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Posted by Eric on October 2, 2007, 8:20 am
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Another fine example of how bloated and wastefull NASA has become.
They are far more interested in politicking than doing real science.
Time to write some letters to various Senators and Representatives and
complain about excessive NASA funding.
Eric
baalke@earthlink.net wrote:
> FROM: Lori Stiles (520-626-4402; lstiles@u.arizona.edu)
>
> STUDENTS CHOOSE HiRISE CAMERA TARGETS ON MARS
>
> - Sent Sept. 26, 2007
>
> Last week, third-grade students from Sunridge Elementary School in
> Phoenix,
> Ariz., saw their chosen spot on Mars released to the world in a new
> image
> from the High Resolution Imaging Experiment camera, known as the
> HiRISE
> camera.
>
> This week, an astronomy and space research class at the Alternative
> Secondary School of Economics in Budapest, Hungary, chose HiRISE's
> "student
> image of the week," which has been released worldwide via the Web
> site,
> http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu. The HiRISE camera is orbiting on NASA's
> Mars
> Reconnaissance Orbiter and is operated at The University of Arizona in
> Tucson.
>
> In the past six months, more than 1,500 students in grades three to 14
> in
> schools as far-flung as Hungary, Nepal, Curaçao, India, Arizona and
> New
> Jersey submitted candidate targets for HiRISE, places on Mars that may
> have
> once been covered in water. Because of time and camera constraints,
> only 12
> of the suggested targets were chosen for the first round. All
> participating
> students, however, were invited to scrutinize the HiRISE images for
> signs of
> water or ice, as well as write captions for the images.
>
> The Phoenix third-graders suggested that HiRISE take an image of a
> valley
> system called Iberus Vallis, located on the southeast flank of the
> volcano,
> Elysium Mons, in the northern lowland of Mars. The Budapest students
> chose a
> region south of a plateau named Euripus Mons, which is east of the
> Hellas
> impact basin in Mars' southern hemisphere, because they wanted a sharp
> view
> of the debris apron, which may be an ice-created flow.
>
> The HiRISE team, headed by UA Professor Alfred McEwen of the Lunar and
> Planetary Laboratory, along with NASA's Quest program have announced
> their
> second challenge for students in classrooms around the world to select
> the
> next targets in HiRISE's search for features formed by water on Mars.
> The
> HiRISE Challenge gives students an opportunity to experience being
> virtual
> members of the science team and participate in cutting-edge Mars
> research.
> Virginia Gulick of the NASA Ames Research Center and the SETI
> Institute
> leads the HiRISE educational outreach program.
>
> "We want students and teachers to learn more about Mars and have
> experiences similar to science team members," Gulick said. "Students
> not
> only suggest targets, but actually analyze images and write captions
> for
> them. This is similar to what the science team routinely does. To my
> knowledge, unless they're already working with the team, students have
> never
> had this opportunity to help write captions and experience this part
> of the
> process."
>
> Students and teachers can signup online at
> http://quest.nasa.gov/challenges/hirise. HiRISE images are online at
> http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu and http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/HiRISE.
>
> The HiRISE camera is the most powerful camera to orbit any planet
> other than
> Earth. It takes images of 3.5-milewide (6 kilometer) swaths as the
> orbiter
> flies at about 7,500 mph between 155 and 196 miles (250 to 316
> kilometers)
> above Mars' surface. HiRISE science imaging began in November 2006 and
> will
> continue at least through November 2008.
>
> The HiRISE camera is also known as the People's Camera because the
> public
> can easily and quickly access the images, and because team scientists
> are
> working to give the public more opportunities to suggest where on
> Mars'
> surface are good places to point the camera.
>
> Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft is online
> at
> http://www.nasa.gov/mro. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet
> Propulsion
> Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology,
> Pasadena,
> for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Lockheed
> Martin
> Space Systems, of Denver, is the prime contractor and built the
> spacecraft.
> Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., of Boulder, Colo., built the
> HiRISE
> camera.
>
> CONTACT: Virginia Gulick (650-604-0781; vgulick@mail.arc.nasa.gov)
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