This series of curricular units focus on themes that NASA engineers and scientists -- as well as future generations of explorers -- must consider when planning future human explorations into space. This includes such themes as Energy and Power, Transportation and Lunar Plant Growth Chambers (the STS-118 Design Challenges).
"Foster independent thinking and 21st century literacy skills with KQED Media Literacy resources. The ability to think critically about the powerful images, words, sounds, and messages that saturate contemporary culture increases students' chance of success in and outside of the classroom. "
"For Civil Engineers, the alchemy of earth, rock, steel and concrete formed by man to hold back and harness that most powerful force of nature, water; is an awesome sight to behold, worthy of photographing, inspiring the young and old to imagine the weight of the wall of water behind the stark grey walls, wondering at the cold, murky depths below the calm surface.
On a quiet day, the dam can seem tame. The moving parts are hidden away, only a faint hum or vibration may be evidence of the great transformation from potential to kinetic to electric energy taking place below your feet. Looking downstream, the flow of the river continues, thousands of cubic meters of water"
"Agricultural engineering is the discipline of engineering in agricultural, food, and biological systems. Agricultural engineers design agricultural machinery and equipment and agricultural structures. Some specialties include power system and machinery design; structures and environment; and food and bioprocess engineering. They develop ways to conserve soil and water and to improve the processing of agricultural products. Agricultural engineers work in research and development, production, sales, or management. "
"Students are required to design a vehicle that addresses a series of engineering problems that are similar to problems faced by the original Moonbuggy team. Each Moonbuggy will be human powered and carry two students, one female and one male, over a half-mile simulated lunar terrain course including "craters", rocks, "lava" ridges, inclines and "lunar" soil."
"Have you ever tried to guess how many pieces of candy there are in a jar? Or tackled a mindbender like: "How many piano tuners are there in Chicago?" Physicist Enrico Fermi was very good at problems like these -- learn how he used the power of 10 to make amazingly fast estimations of big numbers."
"Thomas Alva Edison changed our world! His genius gave us electric lights in our home and an entire system that produced and delivered electrical power. "
"The Wright Flyer (often retrospectively referred to as Flyer I or 1903 Flyer) was the first powered aircraft, designed and built by the Wright brothers. They flew it four times on December 17, 1903 near the Kill Devil Hills, about four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, U.S."
"The Wright Flyer (often retrospectively referred to as Flyer I or 1903 Flyer) was the first powered aircraft, designed and built by the Wright brothers. They flew it four times on December 17, 1903 near the Kill Devil Hills, about four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, U.S."
"En route to the Moon, approximately 200,000 miles (320,000 km) from Earth, Mission Control asked Swigert to turn on the hydrogen and oxygen tank stirring fans, which were designed to destratify the cryogenic contents and increase the accuracy of their quantity readings. Approximately 93 seconds later, just under 56 hours since launch, the astronauts heard a "loud bang", accompanied by fluctuations in electrical power and firing of the attitude control thrusters.[6] The crew initially thought that a meteoroid might have struck the Lunar Module (LM)."
"We're often asked why we wish to use small aircraft for these runs. The ground team, traveling by road, will spend around 3 hours getting to first drop site. By comparison total flight time for this initial run to all 20 communities will take just over one hour in our Rotax powered CH701. Attempting this trip would require more than a week difficult travel by road, and would still not reach all 20 communities.
These first drops are more about first contact and relationship building. Future drops will contain more community specific health education materials and training invitations."
"On May 5, 1961, only 23 days after Yuri A. Gagarin of the Soviet Union became the first man in space, Shepard was launched at 9:34am EST aboard the spacecraft he named Freedom 7 (MR-7) powered by a Redstone booster (MR-3).19 He was launched suborbitally to an altitude of over 116 miles, 303 statute miles down range from Cape Canaveral. His 15 minute 28 second flight achieved a velocity of 5,134 miles per hour and pulled a maximum of 11G's.20 Freedom 7 splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean where the aircraft carrier Lake Champlain awaited his arrival."
"The video of the very first moon landing of the apollo 11 mission in 1969! Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon with his now legenday words "One small step for man, a giant leap for mankind." This is a truly amazing video and it was in 1969!!! If you think about it, you have orders of magnitude more processing power in your mobile phone than they did in the whole space craft!! Incredible!"
Supernova Remnant SNR 0509 Lithograph -- Grades 11-12
The Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of what appears to be a delicate bubble of gas floating in space. The bubble is the visible remnant of a powerful stellar explosion that took place in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy about 160,000 light-years from Earth. The image of the supernova remnant is on the first page of the lithograph, and background information is on the second page. The lithograph includes a Level One Inquiry activity entitled "In Search of ... Supernova Remnants" in which students research supernovae and dispel misconceptions of the life cycle of stars.
"developing wireless power delivery systems using laser beams to transmit electricity without wires, for applications where wires are either cost prohibitive or physically impractical."
"Building sophisticated educational tools out of cheap parts, Johnny Lee demos his cool Wii Remote hacks, which turn the $40 video game controller into a digital whiteboard, a touchscreen and a head-mounted 3-D viewer.
Researcher Johnny Lee became a YouTube star with his demo of Wii Remote hacks -- bending the low-cost game piece to power an interactive whiteboard, a multitouch surface, a head-mounted display"
"While not as large as the deHavilland Beaver, the Murphy Moose is often compared to the Beaver and for many, the Moose is a viable alternative to the expensive Beaver. It is powered by a nine cylinder Russian M-14P radial engine that is supercharged and produces 360 hp. Models are available with a Lycoming in-line six cylinder engine that produces 260 hp. The Murphy Moose seats six people. "