NASA and the Super Bowl

Of course, it would be considered impossible for anyone but a geek to do this, but...

Imagine that you scheduled a trip, and didn't check the travel schedule very closely.  As a result, your flight home occurred while hundreds of thousands of people were descending on your city to one of the biggest sports events of the entire year.

Actually, if your home airport is Indianapolis, this happens every year for Memorial Day weekend.  (It's that 500 mile race we have at the motor speedway near the airport.  You might know we are very proud of that race--so much so, it's on our state quarter.)  But last week, you might have noticed some news reports and some late night TV shows from Indianapolis, and a particular football game last Sunday night.    Clearly, sports get a lot of attention in Indiana... but I was pleased to see NASA provide some links to the game.  Not only was there a Landsat photo of Indianapolis from space, but even an acknowledgment of critical Super Bowl technologies that were spin-offs of NASA innovations.  You will want to check the article in more detail, but I will spare you the suspense:

1.  Foam padding for helmets and pads

2.  Anti-scratch visors for helmets

3.  Cushioning material for shoes

4.  Moisture-wicking garmets

5.  Wireless headsets in helmets

6.  Video stabilization software

So, whether you were rooting for the folks who play their home games in East Rutherford, NJ, or the folks who play their home games in Foxboro, MA, when you take a look at the picture of Mario Manningham's feet landing inbounds during a critical pass in the 4th quarter... yeah, NASA was responsible for that technology.  And I could feel justified for being a fan.  (Of NASA spin-offs.  No comment on the teams in the game.)

And now, back to basketball season...  (Did I mention that we like our sports here in Indiana?)

BC

Lights and Darkness

As I write this, we are well into a very special time of the calendar, one that celebrates lights that remind us of what we strive to be.  A wick that burns though the oil has run out.   A fire on the darkest, longest night.  A star that shines brightly above.  Even the space geek can take comfort in such images, and plan for the coming year.

I want to thank the INSGC staff and affiliates for bringing us to a place of light over the past year.  Yes, there are definitely new anxieties surrounding our funding for next year, and that is really the point of these Directors’ Notes.  When we first moved to Designated status in 2005, there was an influx of funding, and a range of unexpected new challenges.  Despite the challenges, we have definitely shown through these past years, in ways that make our current situation a bittersweet interplay of darkness and light. 

Those of you who remember our Affiliates Meetings between 2003 and 2005 will recall, though others may find this improbable:  at one point, we feared having too few affiliates to manage a rich and vibrant portfolio of higher education, K-12, and general public activities.  Fortunately, we developed a process, even then, that allowed us to consider how we would add new affiliates, and when we’d say, “enough”.  This month, however, we are processing a request that would bring us to 27 affiliates—including a significant fraction of all outreach affiliates in the national Space Grant network.  This is a glorious riot of illumination across the state… but from a Director’s standpoint, a delicious burden.  More affiliates than ever before in the history of INSGC, but budgets that are flat at best.  More academic affiliates to provide supplemental support, and more competition to select a diversity of campuses and cultures and disciplines for undergraduate scholarships.  It’s at this point that I can say with confidence that we celebrate our current affiliates, and welcome those currently under consideration… but to maintain the quality of our light, we no longer seek to add quantity of affiliates. 

A few years ago, INSGC implemented a process of Consortium Priorities, in an attempt to ensure that we could meet and exceed NASA expectations for Space Grant each year, while supporting a rich competition and cultivation of new ideas and affiliate contexts.  During 2010-11, we experienced the last bright year of funding exceeding Priority demands.  We were able to identify and manage the old model of priorities then, but the new Base + Augmentation model from NASA Headquarters does not permit that model to continue as we designed it previous.  It’s curious how something novel can become traditional and expected in just a few years (“well, of course we’ll burn that log tomorrow night!” for a habit that just started within the memory of all but the youngest members of a family), and painful when the tradition changes.  As you read through the funding levels and focus areas for the 2012-13 INSGC award programs, you’ll notice some changes.  Smaller award levels.  We’re requesting additional elements of budget detail in the proposals.  This is not because we love bureaucracy in the INSGC Office.  It is because new winds and potential storms blow in the East, and I am determined to have INSGC navigate these storms well and with beauty.  We will maintain our commitment to serve our citizens well, and to be a spark for STEM education—Space Grant is STEM. 

