Bellaire ExMASS Students Take ESF 2015 by Storm!

Steven Z.-W., Kevin N., Afton W., Sue Anne D., Jennifer W.

Bellaire participated in the SSERVI/LPI ExMASS project in 2014-2015. A group of 5 students did original research related to asteroids. You can read more about the group and their research here.

The Bellaire team was selected among the various schools to attend a planetary science conference related to lunar and asteroid science to present their poster during poster sessions. I got to tag along. The conference is the NASA Exploration and Science Forum and gathers lunar scientists and small body (asteroid mainly) scientists to share current research. The posters alone were worth the trip. The talks and the tours made the whole experience one-of-a-kind for us.

We got to attend the sessions and ask lots of questions. And also visit with the other poster presenters. There was one other high school group. Mainly the attendees are current scientists but young planetary scientists are also a focus of the conference. Each poster presenter had 1.5 minutes to convince people to come find their poster.

In the Lightning Round, poster presenters convince people to come visit

Planetary scientist Andy Rivkin asks the team about their research

Opening talk by SSERVI director Yvonne Pendleton. Afton is actually paying attention…

We heard a lot of talks about cutting-edge planetary science.

Maurizio Pajola talks about grooves on Mars’ moon Phobos

Adrian Brown talks about spectral features on asteroids.

Benjamin Hockman shows off the “hedgehog” hopping rover design using an Arduino board.

UC Boulder engineers show up telerobotic testing platform using an Arduino a Raspberry Pi.

LMMP on a Microsoft Surface table by JPL and NASA Ames

We got to explore some very cool data visualization stuff from NASA Ames and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Lunar Mapping and Modeling Portal looked especially awesome on a Microsoft Surface table. You could also explore Mars using an Oculus Rift VR headset. One could see asteroid, lunar, and Martian 3D prints from real data. And take the new VestaTrek web-interface for a test drive. The JPL team must have been tired of my constant questions about the comp sci and data vis stuff. This was my favorite spot at the conference. Thanks to George Chang, Emily Law, and Shan Malhotra for being patient and helpful!

3D Printed Surfaces of Mars, the Moon, and Vesta from actual datasets by NASA Ames and JPL.

Oculus Rift VR exploration of planetary science datasets from JPL and NASA Ames.

We also got a guided tour of NASA Ames (where the conference was hosted). The wind tunnels are the largest on Earth and very impressive. We also got to tour the Ames Vertical Gun Range (where impacts are simulated), the Vertical Motion Simulator (where flight systems are tested), and the NASA Ames visitor center with the requisite astronaut ice cream and t-shirts. I did get a shirt and coffee cup. We also got up close and personal with Hangar One and some former NASA test aircraft.

NASA Ames Giant Wind Tunnel (just one small part)

This wind tunnel system has played a part in everything from the Shuttle program to Mars Curiosity Rover not to mention almost every aircraft sold by U.S. manufacturers.

AVGR target zone. Note the plumb bob and sand crater.

Team next to target vacuum chamber for AVGR.

Some of the interchangeable ICAB units at the NASA Ames VMS.

Very cool spherical display at the NASA Ames Visitor Center. It had images on the entire surface.

Infamous Hangar One in partial state of deconstruction.

And we got a personalized guided tour of the SETI Institute by Seth Shostak. We got to meet some of the team and see some of work done at the SETI Institute. Including information about the Allen Telescope Array. We also got to tour the studio where Big Picture Science is created!

Seth Shostak from the SETI Institute gave us a personal tour.

Allen Telescope Array display at the SETI Institute. The Allen is Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

This trip was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had as a science teacher. At the end of the conference we got a huge surprise when the students were awarded 3rd place in the poster competition along side postdocs, grad students, and undergraduates. Congrats to the Bellaire ExMASS asteroid research team. Let’s see how the next team from Bellaire fares. Thanks very much to Andy Shaner of the Lunar and Planetary Institute for hosting us, ferrying us all over Mountain View, and coordinating everything! He’s also the coordinator for the ExMASS High School Research Project.

Published by newton