SHARON SHANKS | The Cosmos Mars recipe adds dash of excitement
Take 80 teachers from across the United States. Mix in the top people involved in the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission. Add a dash of Arthur C. Clarke, and, for zest, top with a picture-perfect launch. The result? A recipe for Mars excitement that's sure to spread in classrooms across the nation.
I was one of the lucky 80 people selected to take part in the 2001 Mars Odyssey Educator Conference last weekend in Cocoa Beach, Fla., arranged by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Arizona State University.
By itself, the conference would have been enough to satisfy anyone's appetite: a day full of lectures and hands-on activities that gave educators new information and methods to teach science in their classrooms. But the planners thought of everything, including dessert. The conference was scheduled to coincide with the launch of the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft.
All good banquets start with an appetizer, and our was delicious: a telephone interview with Clarke, author of "2001: A Space Odyssey." Gracious and gregarious, Clarke answered our questions from his home in Sri Lanka. For us, it was 9:30 a.m. In Sri Lanka, it was 9:30 at night.
Beyond dreams: Pleased that the mission's name reflects the legacy of the book and the movie, Clarke said Mars is the obvious destination for humankind's next push into space. Although disappointed at the pace of human exploration of space, he said he was satisfied with the work that's been done so far. "I never dreamed I'd see some of these things," he told us. "As a young man, I never dreamed I'd see people on the moon."
Our future in space is what we make of it, Clarke said. "It's up to us to be optimists. We have a chance of predicting a self-fulfilling prophecy. I hope the human race goes on to explore the solar system, and one day contact another species and they treat us kindly," he said.
A teacher asked how to get students actively involved in the study of Mars, and Clarke noted they're already doing that: through the Internet, an opportunity that earlier generations didn't have. He noted that his own interest in space came as a child. "What turned me on was the old pulp magazines," which printed some of the earliest works of serialized science fiction.
Because we've finally reach the year 2001, the interest in the book and movie "2001" has rekindled. Clarke noted that he didn't pick the year -- it was selected by Stanley Kubrick, the director of the movie. "It was a brilliant year to pick. I don't know if he knew that it was the first year of the new millennium or not," Clarke noted.
Information banquet: The main course at this feast had to be something spectacular to follow an introduction by Clarke, and we weren't disappointed. Each of the principal investigators behind the three science instruments on board the Mars Odyssey spacecraft took time from their hectic schedules to be our speakers. To get the full impact of this fact, remember that this conference took place the day before the launch. Wow.
The three instruments on the Odyssey craft will continue the exploration work started by the Mars Global Surveyor mission now orbiting the red planet and the work already done by the Mars Pathfinder mission. It will also help set the stage for two rovers slated to arrive on Mars early in 2004. Its main objective, however, is to find out what Mars is made of.
Elemental science: Dr. Bill Boynton from the University of Arizona is the principal investigator behind the Gamma Ray Spectrometer, which will look at the elements that make up Mars. The instrument takes advantage of a natural phenomenon: that when cosmic rays strike an object, all the chemicals that the object is made of emit gamma rays, each with a distinct "signature." Using spectrometers that can record the "signature," scientists can tell what elements are in the minerals on Mars from high above the planet.
Dr. Phil Christensen from Arizona State University is the principal investigator for the THEMIS instrument: the thermal emission imaging system. Using technology similar to night-vision glasses, THEMIS will look at Mars' surface minerals in visible and infrared light. It will produce color-coded images of the Martian surface, with different colors representing different minerals.
Dr. Badwahr Gautam from the Johnson Space Center is the main investigator for MARIE, the Martian radiation environment experiment. If humans are to travel to Mars one day, they will have to be protected from radiation on the way to Mars, in orbit, and on the surface. MARIE will measure radiation coming from the sun and from galactic cosmic rays on the way to Mars and in orbit around the planet.
Additional speakers included Lynn Lowry from JPL, the chief engineer of the spacecraft, and Dr. Jim Garvin, lead Mars scientist from NASA headquarters.
Dessert came on Saturday in the form of a tour of the Kennedy Space Center on Cape Canaveral and VIP viewing of the launch of the spacecraft. The weather was perfect, all the last-minute problems had been worked out, and the 2001 Mars Odyssey lifted off into a cloudless sky at 11:02 a.m. on a Delta II rocket. It is due to arrive at Mars on Oct. 24.
There will be more about the Mars Odyssey mission in this column in the months to come, including opportunities for student involvement and information for teachers. After all, a recipe this good just has to be shared.