Despite what looks like danger and darkness, I have never been more proud or confident of how INSGC is poised, and where we will be able to shine in the future.  We’ve ridden the candle of STS-135, a student spaceflight experiment on the final space shuttle flight.  We’ve celebrated our first guiding navigators: Gus Grissom and his pioneering flight 50 years ago, and took our turn to celebrate the memory of Yuri Gagarin’s flight that is now an international party.  We’re linking Education and Engineering, kids and kinematics, imagination and implementation.  

Even our State Seal and our INSGC logo celebrate light: stars and a torch flame.  It’s what we do, to burn brightly, and to shine into the distance. 

Blessed Holidays to all.

Engaging STEM Education

Those who have visited the INSGC website in the past few days have noted a new page reference and splash leader, “Engaging STEM Education for Indiana”.  In some ways, that’s not anything novel—the INSGC Mission, Vision, and Values all highlight those elements (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math).  But, why did we decide to make this change at the very top of our website presence (figuratively and literally)?

Thanks, Angie Verissimo.

Angie is our Operations Coordinator, and is primarily responsible for keeping our accounts and budgets aligned when dealing with NASA, Purdue, and our affiliates’ sponsored programs and activities.  But more importantly, she takes the time to remind us what it feels like not to have spent the past 10, 20, or more years thinking about NASA research and student opportunities.  As we in INSGC (and Space Grant nationally) know, there is more to Space Grant than astronauts, satellites, and stellar formation (although we do fund projects that link to all of those).  But, a friend whose college-aged son or daughter was thinking about returning to Indiana in a science discipline.  Angie pointed out that there could be INSGC scholarship funds available. 

‘Why would they want to apply to a Space Grant?  They’re not interested in being an astronaut.’

What sort of answer do you provide for that?  We took a look at the website, from the perspective, “Why would someone know to look at INSGC for scholarships, projects, and outreach programs in STEM, if they didn’t already know about us?”  In my research life, and the courses I teach, an ongoing theme is that one of the challenges of developing expertise is that once one becomes an expert in something, it’s very hard to remember what it’s like to be a novice in it.  Dr. Dawn and I know about the breadth of NASA research… because we have lived it through our PhDs and our careers.  But it’s easy to forget how much others never learned, things like:

• ·      Why “Space Grant?”  Senator Lloyd Bentsen, who wrote the original legislation, wanted something for NASA STEM education that echoed the transformative impact on the country that Land Grant did for the nation’s universities (including Purdue) that were created in the 1860s to improve the education level in the “agricultural and mechanical arts”.  That’s why there is a Space Grant in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.  The name is supposed to evoke, not restrict, a picture of innovation and stimulation of children’s imagination. 
• 
  
• ·      Aren’t you just astronomy and astronautics?  Space Grant is a NASA Office of Education program, recognizing that our strengths as a nation are based on a broad view of STEM education.  If you think about what’s involved in keeping an astronaut alive on the International Space Station, or keeping a rover alive and talking to us from the surface of Mars, you realize there’s a lot going on: biology, electronics, energy storage, life support, materials science, radiation monitoring, signal processing, software development, water purification, and many other fields.
• 
  
• ·      What if I don’t want to go to Purdue?  Yes, INSGC is hosted at Purdue, and that’s where I am a faculty member.  However, INSGC now has over a dozen academic affiliates, and we have over two dozen disciplines and majors involved. 
• 
  
• ·      Didn’t they cancel / defund NASA?  The short answer is… NO.  Over the past 20-30 years, NASA has averaged approximately 0.7% of the federal budget.  (That’s seven-tenths of one cent of each dollar.)  The Space Shuttle program has ended, but NASA continues work in space science (those pretty Hubble pictures; rovers current and future), aeronautics (those winglets on airplanes that save gas), and human exploration (to a destination to be named later) at 10 Centers.  NASA funding is being considered for cuts (as is every agency), but 0.5% is not the same as 0%.  (Even the planned Space Grant budget for next year is less than we saw last year, but it certainly isn't zero.  There are many people who believe strongly in the Space Grant mission, and allocate funds accordingly.)

