At a time when it should be the birthright of all students to an education

that allows them to successfully enter the job markets of the 21st century…

At a time when America must inspire its next generation of scientists and

engineers if we as a nation are to compete in the technology markets

of the 21st century…

Are we rising to the challenge?

I have been asked to give the keynote address for the 2011 NSTA National Conference. There is no higher honor for a science educator than to be invited to address one’s peers at NSTA, and share both one’s love of learning and how it can be imparted to the next generation.

I am very aware that I’ve been asked to address possibly 10,000 teachers of science at a sobering time for both U.S. science education and the general education community. There is significant national emphasis being placed on science, and more generally STEM education, due to a recognition that our success is critical to America’s ability to compete in the 21st century marketplace. I agree deeply with this assessment (see , e.g., Troubled About America’s Future). Yet a significant systemic response has been to elevate testing to the point where one has to question whether testing still serves education, or education now serves testing. I am absolutely convinced that denying a joyful classroom to students AND teachers is not the road to success. And at this critical time for American education, there is a perfect storm. Severe budget cuts at the State and local levels have placed great stress on our school systems … and caused deep anxiety for our educators.

I believe the best thing I can do with this keynote, at a conference whose theme is Celebrating the Joy of Science, is to reaffirm that teaching is the noblest profession, that teachers are truly our future, and the joy of learning must always be the wellspring of our childrens’ experiences in our classrooms and our schools. And that the joy of teaching must always be the wellspring for all of our teachers who are so dedicated to passing a piece of themselves to the next generation.

We are a family … a family of educators. And in trying times, families come together so that the moral support of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. An NSTA conference is about family.

Finally, I need to repeat something that I said at the keynote for the NSTA Regional Conference in Kansas City last year. The future of America rests in our ability to train the next generation of scientists and engineers, make sure we open high technology job sectors that embrace graduates with good jobs, and work toward a more scientifically literate public so that we the people can make informed decisions. Science education is key, and the National Science Teachers Association provides coherence and common ground for this nation’s teachers of science. When it comes to America’s Future, I look upon NSTA as a national treasure.

Below is the full description of my keynote address for NSTA in San Francisco. And for anyone that would like to read more, I’ve provided numerous links to essays I have written on teaching, human exploration, and the nature of our existence.

I’ve also provided a link to a raft of posts that were designed to be used as lessons by teachers in the classroom. The aim is science education as conceptual understanding at an emotional level (read About this Blog.) And these essays address a range of topics across the Earth and space strand, including: climate change, solar system studies, history of exploration, and studies of the greater universe.

So … I invite you to grab a cup of coffee, get comfortable, and read some essays that I hope will provide brave new insights into our world, and how to joyfully bring them into the classroom. I also invite you, if you are so moved, to leave a comment below!

(And if you are going to NSTA in SF, come say hello:)

-Jeff

ps- you might want to follow me on Twitter: @doctorjeff and/or subscribe to this Blog on the Universe.

Keynote Address: Science – It’s Not a Book of Knowledge … It’s a Journey

Dr. Jeff Goldstein

Center Director

National Center for Earth and Space Science Education

Every parent remembers that magical time when our children first began to speak, that moment marking the beginning of an unending flow of questions. In our children we can see our humanity — our innate curiosity — and recognize the obvious … that we are born to explore!

Science, in all its seeming complexity, is nothing but a means to organize curiosity. A way to empower one’s self to ask the gift of a question, and to hone the art that allows navigation through the noise of the universe around us in quest of an answer. It is an emotional, joyful, and wondrous journey that hopefully allows the traveler to pull back the veil of nature just a little, see how she operates, and celebrate the accomplishment.

Science education is no different. It is the means by which we immerse our children in the act of journey by letting them do science, and acknowledging it is their journey. As teachers, our sweet reward is seeing the joys of learning wash over them. And as teachers, we are charged with nothing less than patiently and gently launching the explorations of an entire generation.

The journey is written in our genes … the book of knowledge is not.

What should that reveal about both science and science education?

—Dr. Jeff

Links to some relevant essays:

A very personal thank you to teachers everywhere.

The Art of Teaching (at Huffington Post)

Our place in the greater universe and the sacred role of teachers.

The Nature of Our Existence

I’m obviously biased, but here’s an essay I think teachers of science should read.

Do Americans understand what is at risk if we don’t take science and tech education seriously? (At Huffington Post)

Troubled about America’s Future

I come up with some cool stuff with a cup of coffee in hand.

Jeffisms

We need many flavors of heroes, and not just athletes, musicians, and movie stars. How about …

Scientists and Engineers as Heroes

Maybe the human race needs some humility.

