WV Lego Robotic Competition
Science, technology, engineer-
ing, and math (STEM) careers
were highlighted for two hun-
dred fifty high school sopho-
more students at I-79’s Re-
search Center on Nov. 4.
These students listened to
inspirational speakers such as
NASA IV&V ‘s chief engineer,
Marcus Fisher, a native West
Virginian, who changed his
career goal from Forestry Ser-
vice to NASA after spending a
college internship with NASA.
Another native West Virginian,
astronaut Jon McBride, gave
the students an inspira-
tional talk as he related
his rise from WVU student
to Space Shuttle pilot to
candidate for Governor of
WV.
In the Research Center’s
Exhibition Hall students
visited displays by local
companies representing
STEM career opportuni-
ties. Talking with repre-
sentatives of these companies
about internships, the variety
of jobs available with their
company, and the edu-
cational preparation
needed for these jobs
opened many students’
minds to new possibili-
ties for the future.
Jess White, NASA IV&V
Student Outreach Pro-
gram Manager, coordi-
nated this popular
event.
Featured Event: Careers in the Corridor
Volume 1, Issue 1
Up To Date
NASA IV&V Facility
Educator Resource Center
Newsletter
January 2010
presentations showing obsta-
cles and possible solutions.
Team building skills were also
emphasized.
Several local teams received
awards.
The ERC is equipped with
Robot kits, each with six lap-
tops and Lego Robotic Kits
that WV teachers can use in
their classrooms to teach sci-
ence, technology, engineer-
ing, and math concepts.
These kits are an excellent
starting point for teachers
wanting to participate in such
competitions.
NASA IV&V Facility ERC
January
18, 23, 26, 30 ERC Work-
shops...See page 2 for
details
Video conference on
Robotics... sign up at
http://dln.nasa.gov/
dln/content/
webcast/
February
2, 20, 22, 27 ERC Work-
shops...See our website
or Feb. newsletter for
details
24 Video conference on
NASA Fit Explorers... sign
up at http://nasa.gov/
dln/content/webcast
NASA Scientists An-
swer Questions About
the Year 2012
Inside:
Upcoming Workshops
NASA Factoid: Fisher-
men like NASA
WV STEM Career:
Robotics Scientist
NASA Podcasts:
Ask an Astronomer
NASA Update: Kepler
2
2
3
3
3
4
Important Dates:
Donna Ozburn discusses NASA IV&V
student internships available for 2010.
Capt. McBride inspires WV sophomores.
Capt. McBride, Jess White, and students
The ERC’s Program Manager,
Todd Ensign, served as a
judge for the Dec.19 Fifth An-
nual Lego Robotic Competition
at Wheeling Jesuit University’s
Center for Educational Tech-
nology. Teams from around
West Virginia designed com-
puter programs that allowed
their robots to serve as sensor
equipped vehicles that per-
formed various transportation
tasks. Students also re-
searched travel of people, ani-
mals and information in their
own communities and created
A team demonstrating their robot design.
NASA Scientists answer several questions
that are frequently asked regarding
2012.
Question (Q): Are there any
threats to the Earth in 2012?
Many Internet websites say the
world will end in December 2012.
Answer (A): Nothing bad will happen
to the Earth in 2012. Our planet has
been getting along just fine for more
than 4 billion years, and credible scien-
tists worldwide know of no threat as-
sociated with 2012.
Q: What is the origin of the pre-
diction that the world will end in
2012?
A: The story started with claims that
Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered
by the Sumerians, is headed toward
Earth. This catastrophe was initially
predicted for May 2003, but when
nothing happened the doomsday date
was moved forward to December
2012. Then these two fables were
linked to the end of one of the cycles
in the ancient Mayan calendar at the
winter solstice in 2012 -- hence the
predicted doomsday date of December
21, 2012.
Q: Does the Mayan calendar end
in December 2012?
A: Just as the calendar you have on
your kitchen wall does not cease to
exist after December 31, the Mayan
calendar does not cease to exist on
December 21, 2012. This date is the
end of the Mayan long-count period
but then -- just as your calendar be-
gins again on January 1 -- another
long-count period begins for the Ma-
yan calendar.
Q: Could a phenomena occur
where planets align in a way that
impacts Earth?
A: There are no planetary alignments
in the next few decades, Earth will
not cross the galactic plane in 2012,
and even if these alignments were to
occur, their effects on the Earth
would be negligible. Each December
the Earth and sun align with the ap-
proximate center of the Milky Way
Galaxy but that is an annual event of
no consequence.