But when doing a quick web search, people don’t focus on all of that.  If they want to talk about STEM Education, they look for that.  (In fact, I am writing this while at a life sciences entrepreneurship discussion in Warsaw, the orthopaedics capital of the world.  There’s a lot I don’t understand, but when they talk about STEM education as an important element of bringing companies to Indiana and keeping them here, I get that.)  Our primary job emphasis from NASA is to engage and enhance STEM education and science literacy.  We’re designed and built to focus on the contexts, needs, and strengths of Indiana…

Engaging STEM Education for the State of Indiana.

Oh, yeah.  We’re about that.  Why don’t we just say it?

The Week That Was

Tonight, I provide just a brief update, after a long and action-packed week for the Indiana Space Grant Consortium.  Over the weekend, we learned that there will be an opportunity to write another proposal to NASA this fall, for augmentation funds to expand and enrich the program activities of the Consortia.  Thus, Monday afternoon’s activities emphasized a meeting to address some of the priorities to consider for this augmentation proposal.  It’s clear that while we are doing very well in a number of areas, there is a continuing push to increase the diversity of participation in STEM projects.  Over the next few weeks, this proposal will be the focus of a number of our strategic planning activities, and a highlight of our Affiliate teleconferences later this month. 

Starting on Tuesday morning, Dr. Dawn Whitaker and Angie Verissimo represented INSGC at the Great Midwestern Regional Space Grant Meeting.  (I had to stay home and take care of some additional priority tasks, including other campus proposal development and getting my students ready for their exam and organizing their semester projects.  It’s times like this that the value of effective and skilled staff really comes through: Dawn took an active role to ensure that next year’s Regional Meeting in Milwaukee would be in good hands (i.e., ours), and Angie also contributed as one of the student poster judges.  Arriving home late Wednesday afternoon, they both turned around to start in Thursday morning with an important visitor: Diane DeTroye, the NASA Headquarters program manager for the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, who was here to greet and learn on her way from the Regional Meeting to another Space Grant activity in Lexington, Kentucky.  (Yes, it seems that our program manager is putting in some long hours, too.)  I can only express my heartiest gratitude to Dawn, Angie, and INSGC intern Isa Fritz for helping to demonstrate our improvements and quality in our program management, electronic and social media presence, and campus and statewide reach.  (There are lots of others to thank as well, including Ann Broughton’s lunchtime discussion of Space Day’s student participation; Martin Fisher’s great data from the Outreach to Space event at Science Central; Bruce Hrivnak’s Valparaiso event calendar, including congratulations to Todd Hillwig for his new NSF grant; and Dean Leah Jamieson, who made space in her busy calendar and described why we believe so strongly in EPICS as a transformative model in service learning.)  It can only be a good thing to have your NASA program manager to leave with a smile on her face, and positive words in her comments. 

Friday saw no letup in our activity.  I’m continuing to work on the Purdue campus proposal, but I did manage to join Dawn and Angie for a training session for Pathevo, a STEM career and college major counseling software package. Our training session was set up so that we at INSGC could deploy the software over the coming year.  We hope to focus especially on underrepresented and underserved students, and try to overcome barriers that prevent students from even moving into STEM majors at our great affiliates in the first place.  The training session was followed by a business office meeting—once a month, the three of us sit down with multiple business and sponsored programs managers to coordinate, improve, and sustain INSGC operations and fiscal / accounting flow.  As soon as we were done, Dawn got ready to deliver some INSGC banners for transport and display at the Celebrate Science Indiana event being held on Ocotber 8 at the State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis.  I went back to other proposal meetings (having read and commented on the students’ first team assignment—when did that get slipped in?) for the remainder of the afternoon and into the evening. 

Next week, we’ll be back at it again—more proposal activity, more NASA reporting, and more consortium planning and management tasks.  Just another week at the office.

Mitchell, IN (Republished Director's Notes)

OK, I'm cheating a bit.  This blog entry is actually a repeat of my Director's Notes from the Summer 2011 edition of the Observer newsletter (which you can find electronically in PDF format at: https://engineering.purdue.edu/INSGC/Newsletter_Summer2011).  The truth is, I was so touched and excited by my visit to the only county I know of that is the birthplace of three US astronauts, I wanted to make sure other people saw the story.  So, here we are...

