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Grade Schoolers Working With NASA Discover Craters On Mars (see PHOTO), Grade Schoolers Working With NASA Discover Craters On Mars (see PHOTO)(Cybergenesis),

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Grade Schoolers Working With NASA Discover Craters On Mars (see PHOTO)

The arrival of those images marks the beginning of the Mars Student Imaging Project. This project is funded by NASA and its Jet Propulsion Laboratory and run from Arizona State University in Tempe. NASA hopes many more 5th to 12th grade students participate. In the above image, students Jenna Floyd (L) and Chelsea Gill (R) explore Mars through their Macs.

"It's been great, so great," said Lisa Behrens, age 13. "When the image came up, we had been waiting for that for like three, four months, and it was like, finally! And we hit the target right on! We can't wait to analyze it!"

The students acquired more than a few picture from Mars. They developed a new enthusiasm for science.

"They just don't want to stop with this," commented Fred Shears, who accompanied his students. "They want to keep studying Mars long-term. I was surprised by them this morning when they wanted to come in early to work on PowerPoint presentations. How often do you see that?"

After the images were received, the students tried finding new information in the Martian geography. They saw that the main crater was a relatively young crater with sharp sides.

"I think this is great because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we can be like really old and we'll still have this to look back on," said Jessica Lloyd, age 13. "It's great being able to find our own crater on Mars and to be able to analyze it. It might help us learn about the materials that Mars is made of. That would be so cool!"

"It was incredible to watch their faces. They really understood and appreciated what they were doing and that they were the first people on Earth to see that place on Mars," said Dr. Philip Christensen, who began Mars Student Imaging Project. He wanted students to participate in the excitement of space exploration.

The first group of students were from Olympia School District, Illinois. The students watched as commands were sent to the camera onboard Odyssey from the university's planetary imaging facility. Though imaging scientists hit the keys, the commands were directed by the students, who had already chosen their study site.

Later, the students watched as data returned from the spacecraft, appearing as a raw image on the screen in the auditorium. The images showed a set of smaller, unnamed craters at 8 degrees south longitude, 337 degrees west latitude. The images were the most detailed image ever obtained of features in that area.

"The student imaging program is a cool idea, something that I always thought would be really neat to do when I was a kid," said Christensen. "We talked to a lot of teachers, and one of the things that really excited them was the thought that 'Wow, my class could actually be actively involved in exploring Mars rather than just standing on the outside watching!'"
Source: JPL

A NEW GENERATION OF MARS EXPLORERS

Sat Mar 23