Q: Is there a planet or brown
dwarf called Nibiru or Planet X or
Eris that is approaching the Earth
and threatening our planet with
widespread destruction?
A: Nibiru and other stories about
wayward planets are an Internet
hoax. There is no factual basis for
these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X
were real and headed for an encoun-
ter with the Earth in 2012, astrono-
mers would have been tracking it for
at least the past decade, and it would
Up To Date
Page 2
January
18 Mon. 10 am-5 pm
GLOBE, Probes,
GPS, & GIS
Learn to use our probes to
collect data such as temperature, dissolved
oxygen, conductivity, pH, barometric pressure,
relative, humidity, GPS, and learn how to
transfer the data to a Geographical Informa-
tion System (GIS) designed specifically for use
in K-12 settings.
23 Sat. 10 am-4 pm Robots and Ratios
Learn to program Lego robots, use propor-
tional mathematics, video-based science and
engineering curriculum and Lego challenges to
teach math, science, and 21st century skills.
26 Tues. 5-7 pm Aeronautics
Join the
Mid-Atlantic Aerospace Complex (MAAC)
Aerospace Education Program (AEP) to dis-
cover ways to introduce your students to the
excitement of aeronautics and career oppor-
tunities. Learn more about training from the
MAAC AEP NASA grant.
30 Sat. 12-1:30 pm Exploring Micro-
gravity
(Webinar)
What could be more
fun than floating around in microgravity?
Come understand the science and mathemat-
ics of microgravity, discover related class-
room activities and materials, and learn about
student experiments that flown on NASA’s
reduced gravity aircraft.
Upcoming Workshops: NASA IV&V Facility ERC
NASA Scientists Answer Questions Concerning
the Year 2012
be visible by now to the naked eye. Obvi-
ously, it does not exist. Eris is real, but it
is a dwarf planet similar to Pluto that will
remain in the outer solar system; the
closest it can come to Earth is about 4
billion miles.
Q: What is the polar shift theory? Is
it true that the earth’s crust does a
180-degree rotation around the core
in a matter of days if not hours?
A: A reversal in the rotation of Earth is
impossible. There are slow movements of
the continents (for example Antarctica
was near the equator hundreds of mil-
lions of years ago), but that is irrelevant
to claims of reversal of the rotational
poles. However, many of the disaster
websites pull a bait-and-shift to fool peo-
ple. They claim a relationship between
the rotation and the magnetic polarity of
Earth, which does change irregularly, with
a magnetic reversal taking place every
400,000 years on average. As far as we
know, such a magnetic reversal doesn’t
cause any harm to life on Earth. A mag-
netic reversal is very unlikely to happen in
the next few millennia, anyway.
Q: Is the Earth in danger of being hit
by a meteor in 2012?
A: The Earth has always been subject to
Impacts by comets and asteroids,
although big hits are very rare. The last
big impact was 65 million years ago, and
that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Today NASA astronomers are carrying out
a survey called the Spaceguard Survey to
find any large near-Earth asteroids long
before they hit. We have already deter-
mined that there are no threatening as-
teroids as large as the one that killed the
dinosaurs. All this work is done openly
with the discoveries posted every day on
the NASA
NEO Program Office website
, so
you can see for yourself that nothing is
predicted to hit in 2012.
Q: How do NASA scientists feel about
claims of pending doomsday?
A: For any claims of disaster or dramatic
changes in 2012, where is the science?
Where is the evidence? There is none, and
for all the fictional assertions, whether
they are made in books, movies, docu
mentaries or over the Internet, we cannot
change that simple fact. There is no credi-
ble evidence for any of the assertions
made in support of unusual events taking
place in December 2012.
Volume 1, Issue 1
Page 3
These excellent podcasts and vodcasts
are ready to use in the classroom. Check
them out at:
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/
cosmic_classroom/ask_astronomer/
video
Why Is the Sky Blue?
Dr. Carolyn Brinkworth fills us in on what
the color of the sky has to do with finding
life on distant planets.
Why Aren't There Any Green Stars?
Dr. Michelle Thaller explains why some
stars appear red or blue, but not green.
Why Isn't Pluto a Planet Any More?
Dr. Robert Hurt explains why Pluto got...
well... plutoed.
Why Are Solar Eclipses Only Visible in
Some Parts of the World?
Dr. Susan Stolovy answers the question of
why only certain regions can see a solar
eclipse.
What do you like about your job?
Working on the robotic lander is fascinating
and rewarding because we have been able
to develop a practical, low-cost, yet highly
functional lander design and conduct tests
on it within a really short amount of time.