Mitchell, Indiana

“Went ridin’ around this little country town…”

--John Mellencamp, “Cherry Bomb,” The Lonesome Jubilee

No, I’m not making any of this up.  It all happened, as though I were trying to create a vignette of life in Indiana on a summer day.  –BC

On Friday morning, July 22, I returned from a conference trip, got in a rental car at the airort, and headed south on Indiana Routes 67 and 37.  It’s a really hot day: just the day before, the temperature hit 100 in Indianapolis, the hottest since August 1988 (about the time “Cherry Bomb” was on the Billboard charts).  The corn is tall, but the ground is dry, and the grass is getting brown and crunchy by the time I get to the county line.  I’m late to the luncheon at the Girls’ Club, but I do manage some good conversation with some of the local organizers and guests of honor.  Some good chicken, carrots, and green beans, too.   The evening event is the Ball, being held in the restaurant of the local state park inn down in the next town.  Before I get to the state park, I spend some time on the quiet main street of town.  An Amish buggy is turning the corner as I park the car and cross the street to look at some of the antique stores.  One woman comes into the store as I am browsing the postcards and porcelain, and asks if I’m here for the Ball…. Yes, they’d heard I was coming, and they’re glad I’m here. 

At the Ball, I’m seated at a delightful table.  I’m next to one of the guests of honor, and conversing with the one local mayor and his wife on my other side.  The other local mayor is a bit distant, until she is done with her obligation for the evening: singing the National Anthem.  After that, she relaxes and chats amiably.  I’m enjoying a great dinner of pork chops, and baked apples, and a bit of beef, and cherry cobbler, talking about civic responsibility and local roots.  After dinner, the one local mayor gets up, thanks people for coming, and introduces his “favorite band,” joking that while his colleague may be the singing mayor, he can dance.  The band checks the tuning, and then starts in on… yes, John Mellencamp’s “Cherry Bomb”. 

This all sounds like it could be anywhere in the Midwest, but it’s not.  It’s Indiana (I even drove through Bloomington, where Mellencamp lives, on Route 37).  But more importantly, it’s Lawrence County, Indiana, home of three NASA astronauts: Ken Bowersox and Charlie Walker of Bedford, and Gus Grissom of Mitchell.  We’re here to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Grissom’s Liberty Bell 7 launch.  The weekend program includes discussions with McDonnell Corporation engineers who worked on the Mercury program, remarks by Becky Skillman, the Lt. Governor of Indiana (who is also from Bedford).  The guests of honor at the Liberty Bell 7 Ball?  Gus Grissom’s brothers, sister, and other relatives (two tables of Grissom family in all), and Charlie Walker. 

Mayor and Mrs. Terrell dancing to the Summertime Band.

How does such a small place (county population, 2010 census: 46,134) generate such a legacy?  How does a Space Grant Director end up in such a place?  I asked that very question of the people I met.  Mayor Girgis of Bedford and Mayor Terrell of Mitchell spoke of the energy and enthusiasm that the communities had put into the Liberty Bell 7 celebration.  Astronaut Walker talked about launching rockets with friends who thought it was cool, not stupid.  Other residents talked about how Test Pilot Grissom would return back to Mitchell, and do flyovers in one of his jets during the annual Persimmon Festival.   Lowell Grissom was gracious and friendly, and talked about growing up in a town where it was okay to have bigger dreams than working at the local bus manufacturing plant. 

And how about the woman from the antique store?  Her name is Susan, and she has a flight jacket with mission patches and autographs.  She, like many others in town, knew about “that professor from Purdue, the one with the Space Grant,” and her welcome was warm and enthusiastic.  The experience, and the pace, and the spirit of the town all affected her choice to move back to Lawrence County after being in the Air Force. 

In other words, these small towns could have been like any other, but one of their favorite sons returned for visits, and the town celebrated his accomplishments.  The towns try to move forward, but they don’t forget that they hold a special place in history.  They have an obligation to honor their hero, and make sure others remember him, too. Could I have created that level of enthusiasm, or an excitement and passion for the outcomes of STEM education, in a place that wasn’t already eager to celebrate their role in spaceflight history?  As an outsider, no.  But as a visitor and witness to their dreams and passions, I can tell you that everything I could hope for in terms of public engagement of STEM is there.  In the yard next to Gus Grissom’s boyhood home, there is a sweetgum tree grown from a seed that Charlie Walker took into space.  

