With their faces and hands pressed against the glass doors of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), children from a Colorado kindergarten class waited eagerly for their private tour of the University of Colorado Boulder’s laboratory in May. School was officially out for summer break, but the children’s interest in learning about space science and LASP’s work was just beginning to take off.
The classmates were honored as part of NASA’s outreach effort to engage the public in the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft mission. LASP is leading the MAVEN mission— providing science operations, preparing scientific instruments, and leading the mission’s education and public outreach program, including the MAVEN Going to Mars campaign.
As part of the student artwork contest portion of the Going to Mars campaign, children ages 5 through 17 worldwide submitted handmade creative depictions of the Red Planet and spacecraft. The kindergarten class’ contest submission was the winner chosen through online voting. Photos of their basketball-sized planets and thoughts about space exploration will be saved on a disc, which will feature the students’ artwork on the cover and will be sent to Mars with the satellite.
As an added bonus the children, their teacher, and their families were invited to tour LASP. Inside the lab’s walls, students learned about the current MAVEN mission, LASP’s active satellites in orbit, and CU’s contributions to more than 40 space missions since the 1960s.
“This is where we communicate with spacecraft in orbit right now,” said David Brain, a LASP scientist and assistant professor, as children peered into the Operations Control Center where individuals were supervising colorful monitors.
With Brain leading part of the tour, the kindergarteners also studied of LASP's model satellites and the “clean room” machine shop where parts of MAVEN were constructed.
Scheduled to launch in November, NASA’s MAVEN Mission will explore the upper atmosphere of Mars in unprecedented detail. The goal of the mission is to gain insight into the history of Mars’ atmosphere and climate, liquid water, and planetary habitability.
The Going to Mars campaign aims to engage all ages in MAVEN. Currently, members of the public are asked to submit names and a personal message online through July 1. The names and three messages — written as a three-line poem or haiku— will be saved to a disc carried aboard the spacecraft. Three haikus will be selected via an online public vote.
“This campaign is a great opportunity to reach the next generation of explorers and excite them about science, technology, engineering, and math,” said LASP Professor Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator. “I look forward to sharing our science with the worldwide community as MAVEN begins to piece together what happened to the Red Planet's atmosphere.”
Along with Going to Mars, the MAVEN education and outreach team has developed a program aimed at reaching a range of audiences in Colorado and nationwide for the entire length of the mission. The program includes standards-based education and outreach programs focused on underserved populations and urban and rural schools.
The CU-Boulder Alumni Association has also prepared events for alumni and the public to learn about MAVEN this fall. The lineup includes a launch-watch party at CU-Boulder on Nov. 18 and a three-day event in Cocoa Beach, Fla. Nov. 16-18. In Florida, attendees will be invited to an exclusive mission briefing led by Jakosky and an invitation-only opportunity to watch the spacecraft take off. Interested parties must register by June 30 to be included on NASA’s guest list.
For the kindergarten class, their involvement in MAVEN outreach is not complete. The parents pledged to continue to engage their children in the mission and some are considering going to Florida for the launch.
“I think we adults probably get the magnitude of this more than the children,” said one mother. “I remember thinking putting a man on the moon was, well, a bit commonplace. Not so much now. We will be sure to keep weaving MAVEN into the children’s lives.”
As the kindergarteners’ tour came to close, Brain told them that contributing to space exploration is not as distant as it may seem. In fact, CU-Boulder students contribute to LASP across all of its activities including operating spacecraft.
“Raise your hand if you like: science, art, reading, and writing,” Brain asked the children. “Guess what? To be a scientist you need to like all of those things. If you like science and you like space, even as a college student you can help build things like this.”
To learn more about the Going to Mars initiative visit http://lasp.colorado.edu/maven/goingtomars. For more information on MAVEN, visit http://lasp.colorado.edu/maven or http://www.nasa.gov/maven.
View photos from the LASP tour on the CU Outreach Facebook page.