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Space Science

NASA To Resume "Teacher in Space" Program 44

Posted by michael from the learning-experience dept.
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.
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NASA To Resume "Teacher in Space" Program More

NASA To Resume "Teacher in Space" Program

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  • 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.
    • Need another seven astr....

      Someone's gonna wonder about that, so..... what's NASA stand for?
    • What was the last thing to go through the challengers crews minds?

      The control panel.

    • (* There is nothing like putting an average joe in to space. *)

      And there are a couple of average joes I would like to *keep* up there, and they can take that @#%!# woofer system with them.

    • I'm hoping my daughter has a chance to go....11 years old
      and she already wants to go...must have been the Heinlein
      novels I sent her ;-)

      It's again time to
  • I have nothing but the utmost respect for both teachers in general and for NASA. This program will continue to expand our intellectual frontiers beyond where we've ever gone before. The Teacher in Space program in particular will vastly increase our scientific knowledge of how children acquire knowledge in zero g.

    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!

    • The Teacher in Space program in particular will vastly increase our scientific knowledge of how children acquire knowledge in zero g.

      I'm betting that the first discovery would be "paper airplanes fly *really* well".
    • I Agree whole heartedly... I think the Teacher in space program is LLLLOOOONNNNGGGG over due for a comeback. Just to know that one of your instructors had a chance to do the research in their field in space? Think about it.
  • Seriously, I had several teachers that I admired deeply, but for the most part they were a regular person doing a regular job. If they can find someone who by there actions in their work exemplifies excellence, great! If not what's the difference if they send up a teacher or a police officer, fireman, social worker, or janitor. The Russians are giving rides to the highest bidder and I think more disclosure/coverage of their exploits would be just as enlightening as seeing another teacher in space. Maybe they should choose a dozen or two professions and rotate through them. There has already been a fairly diverse group in space ... mostly military or tech type people ... but diverse nonetheless. I want to see the first zookeeper in space, the first middle manager, the first divorce attorney, the first garbage collector, etc., etc.
    • 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.
    • [Teachers] "for the most part they were a regular person doing a regular job."

      I have to disagree with you completely on this point. Most of the teachers (in public schools) that I have dealt with have earned my deep respect. Many of them go above and beyond when it comes to teaching and helping kids. They are overworked and underpaid. They do what they do because most of them have a deep personal desire to foster kids into becoming better people and reach their full potential.

      I don't doubt for a second that NASAs motivations are for purely PR reasons. Teachers represent so much as role models for our kids (as do Police and Firemen. No comment on Janitors). They also represent the higher education that are kids need to fully participate in endeavors of space flight or any other prestegious technology careers.

      In short what they add to the mission is to be a role model for future generation who might not otherwise beleive that they have the potential to make difference. Being an astronaut in space is not necessarily out of their grasp. Go for it!
    • They could add alot. Being able to understand how what they are studing is affected by space travel... and passing that on to YOUR children...

  • Not really a teacher (Score:2, Informative)

    by Sygiinu ( 226801 )
    The PR spin on this story (the bit the Joe public will pick up on) is that Barbara Morgan is your average teacher. However, article says she's not a teacher anymore and is now a "full-time astronaut", meaning she's on the NASA payroll and not really a civilian.

    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.

  • My humble suggestions for other people to send into "the holy void":

    • The Slashdot Crew: I think they had a series of stories about that.
    • Political radicals: Send 'em to Alpha Centauri and let 'em duke it out!
    • Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow [google.com]: Dogbert once deduced that the smartest people eventually escape gravity anyway. Also, how else are they going to get those death-ray sats in orbit?
    • The Megatokyo [megatokyo.com] Crew: It could be a special. "Dom in space" or something like that.
    • Big Media Copyright Lawyers: preferably without a return.
  • I could become a teacher in a year....

    -Adam
  • Christa McAuliffe was an English teacher, but now, she's history.

    NASA was shooting for an educational experience, and I think everyone learned a valuable lesson: that when Reagan called the shuttle the "Space Truck" he was full of shit. It's a flying bomb. It's a safer flying bomb now than it was then, but it doesn't pay to trivialize the danger of flying in the thing.

    On a more crass note, has anyone noted that there are 7 seats on the shuttle, and a flight runs about $500M, so this next teacher in space will cost the taxpayers about $70M. I hope we get something good for it.

    • Pish Posh... If my Teacher or Educator or Instructor were to have been in Space and had the ability to study their feild there... What a wonderful expirence they could pass on. Christa McAuliffe was an English Teacher with a Physics Minor - Dynamics - and a Pilot...
    • (* when Reagan called the shuttle the "Space Truck" he was full of shit. It's a flying bomb. It's a safer flying bomb now than it was then, but it doesn't pay to trivialize the danger of flying in the thing. *)

      Some of the most frightening highway situations are when a truck, especially a pair, does not give you any slack when you are coming up the on-ramp or lanes are merging. I have come close to being a Honda Sandwich on too many occassions. Thus, I don't associate "truck" and "safe" in any way. Perhaps Reagan drove in the same city as I with the short ramp/merge areas.

  • Bill Nye (Score:4, Interesting)

    by !splut ( 512711 ) <sput&alum,rpi,edu> on Saturday April 13, 2002 @01:16AM (#3333536) Journal
    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.
    • I have no idea how Bill Nye manages to do a children's science show that's neither patronizing nor annoying (esp. given's Disney's involvement), but I'm all for this idea!

      I just wish they made better use of him on whichever of those damned robots shows he's on.

  • Wrestlers in space (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Razor Sex ( 561796 )
    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.
    • 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.
    • My school didn't watch the thing go up, but I (and one other kid, we had weird schedules) were in the Library for Study Hall at the time. So we got to watch CNN (this was their first big scoop story) and see the thing go boom over and over again. One of the librarians had watched it, live, and she was ashen. She may be the only person from our high school that saw it live.

      Our principal came over the PA after lunch and said "And yes, the rumors are true, the Space Shuttle has exploded." That was the first that many of us had heard about it.

      I've often wondered how this affected all those who saw it. I was in Ninth Grade at the time, so maybe we were a little old for this kind of thing. Some people I know who are younger basically shared your experience, with all the kids suddenly realizing that life is fragile and can easily be broken. And silence.

      I did watch the first launch and landing of the Shuttle (Columbia?) in, um, was it third grade? I wonder what the impact would have been had the thing blown up somewhere along the line.
      • "CNN (this was their first big scoop story)"

        One of them.
        What I remember is Connie Chung with tears on her
        face while the footage played over and over again
        and nobody knew (tho we all really knew) whether
        or not the crew had survived.

        I was 19 and it hurt more than anything - especially
        after all the months of accusations and counter-acc
        and all the crap; I knew at that time that the people
        of my generation would have no real chance at space travel.

        oh, the pain, the pain

        "I know who are younger basically shared your experience,"

        For the generation before ours, it was "Where were you
        when Kennedy was shot?"

        History repeats itself, from generation to generation

  • This gives new meaning to the term Geeks in Space!

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