Folks gathering under the Shuttle Sweetgum tree.  The Grissom home (currently being restored) is at the right of the photo.

Mayor Girgis and Astronaut Walker discuss the importance of girls pursuing whatever career interests they want to follow.  Last year, some folks in a couple of little towns in Indiana decided to put together a program celebrating the history of US spaceflight.  They brought together Mercury Program engineers, and a couple of astronauts, and put it all together near the memorial that houses the Gemini spacecraft nicknamed “Molly Brown”.  Lt. Governor Skillman responded personally to the invitation, and put it on her calendar –because it’s her hometown, too.  And they’re not done yet.  They’re trying to create an Astronaut Hall of Fame.  They’re restoring the Grissom home.  And they want to know if the Indiana Space Grant would be interested in helping with scholarships and activity support and advice.  

I had whispered to Charlie, “I envy you your hometown.”   Correction.  I admire his hometown, and what he and Ken have been able to share with their town.  I admire Susan, and Mayor Terrell and his assistant Christina Lambton (who placed me with such wonderful dinner companions).  I appreciate the efforts of the head of the German-American Bank and the folks from the Hoosier Hills Credit Union, and the Lawrence County Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, and the Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Department of Natural Resources (remember, the Liberty 7 Ball and Grissom Memorial were at a state park!) and everyone else.  That experience was one of the best reminders of how lucky I am to be able to work with and talk to such people, and be part of the legacy of space flight in Indiana. 

Indiana Route 37, at the entrance to Lawrence County: “Home of Astronauts Grissom • Walker • Bowersox”

The band didn’t play it Friday night, but the next day as I was driving home, guess what song came on the radio? 

“I was born in a small town…

Educated in a small town…

Used to daydream in that small town,

Another born romantic that’s me.”

-- John Mellencamp, “Small Town,” Scarecrow

Welcome and Farewell

Here on the Purdue campus, it’s getting to the end of the first week of classes.  After a summer of languid quiet, there are now tens of thousands of folks that weren’t here just a few days previously.  There are new schedules and new constraints: fewer construction barrels and more busses, but more requirements to be someplace for a meeting that starts right at that time.  Yes, the shifts associated with an academic lifestyle.

We also have some welcoming to do for three new affiliates: Anderson University, Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, and Evansville Museum.  You probably know something about them, but here’s a little bit more about how they work within our Consortium:

Anderson University is a private university located in Anderson, IN, between Indianapolis and Muncie.  They have a strong program in Astronomy, and in fact will be hosting the next meeting of the Indiana Astronomy network of student and faculty researchers.  In terms of size (a bit over 2000 students), history, and mix, Anderson is more like our existing affiliates at Evansville, Taylor, and Valparaiso: competitive, highly regarded, undergraduate focused institutions with a strong religious tradition.  We are looking forward to their increasing participation in the astronomy network and their engagement of undergraduates in research in the physical sciences.

Children’s Museum of Indianapolis is located near the famous Meridian-Kessler neighborhood of Indianapolis.  They are internationally known as the largest children’s museum in the world, and one of the nation’s top museum tourist attractions  (not just children’s museums, but all museums).  They have a new NASA exhibit underway on aviation and modeling, and will be a strong partner in our informal education activities.

Evansville Museum is located on the banks of the Ohio River in the City of Evansville, at the southern end of Indiana (if you wade in the Ohio, or travel one mile south, you’re in Kentucky).  They are home to the Koch Planetarium, and have been hosting a featured Outreach to Space exhibit (INSGC has been working with Science Central to bring Outreach to Space to venues across Indiana, including some exhibits at the Indiana State Fair).  If you’re down there, check out the Moon Watch on September 3. 

As you can tell, these new affiliates all build on existing partnerships and strengths of INSGC, and represent richness in academic and outreach interactions that I believe is unparalleled in the country.  (According to one presentation, INSGC already has over one third of all outreach affiliates in the national Space Grant network; we are the only state with three Challenger Learning Center affiliates.)  In 2003, we were worried how we would manage on 12 or fewer affiliates; now we’re close to 25, and the major question facing INSGC is how to keep from growing too much.  We have this question because of the success and participation of our affiliates, and an ongoing habit of bold innovations and exciting engagement of NASA materials and experiences.

