Rocket Launches and Robot Navigational Exercises are a Part of the Activities

More than 250 Chicago-area elementary school students will experience the thrilling aspects of participatory science at Space Day 2003 at DePaul University May 1, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. in the Student Center, 2250 N. Sheffield Ave. Activities include: “real time” interactions with National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) scientists, facilitated on site by Bill Nye, “the Science Guy;” rocket launches and robotic exercises.

Space Day at DePaul, thematically entitled “Countdown to Mars,” will provide an opportunity for students to examine the various aspects of NASA’s Mars Exploratory Rover (MER) project. The first MERS mission will launch twin robotic explorers in early June with a Mars landing expected in January 2004. David Jabon, professor of mathematics, has constructed a robot for Space Day at DePaul that, in many ways, simulates the robots that will be sent to Mars on the upcoming mission. Jabon’s robot, along with others, will be available for students to navigate in the “robot yard” area of the event. Bill Nye, whose popular science show for young people aired over the Public Broadcast Station (PBS) for six years, will conduct an hour-long, live “Countdown to Mars” special from Space Day at DePaul, from noon until 1 p.m. CDT. Nye’s live segment from DePaul will be broadcast locally over WYCC (Channel 20) and will be carried by PBS affiliates around the country.

During the live program, young people in classrooms and at DePaul will have an opportunity for “real time” interactions via the Internet with NASA scientists, engineers and technicians at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., as the team there prepares for the Mars mission. Nagin Cox, systems engineer at the JPL, will be on hand at DePaul to discuss the Mars 2003 Mission and what will happen once the rovers land on the “Red Planet.”

The special will blend broadcast television with hands-on science activities and Internet resources to provide intimate portraits of the men and women who are making the MER mission possible, as well as fascinating glimpses of the building of the twin robots that will serve as the virtual eyes and arms on Mars for observers on Earth.

Other hands-on activities that students will perform at Space Day at DePaul include: constructing a scale solar system; launching small rockets; simulating air-bag landings by dropping eggs from a tower; and navigating the robot rovers. The day’s events also will include a special remote observing session using Japan-based telescopes that will relay images of Mars in real-time via the Internet to students at computer stations at DePaul.

“We are all very excited about this year’s Space Day at DePaul,” said Lynn Narasimhan, executive director of the university’s space science center. “The activities of the day will allow students to share their own science projects with one another and to simulate experiments like those conducted by actual NASA scientists. The televised portion of our event will give Chicago students and students everywhere unprecedented access to JPL scientists and their robotic mission to Mars.”

“Countdown to Mars” with Bill Nye is independently produced by Passport to Knowledge and is the kick-off event of a two-year MER project. DePaul’s NASA Space Science Center will participate in this on-going project by involving youngsters in U.S. urban areas while the rovers are en route to Mars and once they are operating on the planet’s surface.

The award-winning national Space Day initiative, co-chaired by former senator and astronaut John Glenn, is dedicated to strengthening our educational system by building upon young students’ early interest in math and science and their fascination with space.

DePaul has served as a space science education facilitator for NASA since 1998. For more information about science education opportunities for educators, contact Karen Cullen, assistant director of DePaul’s Space Science Center, at 773/325-4516.