Контрольная работа по "Английскому языку"

Sonja Alexander

Headquarters, Washington           Nov. 26, 2001

(Phone: 202/358-1761) 

Keith Koehler

Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va.

(Phone: 757/824-1579) 

RELEASE: 01-234 

STUDENTS WORLDWIDE ANTICIPATE NEXT SHUTTLE MISSION 

     Students in schools worldwide from first grade to

undergraduates are anticipating with excitement the next

space shuttle mission, scheduled for launch Thursday, as

their experiments venture into space. 

The Space Shuttle Small Payloads Project (SSPP), based at the

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and Wallops

Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va., is providing flight

opportunities for nearly 40 experiments designed to engage

students in space and scientific exploration. 

"Providing students the experience of being scientific

investigators using the microgravity environment provided by

the space shuttle reinforces their understanding of science,

mathematics and technology," said Frank Owens, Director,

Education Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington. "And it is

this learning experience that can spark an interest and lead

them toward a career in science or engineering." 

The most noticeable of the educational experiments on STS-108

is the Student Tracked Atmospheric Research Satellite for

Heuristic International Networking Experiment (STARSHINE-2). 

STARSHINE is an education program for students around the

world to help construct a satellite and learn about satellite

orbits and natural events that affect these orbits. 

To be deployed after the shuttle undocks from the

International Space Station, the beach ball-size satellite is

covered with nearly 900 aluminum mirrors that have been

polished by nearly 25,000 students around the world. The

satellite should be visible from Earth with the naked eye.  

Through the six-month lifetime of the satellite, students

will be able to track its position, visually observe it at

twilight hours, calculate orbits, measure changes in the

orbit and observe the effect of solar activity on the orbit. 

Rocky Mountain NASA Space Grant Consortium, Salt Lake City,

is sponsoring the project, the third in the STARSHINE series.

The first was deployed during a 1999 shuttle mission and the

second was launched from Alaska in September 2001. 

Three organizations -- Utah State University, Logan;

Pennsylvania State University, State College; and the

Argentine Association of Space Technology, Argentina -- are

flying Get-Away-Special canisters that include experiments

that engage area students in space research. These

experiments include the development of a low-cost and

reusable plant-growth chamber; examination of the effects of

the space environment on crystal growth, popcorn and seeds;

and a water purification process. 

NASA also will fly three Space Experiment Module (SEM)

payloads carrying 30 experiments designed by students from

throughout the United States, Argentina, Morocco and

Portugal, and Australia. In addition, STS-108 will mark the

fifth anniversary of the flight of the first SEM on STS-80 in

November 1996. 

Three of these experiments were developed by high school

students in Maryland, Illinois and Washington and were

selected for flight through the NASA Student Involvement

Program. These experiments will study the affect of

microgravity on brine shrimp and their use as a food source

for fish during long-duration space missions; examine three-

dimensional resonance modes in microgravity and the

relationship to structures made for the microgravity

environment; and research how electrical currents flow in the

space environment. 

Another experiment will bridge generations as students from

New Oxford Elementary School have teamed with residents at

the Brethren Home Retirement Community, both in Hanover, Pa.

The groups will examine how the space environment affects the

growth of soy seeds. 

In addition to the educational experiments, a number of other

experiments will be flown that include examining smoldering

combustion in microgravity, testing prototype instrument

coolers for space flight and investigating planetary dust

rings. 

A complete list and descriptions of SSPP experiments on STS-

108 can be found at:

                    http://www.wff.nasa.gov 

                            -end- 
 
 
 

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