With all of this hoopla, though, there is one bit of mixed feelings with the coming of this fall.  Ben Weiss, who has been our undergraduate INSGC intern since 2009 (with responsibilities for website, data reporting, longitudinal tracking, Facebook upgrading, and general honesty, integrity, and “what else do you need me to do” approach), has graduated and is moving on.  We just heard a few days ago that Ben has been accepted into the Marine Corps Officer Candidate School, fulfilling a long-term dream.  He promises to buzz the INSGC Central office in a high performance jet the first chance he gets.  Good luck, Ben, and be well.  I for one will miss you tremendously.  INSGC owes you more than we can express.

Looking Up

This month, I have gotten to have several enjoyable experiences in naked-eye astronomy, and a reminder of a bit of memory and trivia.  Years ago, there was a program called “Jack Horkheimer, Star Hustler” on PBS, hosted by Jack Horkheimer, Director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium.  With his distinctive voice and waddle along the rings of Saturn, Jack would talk about the various constellations, displays, and events in the night sky that week.  He would end each show with the happy encouragement to “Keep Looking Up!” Unfortunately, the timing of the broadcast where I was living at the time was such that Star Hustler broadcast was the Saturday night at the end of the week Jack was describing.  Thus, the shows weren’t very useful at all. 

Real-time information technology access and electronic search has changed all of that.  (Supposedly, it even changed the name of the show: after the advent of web browser search, the program stem “Star Hustler” was changed to “Star Gazer” so that well-meaning young astronomers would not accidentally begin their search with the pages of an adult magazine.  I will not add any racy or humorous comments here.)    Smart devices and smartphone applications have made tremendous progress in helping the amateur with keeping tabs on what is going on in the skies, and I was able to enjoy and learn about several tools.  One of my favorite iPhone apps is StarWalk, one of the best things on the device (not just my opinion!)  StarWalk allows you to point your iPhone up at the sky, and its accelerometers and GPS sensors will allow you to identify what you’re looking at, and what celestial events are ongoing.  I’ve used StarWalk in South Africa (note my prior blog entry “Under African Skies”) and China.  Late last Friday night (August 12-13), I also managed to find and watch some of the Pleiades meteor shower while I was at a conference in Boise.  (Too bad I didn’t have a car, to go up into the mountains for a much darker sky…)

The NASA App is available on a variety of devices, and I have found this extremely useful as well.   There’s great access to NASA images, NASA TV schedules, and other information about the Space Program (yes, we still have one), but my favorite component this past week was the ISS sighting opportunities.  Sunday night (August 14), the NASA app told me where and when to look for a sighting of the International Space Station from my home in Lafayette, IN.  On a good night (such as last Sunday), the ISS is one of the 3-5 brightest objects in the sky, streaking high overhead much faster than any star or planet, but without the tell-tale blinking lights of an aircraft.  (Please note that NASA has a number of other mobile device apps available; I just haven’t used them.)

Coincidentally, my best friend was also outside, looking up at the same time, happily seeing the same streaking ISS between the clouds.  My friend was using another nice app named (with some unfortunate irony) Space Junk.  Once again, beautiful graphics and “through the device” viewing of the live night sky.  It’s easier to see the orbital tracks of the Hubble, ISS, and a number of satellites, although NASA App is easier to search for future passes over several days.  Either way, your smartphone turns into a delightful tool to learn what is happening in the sky (even below the horizon or on a cloudy night), anywhere in the world, right now.

While I was in Boise last week, I did see a new episode of “Star Gazer”: it had the same picture of Saturn as the background, the same music, and the same encouragement to “keep looking up!”  Jack Horkheimer, though, was not there.  He died almost exactly one year ago, on August 22, 2010.  I don’t think he’d mind that the software now available has made it much easier than his show ever was to follow his advice. 

(Did you know that Libra is rising just south of due east, as I finish this blog at 4:45 PM?  The sun is bright this afternoon, but my iPhone can still tell me about the other stars.)