NASA Thaws Out 'Teacher in Space' Program

Guppy06 writes "The Houston Chronicle reports that, seventeen years after the Challenger disaster, NASA is pushing forward its Teacher in Space program again. Christa McAuliffe's original back-up, Barbara Morgan from Idaho, is scheduled to go up this November. NASA intends to recruit more teachers in the future. Between this and rumored Mars missions, it seems new NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe is keeping himself busy."

Comments

heh

[GigsVT]

NASA Thaws Out Teacher in Space.... ....program.

Caught me offguard for a second. :) Images of frozen teachers in stasis, part of a super secret Mars mission, etc etc.

Politicians instead of teachers!

[jcasey]

Nasa has a tendency to have dramatic accidents occasionally... And we have a shortage on good school teachers ( in NY at least ). We should send some politicians up instead... Allow them to paste their ad's on the sides of the ship etc.. If the ship blows up, we lose one more politician...

Hooray!

[orthogonal]

And this enhances education, or NASA's research program, or exploration of space, exactly how?

Oh. It's just a big warm fuzzy, tending to promote fuzzy thinking about space exploration and NASA ("Space is cool! My teacher went there! I wonder if she met Chewbacca?") without providing any real scientific or engineering advance or even teaching kids that to get to space we need to understand math and physics.

Huzzah! Hooray! Let's put a teacher in space everyday!

<fine print = 'sotto voiced'>
Offer limited to humanities teachers and "esteem coaches"; we can't spare the few competent math and science teachers we still have.
< /fine print>

We were supposed to be having vacations on the moon by 2003. Instead we get this. Feh.

Re:Hooray!

[Pyromage]

It can be inferred from your post that you support space exploration.

I submit that this promotes space exploration by making it sound better for the ordinary people. It becomes more accessible because the teacher is just a regular person, not a specially trained astronaut.

With normal people (hey, millionaires and teachers!) going into space, we begin to see that outer space is out there and people can go there. With the interest that this could help drum up (which would be an improvement over current views, no matter how small of one), it could help restore confidence in NASA.

Also, for those that say the U.S. should focus on local issues first, I'd like to say this: firstly, they are already working on them. Maybe this money could help it a bit, but we ARE working on fixing local problems. Second, I think that it's important to achieve things. Not just to be the first to put a man on the moon, just to beat the Russians, but to advance science. If we don't do it, someone else will, and the intelligent people who want to do it will leave. America is losing a lot of great minds because the government is not encouraging, or even discouraging, their research.

If we get enough support for NASA to try for Mars, we'll make it. If we go for Mars, we will succeed: every other time we've said "we *WILL* do this", we do. Imagine what it'll mean if we do get to Mars! The technology that would spur, there would be massive repurcussions, and the results would be amazing.

Re:Hooray!

[SweetAndSourJesus]

"Huzzah! Hooray! Let's put a teacher in space everyday!"

Hey, if it gets NASA the PR karma they need, I'm all for it. People tend to lose interest when astronauts are just studying the effects of lemon pledge on slime mold in zero gravity, you know.

"We were supposed to be having vacations on the moon by 2003. Instead we get this. Feh."

Well, there was that whole "seven people blowing up and completely horrifying a generation" thing. The "cold war being over" thing didn't help, either.

Re:Hooray!

[MacAndrew]

I support space exploration, but not manned space exploration. The cost effectiveness of unmanned spacecraft has been well demonstrated, and these programs were badly hurt by the Shuttle, I can tell you from hearing from the people who worked on them. (I grew up near JPL.)

The teacher-in-space program may inadvertently illustrate what an extravagance manned space exploration is and backfire. Remember all the criticism when they sent John Glenn up? At least he was a former astronaut, and they performed lots of medical experiments on the "first gerry in space." I'm not sure what a schoolteacher brings to the program except an opportunity for propaganda, and I suspect at least some people will see through that and say we aleady have enough things that need money on terra firma -- ironically, spending on education is among the msot prominent. Also, it's not that the money is that much relative to what ground-based problems need, but if it is a waste it is a waste, and if it diverts attention from more important (if boring) issues, it is a tragedy. Perhaps it can be defended as simple entertainment, but I don't feel the gov't is in the business of entertaining us, and not at such risk and cost.

