Feb 3 2011
From The Space Library
MEDIA ADVISORY: M11-022 NASA'S HEAD OF EDUCATION TO MEET WITH D.C. ELEMENTARY STUDENTS
WASHINGTON -- NASA Associate Administrator for Education Leland Melvin will meet with first and third grade students at Ferebee-Hope Elementary School in Washington from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. EST on Tuesday, Feb. 8. This is one of the school's Black History Month events and will focus on the importance of reading. Melvin, a former space shuttle astronaut, will share his flight experiences, highlight contributions of African Americans to the space program and read the book "The Moon Over Star" aloud to the children. The book tells the story of the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing and how that event inspired the main character, a young African-American girl named Mae. The event is a collaborative effort with Reading is Fundamental (RIF) and is part of the organization's DC Initiative. The program annually distributes more than 50,000 free books to help children discover the joy of reading. Carol Rasco, president and CEO of RIF, also will participate in the event. News media representatives interested in attending should contact Ann Marie Trotta at 202-358-1601 by 4 p.m. EST Monday, Feb. 7. Ferebee-Hope Elementary School is located at 3999 Eighth Street, SE in Washington. Betsy Pugel, a physicist from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., will be on hand to show the students a moon rock and share materials from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission launched in 2009. NASA's broad education program works to engage teachers and students from kindergarten through the university post-graduate level. The program uses the agency's unique assets and exciting space endeavors to inspire students and encourage them to pursue curricula and careers related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It is a key part of NASA's effort to help build the nation's future high-tech workforce and cultivate the next generation of explorers. NASA Television will air footage from the event during its Video File feed.
RELEASE: 11-031 NASA NAMES WINNING EXPERIMENTS IN KIDS MICRO-G CHALLENGE
HOUSTON --Astronauts aboard the International Space Station this spring will conduct six experiments designed by middle school students from across the country. The winning proposals of the "Kids in Micro-g" Challenge are from California, Idaho, Montana, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington state. In its second year, the program offers students in fifth through eighth grades an opportunity to design experiments or simple demonstrations for testing both in the classroom and in the station's microgravity environment. A team of representatives from NASA centers selected the winners from among 62 proposals. The experiments will study the effect of weightlessness on various subjects and show what the environment reveals about the laws of physics. "This is a wonderful opportunity for these students to learn how scientists and astronauts work together to develop new technologies for space exploration and to learn more about how things work on Earth," said Mark Severance, International Space Station National Laboratory Education projects manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "By engaging students in interesting science experiments, teachers can pique a child's interest while helping develop higher-level thinking skills." The winning experiments came from students at these schools: -- Chabad Hebrew Academy in San Diego, for "Attracting Water Drops." This experiment will determine if a free-floating water drop can be attracted to a static charged rubber exercise tube. -- Neighborhood After School Science Association in Ava, N.Y., for "Flight of Paper Rockets Launched by Air Cannon." This experiment will determine the direction and distance traveled by a paper air rocket launched in microgravity. -- Key Peninsula Middle School in Lakebay, Wash., for "Pondering the Pendulum." This experiment will examine the effects of microgravity on a pendulum. -- Potlatch Elementary in Potlatch, Idaho, for "Pepper Oil Surprise." This experiment will investigate the interaction of liquid pepper/oil and water in a plastic bag in microgravity. -- Gate of Heaven School in Dallas, Pa., for "Buoyancy in Space." This experiment will determine if the buoyancy of an object is affected in a microgravity environment. -- Will James Middle School in Billings, Mont., for "A Comparison of Dispersion of Liquid Pepper under Microgravity and Earth Conditions." This experiment will compare the dispersal of liquid pepper in microgravity to Earth's gravity. The apparatus for the experiments was constructed using the same materials as in a tool kit provided to astronauts on the space station. The materials in the kit are commonly found in the classroom and used for science demonstrations. The experiments will take no more than 30 minutes to set up, run and take down.
MEDIA ADVISORY: M11-023 NASA TO HOLD BRIEFING ON THE SHUTTLE COMMANDER FOR APRIL FLIGHT
HOUSTON --NASA will hold a news conference to discuss command of the STS-134 space shuttle mission at 2 p.m. CST Friday, Feb. 4, at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The briefing participants are: -- Mark Kelly, commander, STS-134 -- Peggy Whitson, chief, Astronaut Office -- Brent Jett, chief, Flight Crew Operations Directorate The news conference will be broadcast on NASA Television and the agency's website.
CONTRACT RELEASE: C11-006 NASA AWARDS CONTRACT MODIFICATION TO L-3 SERVICES HOUSTON --
NASA has signed a contract modification increasing the not-to-exceed value of a support contract with L-3 Services of Fairfax, Va., by $49.2 million. The contract provides simulation and software technology support to Johnson Space Center's Software, Robotics and Simulation Division in the fields of design, development, testing and operations of intelligent systems, robotic systems, spacecraft flight software systems and real-time simulation systems. L-3 Services also provides engineering support in the areas of automation and intelligent systems, as well as telerobotics and autonomous robotic systems for ground and spaceflight applications. This work supports the development and operations of the Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs, the Orion project, the Mission Operations Directorate training systems project and advanced programs for exploration. This modification brings the total not-to-exceed value of the contract, which began in May 2008, to $98.2 million. The cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract concludes on April 30, 2013.
