SOUTHERN COLORADO ROCKETEERS

SCORE President, Jason Unwin, assisted about 50 students from South Park Elementary school in building model rocket kits on April 28, 2003.

Jason and Bill Moore returned to South Park on May 15th for launch day. The kids really had fun and hopefully walked away with new information about rockets and space flight.

Musical Satellites

If light were sound, then chemicals would play chords

Water: C major. Cyanide: A minor. Chlorophyll: G diminished 7th. (Please note that the choice of chords here is only for the sake of illustration, and not meant to reflect the actual spectra of these chemicals.)

It's a loose metaphor, but an apt one. Musical chords are combinations of frequencies of sound (notes), while chemicals leave unique combinations of dips in the frequency spectrum of reflected light, like keys pressed on a piano. Spectrographs, machines that recognize chemicals from their "chords of light," are among the most powerful tools of modern chemistry.

Most earth-watching satellites, like the highly successful Landsat series, carry spectrographs onboard. These sensors measure the spectra of light reflected from forests, crops, cities, and lakes, yielding valuable information about our natural environment. Current satellites do this in a fairly limited way; their sensors can "hear" only a few meager notes amid the symphony of information emanating from the planet below.

EO-1 could change that. Short for "Earth Observing 1," EO-1 is an experimental NASA satellite in orbit since 2000. It's testing out a more advanced "spectrometer in the sky"-the Hyperion hyperspectral imager. How good is it? If Landsat were "chopsticks," EO-1 would be Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."

Hyperion instrument distinguishes hundreds of wavelength bands, while current Landsat instrument images only a few.

The Hyperion sensor looks at 220 frequencies in the spectrum of visible and infrared light (0.4 to 2.5 microns) reflecting off Earth's surface. Landsat, in contrast, measures only 10. Bryant Cramer, who manages the EO-1 project at the Goddard Space Flight Center, puts these numbers in perspective. "If we flew Landsat over the northeastern United States, it could readily identify a hardwood forest. But using hyperspectral techniques, you probably can . . . tell the oak trees from the maple trees."

Future earth-watching satellites may use Hyperion-like instruments to vastly improve the environmental data they provide. EO-1 is paving the way for these future missions by taking on the risk of flight-testing the sensor for the first time.

For farmers, foresters, and many others, this new remote sensing technology will surely be music to the ears.

Read about EO1 at http://eo1.gsfc.nasa.gov   Budding young astronomers can learn more at http://spaceplace.nasa.gov

This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Eggs in the Air

The sky will be filled with flying eggs on May 10, 2003, when a thousand students converge on The Plains, Virginia, for the first-ever national high school rocketry competition.

Called the Team America Rocketry Challenge (http://www.rocketcontest.org), the competition sets the goal of flying a custom-built, two-stage rocket carrying two raw eggs to a height of exactly 1,500 feet, and then returning the eggs to the ground unbroken. The team that comes closest to 1,500 feet without breaking their eggs will win the national title.

The competition is being organized by the Aerospace Industries Association and the National Association of Rocketry (NAR). NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe will attend the final event.

"The idea is to get kids interested in the world of aerospace," says Trip Barber, director of the competition and vice-president of the NAR. "And they will learn some important lessons about the power of math and science-and cooperation and teamwork-along the way."

To develop their designs, the students first used computer simulator software provided by NAR. Then they had to apply old-fashioned ingenuity and craftsmanship to bring the design to life and flight testing to refine it.

Students constructed rocket bodies using a combination of hobby-store rocket kit parts and custom materials. A typical rocket might consist of cardboard tubes from paper-towel or wrapping-paper rolls, a pre-made nose cone, rocket-kit body segments cut to size, and light-weight, balsa wood fins. But the greatest challenge for many was designing the compartment for the eggs.

Some used plastic Easter eggs as casings, padding the inside with bubble wrap, foam peanuts, or even gelatin. Others decided not to "reinvent the wheel," making a cradle from the egg-crate material used for shipping eggs. Some chose to make larger, more powerful rockets big enough to carry the eggs inside, while others made smaller, more efficient rockets that have a bulging egg compartment mounted on top.

A hundred unique designs will be put to the test in Virginia. Only one will win. But for the students, the real prize has already been won: Learning an approach to problem-solving that works, whether you're launching eggs over a field or sending astronauts to Mars.

In the end, it's all about the future: Future technologies and the kids who will grow up to create them. Many advanced technologies are being developed now by NASA's New Millennium Program (http://nmp.nasa.gov). Who will do that work in the future? Perhaps some kids who spent their weekends launching eggs in the air.

Are you a kid? Would you like to build your own rocket? Visit NASA's Space Place and learn how to make a bubble-powered rocket! http://spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov/rocket.htm  It won't take you to Mars, but it's a good way to get started.

This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.