We have a small team, but we are very
efficient -- sort of like our lander. We like to
say that we are the next generation of engi-
neers building the next generation of robotic
landers. There is so much excitement about
going back to the moon. One photo of our
lander testing even made it to the White
House! Being able to work on such a cool
project has definitely been the highlight of
my career so far.
What advice would you give to stu-
dents interested in a career in robot-
ics?
Get involved in any competitions and
projects offered through your school,
NASA, local science museums or civic
programs. It is incredibly important to get
experience designing and building some-
thing -- no matter how small. Going
through that design and build process,
working with a team, and learning prob-
lem-solving skills will help you as much as
anything to prepare you for a career in
robotics. Also, you need to focus on sci-
ence
and math skills.
Job Description:
The Robotic Lunar Lander Development
Project is working in collaboration with the
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
to create a new generation of robotic lunar
landers. The project will design a lander
that will help NASA achieve its science and
exploration goals on the moon's surface.
The lander will be about the size of a coffee
table, but it will be able to conduct big sci-
ence in a very small package. The lander
will be capable of landing on the near side
or the far side of the moon, inside or on the
edge of craters, and it will be able to with-
stand the long, dark lunar night. Current
designs are capable of operating for a mini-
mum of six years.
Featured STEM Career: Julie Bassler -- Robotic Scientist
Featured NASA Podcasts: From the “Ask an Astronomer” series
Do the Stars Really Move?
Dr. Steve Lord explains that the stars do
move, but not in the way they appear to.
How Can We See a Black Hole?
If no light can escape from a black hole,
how do we see them? Dr. Tom Jarrett
answers.
What Causes an Eclipse of the Moon?
Doris Daou explains what causes
eclipses.
Education: Bachelor of Science in aerospace engineering from Parks Col-
lege of St. Louis University; Master of Science in physical science with em-
phasis on space science from the University of Houston
NASA Center: Marshall Space Flight Center
Hometown: Breese, Ill.
Hobby: Gardening and playing sports with my children
NASA Factoid: Fishermen like NASA
Did you know that data from satellite instruments are used by fishermen to find areas where fish are most likely to be
found? Fish find food in zones where cold and warm water mix. To see global patterns, visit:
http://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov
NASA Update: Kepler Space Telescope Mission
The NASA Independent Verification and Validation
Facility Educator Resource Center’s goal is to serve
teachers, informal educators, and preservice
teaches to enable them to reach their goals.
Through a grant with Fairmont State University,
the NASA IV&V Facility ERC provides materials,
equipment for loan, and professional development
workshops both at the facility and around the
state of West Virginia (scheduled upon request)
for educators that reflect NASA’s current research
and technology.
Submit story ideas and
pictures to
pamela.casto@ivv.nasa.gov
Phone: 304-367-8436
Fax: 304-367-8213
E-mail: erc@ivv.nasa.gov
100 University Drive
Fairmont, WV 26554
NASA IV&V
Facility ERC
We’re on the web!
http://erc.ivv.nasa.gov
Independent Verification
& Validation Facility
Kepler's high sensitivity to both small and large planets enabled the discovery of the exoplanets, named Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b and 8b.
The discoveries were announced Monday, Jan. 4, by the members of the Kepler science team during a news briefing at the American
Astronomical Society meeting in Washington.
"These observations contribute to our understanding of how planetary systems form and evolve from the gas and dust disks that give
rise to both the stars and their planets," said William Borucki of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. Borucki is the
mission's science principal investigator. "The discoveries also show that our science instrument is working well. Indications are that
Kepler will meet all its science goals."
Known as "hot Jupiters" because of their high masses and extreme temperatures, the new exoplanets range in size from similar to
Neptune to larger than Jupiter. They have orbits ranging from 3.3 to 4.9 days. Estimated temperatures of the planets range from 2,200
to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than molten lava and much too hot for life as we know it. All five of the exoplanets orbit stars hot-
ter and larger than Earth's sun.
"It's gratifying to see the first Kepler discoveries rolling off the assembly line," said Jon Morse, director of the Astrophysics Division at
NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We expected Jupiter-size planets in short orbits to be the first planets Kepler could detect. It's
only a matter of time before more Kepler observations lead to smaller planets with longer period orbits, coming closer and closer to
the discovery of the first Earth analog."
Launched on March 6, 2009, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the Kepler mission continuously and simultaneously
observes more than 150,000 stars. Kepler's science instrument, or photometer, already has measured hundreds of possible planet
signatures that are being analyzed.
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