The Address of a Self-Important World: Humanity Needs a Reality Check

In my mind, education is the answer to many things.

September 8 and September 11: Joy, Pain , and Hope

Social Media, a powerful tool for education. School districts across America – we need to bring education into the 21st Century.

The Remarkable Power of Twitter: A Water Cooler for the 21st Century

LOTS and LOTS of Dr. Jeff essays on space, space exploration, science, and the universe:

Visit: http://ncesse.org/content/engaging-reading/

Links to the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education:

Home Page

About Us

Core Beliefs

Embraced Pedagogy

Our Learning Community Model

A very good read: Testimonials

A Summary of Our Programs, with links to the individual program web pages and main websites.

NEW - March 15 2011 Critical Deadline

Student Experiments aboard the FINAL FLIGHT OF THE U.S. Space Shuttle Program

The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program

You think you might want to bring a program to your community that could change the way students, teachers, and families look at science and human exploration?  Contact us!

info@ncesse.org

Photo caption: Dr. Jeff after a Family Science Night for 600 kids, parents, and teachers. Pretty cool—kids want an autograph …. from an astrophysicist.

Now this should be a blast! My friend Rita Karl, Director of Education at Challenger Center for Space Science Education invited me to do a live webcast. Thanks Rita! It will give me an opportunity to present directly to classes lots of the stuff I’ve been doing here at the Blog. We really hope students across the U.S. and beyond might be able to tune in and get a deeper sense of their world in a greater space. I’ve also written up ideas for teachers on how to leverage the webcast with activities and lessons in the classroom.

For a description of what I’ll be talking about, information on how to tune in, and how to put this webcast to work in your classroom (or at home if you homeschool) check out the latest NCESSE News at the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education website.

See you Thursday!

-dj

Photo Caption: Stop what you are doing for a moment, just imagine the stark contrast between the surface of this world and the vacuum of space, and click on this photo for a Zoom. Be thankful on this 40th Earth Day for the veil of atmosphere above you, slender as it may be. NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft took this image of Mercury’s northern horizon on September 29, 2009, during its third and final flyby of Mercury, as we were covering the event live via Twitter from Mission Control in Columbia, Maryland. This image captures portions of Mercury we had never before seen—it represents history in the making. I invite you to read more about this image at the MESSENGER mission gallery.

This post is a Teachable Moment in the News.

This is crossposted at the Space Tweep Society Blog HERE.

FLASH: We interrupt the rhythm of your daily lives to bring you news from beyond Earth, from a tiny robot determined to take the human race to an alien world. Many of you tuned in September 2009 when Blog on the Universe provided live coverage of the MESSENGER spacecraft’s flyby of Mercury, the last gravity assist needed to get the spacecraft on course for Mercury orbital insertion in March 2011. We are now less than 11 months from that historic first—a spacecraft in orbit around the mysterious inner-most planet of our Solar System. You might want to bookmark the countdown clock.

Since last September 29, 7 months of our lives have been filled with a new school year, passage of seasons, and the ebb and flow of over 200 days. Meanwhile, dutifully navigating through the harsh environment of space, our little spacecraft has been steadily gaining on its rendezvous with destiny on March 18, 2011, under the watchful eyes of its extended family back on Earth—the MESSENGER Team. For this team, those 200+ days were filled with assessing data already broadcast to Earth from MESSENGER’s 3 prior flybys of the planet, and preparing for orbital insertion and on-orbit operations.

These engineers and scientists are the current generation of explorers on the frontiers of human exploration, and ought to be held up to our children as heroes and role models in the age of high technology—and at a time when America needs to step to the plate in science and technology education if we are to compete in the 21st century (you might want to read my related essay at Huffington Post.) So meet these heroes and role models—the Core Team, the Science Team, the Instrument Team, the Engineering Team, and the Mission Operations Team. Have a conversation with your kids, or if you are a teacher, have a conversation with your class about this remarkable group of folks. And to really get up close and personal, read how cool operations engineer Ray Espiritu got from his dream in middle school to being part of the MESSENGER mission. Read highlights on the lives of other MESSENGER Team members using the button at the bottom of the Highlights Page.

So now for some really exciting news sent to the entire MESSENGER Team via email on April 18, 2010, by Eric J. Finnegan, MESSENGER Mission Systems Engineer. I have provided the text of Eric’s email without modification to give you a sense of the behind-the-scenes communication and spirit of teamwork that a group of folks like you and me is undertaking on behalf of humanity. We are now fully engaged in preparations for an encounter with another world—

Public Relations

This month, preparations for orbital operations came front and center, with a press release describing the extent of preparations the team is conducting, tactfully described by our Payload Operations Manager, Alice Berman.

