Mars year (687 Earth days) roving around the surface and collecting data. MSL will be the biggest rover yet to visit Mars. It will also carry the biggest suite of instruments ever sent to the martian surface, including a camera, neutron detector, laser, microscope, and an analytical laboratory. SAM is one component of this laboratory. SAM plans to “find the carbon” on Mars by collecting samples of the soil and atmosphere and analyzing them with three scientific instruments. Using the results obtained by the SAM instruments, scientists back on Earth will seek to investigate the habitability of Mars by answering the question, “What do the presence or absence and characteristics of key compounds at Mars tell us about the ability of Mars to support past or present life?”

Catch up on the latest planetary science news with "Planetary Science Research Discoveries"

Planetary Science Research Discoveries (PSRD) is an educational site that summarizes the latest research on meteorites, asteroids, planets, and other bodies within our solar system. The site is supported by the Cosmochemistry Program of NASA's Science Mission Directorate and by the Hawai'i Space Grant Consortium. In existence since 1996, PSRD maintains a searchable archive of its issues, as well as a helpful glossary. The articles are neither too technical nor too simplified and include links to additional information and resources to help readers further their understanding of a particular topic. You may also choose to subscribe to be notified via email when new issues are posted. It's an excellent way to learn about current scientific research from the scientists who are actually doing the research!

The most recent article of PSRD focuses on the formation of the Moon. Check it out!!

View Tonight's Total Lunar Eclipse - The Last One Until 2010!

Tonight, February 20, 2008, will be your last opportunity to view a total lunar eclipse until December 2010. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth lines up directly between the Sun and Moon such that the Earth's shadow completely covers the Moon's surface. Tonight's eclipse will last for about 3.5 hours, 50 minutes of which the Moon will be in totality. During the eclipse the Moon will change color from gray to red. This is due to the glow cast on the Moon from indirect sunlight passing through Earth's atmosphere. The Moon's color during an eclipse varies based on the amounts of dust and clouds in the Earth's atmosphere. The more dust in the Earth's atmosphere, the more red the Moon will appear. The United States will be able to view the majority of the eclipse. Click on the above map above to determine your best viewing times.

To learn more about tonight's eclipse, see the NASA Eclipse Home Page and this NASA feature story. To learn more about eclipse terminology, see the Educator's Guide to Eclipses. Click here for a classroom activity on creating two scale models of the Earth-Moon system that can be used to demonstrate lunar phases and eclipses. Click here for an eclipse viewing activity for students.

Happy viewing!!!

Hello Mercury!!

The MESSENGER spacecraft will make its first flyby of Mercury today at 2:04:39 pm EST!! This image of Mercury was taken yesterday on January 13 when the spacecraft was at a distance of about 760,000 kilometers (470,000 miles) from Mercury. Mercury is about 4880 kilometers (about 3030 miles) in diameter, and the smallest feature visible in this image is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) across.

During the historic encounter today, extensive scientific data will be gathered. The Mercury Dual Imaging System cameras will acquire more than 1,200 images of Mercury, including images of portions of the surface never before viewed by a spacecraft. The Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer will observe Mercury's surface as well as its tenuous atmosphere. The Magnetometer will accurately measure Mercury's magnetic field, and the Energetic Particle and Plasma Spectrometer will characterize Mercury's space environment and interactions with the solar wind. The Mercury Laser Altimeter will sense surface topography along a narrow profile. The Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer and X-Ray Spectrometer will make the first measurements of Mercury’s surface elemental composition.

MESSENGER will begin to transmit the new data to Earth once all of the scientific measurements are completed, about 22 hours after the spacecraft's closest approach to Mercury. These flyby data will shed light on fundamental scientific questions related to the formation and evolution of the planet Mercury. As scientists analyze the data, the MESSENGER spacecraft will continue on its planned journey, which includes two more encounters of Mercury in October 2008 and September 2009, before entering an orbit around Mercury in March 2011.

