LSU Travels to "Mars on Earth" to Promote Space Education
September 12, 2007
Co-chairs of LSU’s upcoming International Symposium on Risk and Exploration serve key roles in project
Photo available for download at www.lsu.edu/pa/photos.
Astronaut and LSU faculty member Leroy Chiao recently traveled to an area right outside of the North Pole in order to show students what life on Mars might be like.
Chiao, the Smiley and Bernice Romero Raborn Distinguished Chair and Max Faget Professor in Mechanical Engineering at LSU, recently participated in the “Earth as Classroom” project on Devon Island in Nunavut, Canada.
The educational expedition allowed hundreds of students direct contact with astronauts and researchers as they studied a place commonly referred to as “Mars on Earth.”
Sponsored by the Mars Institute and the Challenger Center for Space Education, with additional support from the Explorers Club and SpaceRef Interactive Inc., the Devon Island project involved five days of Webcasts and other instructional activities meant to illustrate how NASA and other space agencies are learning to live on the moon and Mars by studying locations on Earth. The group utilized the Haughton-Mars Project Research Station and other nearby locations to conduct the Webcasts.
Devon Island, less than 1,000 miles from the North Pole, is the largest uninhabited island on Earth. While it does support some wildlife – small birds, musk oxen and sparse plant life – in many places, there is no visible life at all.
“In these locations, the surface looks very much like what our robots have seen on Mars,” said Keith Cowing, space biologist and team leader for the “Earth as Classroom” project. “This is one of the reasons why many scientists and engineers find Devon Island a useful place to do research that will help us explore Mars and the moon one day.”
While at Devon Island, the group also constructed a memorial inukshuk, which are stone markers used as landmarks or milestones by the Canadian Inuits who live in the area, for the crew of the space shuttle Challenger.
“It is appropriate that these memorials be built here on Devon Island,” said Chiao. “What a great way to remember these crews, who gave their lives in the pursuit of space exploration.”
Cowing and Chiao are co-chairs for the upcoming International Symposium on Risk and Exploration, which will be held Oct. 28-30 on the LSU campus. This three-day event is modeled after a previous symposium, “Risk and Exploration: Earth, Sea and the Stars,” held in Monterey, Calif., in September 2004. In honor of the symposium, Baton Rouge Mayor-President Melvin “Kip” Holden has declared Oct. 28-30 as “Earth as a Classroom Days” in the capital city.
Risk and Exploration is sponsored by Northrop Grumman Corporation with additional funding from Aerojet. The conference is also supported by four organizations devoted to exploration: The Explorers Club, the Association of Space Explorers, the Space Generation Advisory Council and the Challenger Center for Science Education.
For more information about the conference, please visit www.riskexplore2007.com. To learn more about the “Earth as a Classroom” Devon Island project, visit http://www.spaceref.com/blogs/earthclassroom/.
About the Haughton-Mars Project: The Haughton-Mars Project, or HMP, is an international, interdisciplinary field research project centered on the scientific study of the Haughton impcat structure and surrounding terrain on Devon Island, located in the Canadian high arctic, as a terrestrial analog for the planet Mars. The HMP is managed and operated by the Mars Institute with support from the SETI, or Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Institute. For more information, visit www.marsonearth.org.
About the Explorers Club: The Explorers Club is an international multi-disciplinary professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore. Since its inception in 1904, the Club has served as a meeting point and unifying force for explorers and scientists worldwide. For more information visit http://www.explorers.org.
About the Challenger Center for Space Science Education: The Challenger Center for Space Science Education was founded by the families of the astronauts lost during the last flight of the Challenger Space Shuttle in 1986. Through Challenger Center’s programs the diversity, spirit and commitment to education that exemplified the Challenger 51-L mission continues to make an impact on students, teachers and families today. For more information visit http://www.challenger.org .
Article by Ashley Berthelot, LSU Media Relations, 225-578-3870
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