S.C. teacher selected for Mars project
4:45 PM
Posted: Monday, November 20, 2006
West Middle School science teacher Matt Allner will be traveling to the Utah desert Dec. 1 to live and work in a Mars simulation habitat.
Allner will spend two weeks conducting psychology, EVA research and biology and chemistry experiments through a program operated by NASA and the Mars Society. Allner and other graduate students will wear space suit mock-ups and simulate what it would be like living on Mars.
"It is really interesting research we are all doing," Allner said in an e-mail. "The other research we are doing is with identifying living organisms in the soil and rocks in the Utah desert."
The Utah expedition is the second phase of the program Allner was selected to participate in. In June Allner traveled to Chile with seven other teachers from designated NASA Explorer Schools to conduct research with world-renowned scientists in the Atacama Desert, a massive barren land resembling Mars.
Allner is currently working on a master's degree at the University of North Dakota in the area of human factors.
The crew will be lead by an astrobiologist for NASA-AMES.
While he is away, Allner will be communicating with his students via e-mail. There will also be six live webcams running 24-7. For more information about the program visit http://quest.nasa.gov/projects/spacewardbound/mdrs/index.html. To view the webcam log on to http://freemars.org/mdrscam.
The Sioux City NASA Explorer School Team has been selected to fly an experiment on the Reduced Gravity Opportunity (RGO) plane.
The RGO is a flight that makes huge parabolic (roller coaster-like) passes through the sky where passengers experience periods of free-fall or weightlessness.
The team built a convection chamber equipped with temperature sensors to measure the change in temperature over a distance, within the chamber, to determine if a microgravity environment affects convection. The concept of convection is taught in the sixth grade science curriculum.
During the flight the team will run their experiment and test out their hypothesis about how it will work.
Science teachers, Mitch Rorris, North Middle School, Ryan Reinking, North Middle School, Julie Sweeney, East Middle School, and Anthony Gaul, West Middle School are involved in the project. The experiment will travel Feb. 4-10.
Allner will spend two weeks conducting psychology, EVA research and biology and chemistry experiments through a program operated by NASA and the Mars Society. Allner and other graduate students will wear space suit mock-ups and simulate what it would be like living on Mars.
"It is really interesting research we are all doing," Allner said in an e-mail. "The other research we are doing is with identifying living organisms in the soil and rocks in the Utah desert."
The Utah expedition is the second phase of the program Allner was selected to participate in. In June Allner traveled to Chile with seven other teachers from designated NASA Explorer Schools to conduct research with world-renowned scientists in the Atacama Desert, a massive barren land resembling Mars.
Allner is currently working on a master's degree at the University of North Dakota in the area of human factors.
The crew will be lead by an astrobiologist for NASA-AMES.
While he is away, Allner will be communicating with his students via e-mail. There will also be six live webcams running 24-7. For more information about the program visit http://quest.nasa.gov/projects/spacewardbound/mdrs/index.html. To view the webcam log on to http://freemars.org/mdrscam.
The Sioux City NASA Explorer School Team has been selected to fly an experiment on the Reduced Gravity Opportunity (RGO) plane.
The RGO is a flight that makes huge parabolic (roller coaster-like) passes through the sky where passengers experience periods of free-fall or weightlessness.
The team built a convection chamber equipped with temperature sensors to measure the change in temperature over a distance, within the chamber, to determine if a microgravity environment affects convection. The concept of convection is taught in the sixth grade science curriculum.
During the flight the team will run their experiment and test out their hypothesis about how it will work.
Science teachers, Mitch Rorris, North Middle School, Ryan Reinking, North Middle School, Julie Sweeney, East Middle School, and Anthony Gaul, West Middle School are involved in the project. The experiment will travel Feb. 4-10.
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