Additional information and features from this first flyby will be available online at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_flyby1.html, so check back frequently. Following the flyby, be sure to check for the latest released images and science results!

Mercury Here We Come!!

This Monday, January 14, 2008, the MESSENGER spacecraft will make its first flyby of Mercury! Monday's flyby, which is taking place more than three decades after the last spacecraft visit of Mercury (Mariner 10), will take MESSENGER to about 200 kilometers above Mercury's surface. To learn more about the flyby, click here. The following movie features Sean C. Solomon, Principal Investigator for the MESSENGER mission.

Update on MESSENGER mission to Mercury

On Friday, November 30, the MESSENGER team resumed daily contact with its Mercury-bound spacecraft. Engineers had suspended contact on November 13 when the spacecraft’s trajectory moved it to the opposite side of the Sun from Earth and out of radio contact with NASA’s Deep Space Network for several weeks. Read the complete story here.

As of right now, there are 36 days, 22 hours, 24 minutes, and 57 seconds until MESSENGER's first flyby of Mercury on January 14, 2008! View the countdown clock at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/.

NASA Discovery Conference Day 2

Day 2 of the the Discovery @15 Conference began with the "Development and Project Management" session. Right now the quote of the panel is "Everyone draws a good org chart" (Paul Gilbert) the question is who are the personalities driving the project. The chemistry of project team is a key to success. Important keys to early Discovery Mission success "Focused Science" and "Minimize Risk" that changed the paradigm of Solar System exploration.

Now back to tweeting from Discovery @15

Next up will be Wes Huntress "Discovery- on the Road Again"

Wes Huntress "the father of the Discovery Program" http://tinyurl.com/2aho36

Discovery -- lower cost...using smaller launch vehicles and smaller spacecraft and finding new ways of doing business

Mars Observer was to be the 1st low cost mission before Discovery..it ballooned in cost and disappeared at Mars Orbit insertion

Mars Observer link http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mi... (I was supposed to work on day from MO..changed my career path)

The loss or Mars Observer taught us we had to manage risk..one way "test, test and test"

New model NASA would "buy whole missions from the science community" first time missions were competed

There hasn't been a full mission selection in Discovery in 5 years...we were supposed to launch every 18 months.

The loss of the Delta II launch vehicle will hurt Discovery

Huntress: "we found by experiment the limits to "better, faster, cheaper" and the pendulum has swung in wrong direction

Next up the EPO session

All Discovery mission proposals must include and Education and Outreach plan

The first presenter in Shari Asplund EPO lead for the Discovery Program http://discovery.nasa.gov/education

A new addition to EPO for Discovery is "student collaboration" ways to involve high school and undergraduate students

many missions participate in Master Educator Progams...Solar System Educators and MESSENGER Educator Fellows

missions also conduct educator workshops and develop curriculum -reach k-4 thru stories and songs- older kids get involved in mission data

Discovery works with museums, planetariums, networks of amateur astronomers and solar system ambassadors http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/ambassador/

Jacinta Behne is talking about EPO for the Genesis mission http://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov/educate/index.html

Jacinta "we need to translate complex content in various ways to meet the needs of our various audiences"

http://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov/educate/scimodule/cosmic/ptable.html check out the interactive periodic table from the Genesis misssion

Genesis also managed to get a Genesis video on United Airlines flights...

Deep Impact EPO from Maura Rountree Brown http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/deepimpact/index.cfm

Deep Impact had Lucy McFadden http://www.astro.umd.edu/~mcfadden/ a science team member as part of the EPO

Maura "You have to be careful the plan has to be cohesive" what do audiences need, what science does our mission bring..who needs to know

