Slashdot Mirror
NASA To Resume "Teacher in Space" Program
Bishop923 writes "According to this CNN story it appears that NASA is resuming the Teacher in Space program with the first teacher to go up in 2004. The Teacher in Space program was suspended after Christa McAuliffe, a high school teacher, and the rest of the crew perished in the Challenger Explosion." This is also the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight in 1961; we did a good write-up last year.
I remeber how excited I was to think about normal people going into space. I would love for my kid to see a teacher from her school go up one day. There is nothing like putting an average joe in to space.
Except when your trying to put them into space and you explode the living-be-jesus out of them.
Also, I would like congratulate NASA on not giving up. If you fall off the horse the thing to do is shoot the horse and buy another one twenty years later. Good job, guys!
While seeming to be getting the taxpayers... err, sorry, public into space, NASA has its doors shut as tight as ever.
I want to see space travel for the masses before I die and would love to see NASA taking real members of the public up as crew on missions, but in this case it seems they are trying to pull the wool over our eyes.
NASA wanted to send up teachers because they could give lessons to children from space. Christa McAuliffe was supposed to give several lessons to her class, and other classes around the country. The idea was to make the life of astronauts (their experiments, how they live and sleep, what they do and work on, etc.) accessible to children through mini-lessons.
Sure, it was (and still is) a symbolic gesture/publicity stunt, but it's a helluva lot more useful and interesting than sending up the first plumber in space. Odds are, he couldn't even help the crew with their toilets.
"I like to wear big boy pants."
I could become a teacher in a year....
-Adam
Because they can't get ...aww, it was crass then, and it's crass now...
7up.
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
I realize that it's a very symbolic and generous thing for NASA to do the whole teachers-in-space program. But what do we really get out of sending someone's 7th grade Earth Science teacher into orbit? Is it worth tens of millions of dollars for the ride, plus a several millions more in training expenses, to have this teacher bring up his/her class's bean sprout experiments, give two TV interviews, go on the high school lecture circuit, and mabye publish a book or two? ("Teachers Among The Stars: Education in the Space Age")
Probably not. NASA is looking for publicity, and frankly, that's what I would hope they get out of this program, too. I mean, it is public interest in the space program that is going to determine whether we send men to Mars ten years from now, or fifty.
I want a space-teacher who will be able to spark the interest of a whole generation of children, and teachers, and parents. Someone who actually has the talent to make people interested and excited about space, science, and exploration. Someone who will be able to reach an audience. Someone cool. Someone we trust.
I want Bill Nye to go up to the space station, and I want him to do cool experiments and film half a dozen special episodes of Bill Nye, The Science Guy up there. He's worth twenty 8th grade Earth Science teachers.
The angel in the oatmeal.
My wrestling coach, who is also a physics teacher, recently went to a national teacher science convention, and he told us (us being the wrestlers), about this. He applied for it, did the preliminary testing and such offered at the convention, etc. The NASA guys told him that all but 10% of the teachers there were ruled out in the beginning, due to not being physically fit, and things like that (The Challenger teacher was a marathon runner in addition to her job). He survived to the 10%. It will be interesting to see how far he gets in the process.
1986, what a hoot I was in 7th grade then.
The entire school was gathered in the auditorium to watch the launch. Normal Jr High stuff, people throwing things, teachers yelling at the kids, complete pandemonium.
Even after the launch, people still kept talking.
Then we saw the shuttle blow up. Silence. Nobody said a word. Everyone just looked around at each other in disbelief. The teachers had just lost one of their own, and we could see the pain in their eyes. Nobody said a word, the principal turned off the TV and ordered everyone back to class. We promptly went back to our homerooms. I can't speak for the other classes, but my usually rowdy class was well behaved on that day. We knew our teacher was hurting.
Not to dig up other bad stuff, but the only other time in my life I felt that much disbelief was on 9/11. These kinds of tragedies stick with you for the rest of your life and become a part of who you are.
I'm going to stop now, Iâ(TM)m getting too deep even for myself.
What was the last thing to go through the challengers crews minds?
The control panel.
I was one of the Search and Rescue crewman who was assigned from my Squadron (USN - HSL40) to patrol the Launch and then find the Challanger and it's Peices/Parts. I was fliing some 80 miles north of the cape when it happened... I was there. On 9/11/2001 I was in Upstate NY and watched this new tragidy occure far away from my family in Kansas and knew that we were at war again. I think this B*** S*** with the Americian Taliban is absurd. They should be in Cuba with their brotherern and if found guilty... Stand full trial as treasonous to their home country, weither it be USA, Canada, England...
GOD BLESS AMERICA and all her soles abroad, where ever they may be.
Tasslehoff Burrfoot This looks interesting... I wonder what it [BOOM]..[BOOM]
This gives new meaning to the term Geeks in Space!