If I were NASA, I would stress the economic and scientific payoff of the program. In some cases cases having a human in orbit is valuable, but we could scale back to meet those needs. The Shuttle has failed to meet its promise as a cost-effective way to move things to and from orbit, and it was the vain effort to prove otherwise that was a major factor in the fateful "go" decision in the Challenger launch. (The military quietly abandoned the Shuttle after that.) For pursuing our dreams -- well, it may be a lot cheaper, produce better science, and save lives to rethink those dreams.

This is not a "troll," just a plea for getting the most bang for the buck. I would like to see swarms of probes throught the solar system, something humans will not do for many, many years. The "gee whiz" factor of men and women in space is of little lasting value, and Mars can wait.

Software Engineer in Space?

[theCoder]

Teacher in Space is all well and good, but where's the "Software Engineer in Space" program? That's the one I want to sign up for!

Good as a first step, but

[Mister Proper]

When will be able to vote on exiling our teachers into space?

What's the benefit again?

[GuyMannDude]

I for one would LOVE to have my kid taught about space by someone who's actually BEEN there, you know what I mean?

No, I'm afraid I don't. What perceived benefit do you think this would have for your child? In what way will this teacher be more qualified to teach basic astronomy because of their experience floating around in a cramped shapeship for a few days?

I admit that I didn't read the article but I don't really see what the rationale for restarting this program is except, of course, for the obvious publicity. People could argue that this, alone, makes it worthwhile (remember the media coverage John Glenn's 2nd space trip got?) for NASA to pursue but I always get a bit nervous when people start trivialising inheriently dangerous things. I am by no means blaming the Challenger disaster on the Teacher in Space program but I think there is an interesting parallel between the shoddy preparations done for that trip and the idea that space travel was so safe that civilians should be allowed. Space exploration is not a joyride. If some multimillionare wants to pony up the bucks and realizes they are taking their life in their hands, then so be it. But there's a big difference between that kind of thing and a NASA-sanctioned program encouraging teachers to risk space travel. I'd prefer if NASA was to spend their money and effort on more serious ambitions than this Teacher in Space program. This smacks of something designed purely for publicity and to keep up appearances of "applications for Everymen and Everywomen everywhere!"

GMD

Re:What's the benefit again?

[jimmyCarter]

I think you're missing the point. Sure the teacher that goes up into space for a couple of days and stays cramped up in a shuttle or whatever won't be any more qualified to teach astronomy or physics or anything else relating to space.

BUT, could you imagine the stories this teacher would have from that experience? These stories would subsequently be relayed on to the students with passion that maybe might spark a student's interest in the field -- a student that probably wouldn't have been interested otherwise.

/. is a great place, but sometimes the cynicism is a little too much.

Re:What's the benefit again?

[DarkKnightRadick]

In high school, the only English teacher I could relate too was Ms. Melba Clarke. Why could I relate to her? She taught literature, could speak a bit of Gaelic and Old English, and when we were learning about William Shakespeare and the language he used in his plays, she could relate stories to us from when she was in England.

Same with my college Trigonometery(sp) professor, Mr. Hammesfar(sp (been several years since I've had to remember how to spell his name)). He was a former Navy seaman aboard a ship involved in some of the Bikini Atoll experiments. Because he could relate his experience using trig in real life (as it related to Electronics Engineering, my former (and uncompleted) major), for the first time ever I passed a math class with a 3.4 GPA (and he was NOT an easy teacher by any means).

While the experience itself might not make one more qualified in the traditional sense, it gives the educator a real life frame of refrence to help students become more interested in learning.

Re:"NASA thaws out Teacher in Space"

[isorox]

That's strange, I thought space was really cold. Maybe they have some kind of generator up there?

Actually they put a webserver up there, then posted a link on slashdot, that'll thaw out anything!