Deep Impact EPO built a philosophy and aligned all activities

prepare for the unknowns known unknowns and unknown unknowns advice to EPO leads

next session for Discovery @15 the Complexities of Deep Space Operations

Andy Cheng is now talking about the challenges of NEAR http://near.jhuapl.edu

NEAR was the first planetary mission outside a NASA center...web was new then..first mission to have a website and Andy was an early blogger

check out the videos of the NEAR Eros encounter http://near.jhuapl.edu/Images/.Anim.html

next up Mike A'Hearn the PI for the Deep Impact mission and PI for the Deep Impact extended mission

the impactor on Deep Impact was 1/3 ton 50% copper... the comet overtook the impactor

Check out "Deep Impact-A Smashing Success! http://tinyurl.com/6ksxj

The Deep Space Operations panel is now up--

Deep Impact had more operations issues than anticipated..basically learning to operate the s/c and testing all of the command sequences


Genesis Sample return had the challenge of targeting away from earth til the last possible moment...they had 12 reviews that year

panelist: many of these missions underestimated the operations requirements at the proposal stage

Discovery @ 15 meeting has adjourned!

don't forget to check out the blog http://tinyurl.com/yutyp6

Spreading the word

I have tried several strategies to bring people to "Adventures in Earth and Space". I post on Twitter when we update, and I have included the link in both my work and home email accounts as well as on facebook. Today Len Edgerly pointed me in a new direction with a post on twitter about Blog Rush, a widget to designed to promote blogs by subject area, based on traffic to a site. I'm going to give it a try. I would love to have others who are interested in earth and space science education find the site. So check out the "From the Blogsphere" box on this page to see other education-related blogs.

MESSENGER at the National Air and Space Museum

As part of the Venus 2 flyby activities a 1:5 scale model of the MESSENGER spacecraft built by carpenters at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., was hung in the Mercury exhibit in the Exploring the Planets Gallery of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington, D.C.

Artisans Ron Prietz, Sr., Bill Kulp, and Bob Harter, from APL's Technical Services Department-along with supervisor Ted Hartka-were there to see their handiwork displayed. Several members of the MESSENGER science and engineering teams were also in attendance, including Principal Investigator Sean Solomon, from the Carnegie Institution of
Washington, and Project Scientist Ralph McNutt, Mission Operations Manager Andy Calloway, and Missions Systems Engineer Eric Finnegan, all from APL.

NASM's Exploring the Planets Gallery was opened in 1979 to highlight the history and achievements of planetary exploration, both by Earth-based observations and by spacecraft. This upgrade to the Mercury exhibit is part of MESSENGER's Education and
Public Outreach effort and is being led by Tom Watters, a senior scientist at NASM and a MESSENGER Participating Scientist. MESSENGER Co-Investigator Mark Robinson, at Arizona State University, made available for the exhibit scores of Mercury
photographs from Mariner 10.

"This is a work in progress, but especially if you have not visited the museum for a while, it is worth a stop if you are in Washington," says McNutt. "As the MESSENGER mission progresses, the exhibit will be upgraded to reflect the mission and new Mercury results; so watch this space."

MESSENGER Science Team Meeting

I'm at the MESSENGER science team meeting in Washington, DC. Tomorrow is my Education and Outreach update presentation...and today I'm catching up on the results of the MESSENGER Venus 2 Flyby. I decided to use my Twitter account (twitter.com/geosteph) to mini-blog on the meeting...posting some information about the instruments, with links embedded in the tweets.

Is this education and outreach?

First Post

I develop and implement education and outreach programs for NASA Earth and Space science missions. As education and public outreach (EPO) specialists, my team and I are always looking for innovative ways to engage people in NASA missions. We work in the K-12 community, with museums, planetariums,after-school programs, filmmakers and youth groups. Of course our missions have websites and many of our educational activities and products are posted on NASA websites. But lately we have started looking at other venues on the web, like YouTube and Second Life. I have the geosteph channel on YouTube and have uploaded a number of video podcasts and other videos developed for public engagement. I've also created a playlists on Pluto and the New Horizons mission to the Kuiper Belt.

So here I am, a new blogger, looking to share our projects and looking for ways to involve more people in our missions.