Navigation 

It hasn’t taken long—the navigation and guidance and control teams have almost closed the gap on Mercury. Over the last month, the predicted trajectory of the satellite has been narrowed to within 1-sigma of the target. Through careful management of the solar array positions and body orientations, the predicted trajectory of the spacecraft is now less than 10 km off the b-plane aim point and less than one minute from the target arrival time needed for Mercury Orbit Insertion. The likelihood of future trajectory correction maneuvers is rapidly diminishing!

MOI Readiness

The operations and engineering teams continue to prepare for events before, during and after the Mercury Orbit Insertion maneuver. The team is considering all possible nominal and anomalous conditions to ensure a robust execution plan, thereby ensuring a successful Mercury insertion. The next milestone for the team will be a Fault Management Review, occurring on June 2. An independent team of reviewers will look over the teams preparation plans and provide any necessary recommendations to ensure successful execution of this mission critical event.

Orbital Operations Readiness

The engineering and operations teams have completed all of the detailed table top reviews covering the necessary flight operations for each of the spacecraft subsystems. Furthermore, all of the detailed discussion meetings between the mission operations team and the instrument engineers, to review the on-board and ground command procedures for orbital operations have been conducted. These series of meeting and reviews have resulted in a number of items that will need to be worked off over the next several months as the teams work towards the fall Orbital Readiness Review.

The science planning and mission operations teams completed the most recent week-in-the-life (WITL) test activity on 24 March. A team debriefing meeting was conducted to cover the activities and lessons learned from the five week exercise. This activity required the MESSENGER team to process two consecutive weeks of orbital operations in a real-time test-as-you-fly environment. The next WITL test activity will exercise four consecutive weeks of orbital operations. The kickoff meeting for this multi-week activity is scheduled for 21 April.

This month, the instrument scientists started the final verification activities for the planning functions of the MESSENGER Scibox software. on April 5, the latest configured version of the SciBox software was released allowing instrument scientists to start evaluation of the software-generated observation plan. Presentations of these observing plans by the instrument scientists to the cognizant Science Discipline Groups will commence at the end of April. In parallel with this activity, the operations and guidance and control teams are working their way through verification of the commanding functions of the Scibox software. Over 10 weeks of the 52 week orbital schedule have been processed by the G&C team using high fidelity dynamics simulations to ensure safe execution of the auto generated command sequences. The operations team has processed 5 weeks of orbital schedules though their command verification tools and vehicle state simulations, ensuring valid execution as well as identifying a few command efficiencies. Processing of the Scibox software generated command sequences will continue until all 52 weeks of scheduled science activities have been processed through the verification tools from both teams.

As a cumulative test of orbital readiness, the operations team kicked off planning activities for a full flight execution of orbital operations, to occur this summer. Current plans are to execute 1-2 weeks of orbital operations, in a cadence and manner that will be utilized during orbit. This activity will flight verify the end-to-end operations of the MESSENGER system.

There are many activities to complete before March 18, 2011, however all members of the MESSENGER team are now engaged and are working toward successful execution of orbital operations.

—Eric J. Finnegan MESSENGER Mission Systems Engineer

We wish the best to this remarkable group of folks for the continued success of MESSENGER, and stay tuned for mission updates, and extensive live coverage of MESSENGER orbital insertion. And readers, I invite you to put your thoughts to ‘paper’ with a comment below:)

The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education oversees the MESSENGER Educator Fellowship Program and other MESSENGER education and public outreach activities, including the development of compendia of lessons on Solar System exploration and science, and programming for families at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. Consider one of the Center’s programs for your community. Blog on the Universe is also one of the Center’s programs.

Photocredti: NASA

This post is a Teachable Moment in the News and a Dr. Jeff’s Jeffism.

It’s been a wonderful year for me here at Blog on the Universe. We launched in May 2009, not knowing if the concept would catch on. It did, and in just 7 months I’ve had the good fortune of reaching and conversing with tens of thousands of educators, science and space enthusiasts, science writers, environmentalists, homeschool moms and dads, ed techs, and scifi fans. The Blog now has a pretty eclectic following … which is very cool.

To all of you that follow the ol’ blog, may you and your families have a healthy, joyous, and prosperous 2010! And my advice is live in the moment.

Now for something completely different (Monty Python?) While I was tweeting to my PLN earlier today I came up with some New Years fun facts and Jeffisms of sorts. Thought I’d collect them all and share them here with you. Teachers and parents, you might want to discuss these with your kids!

Ponder this: From the moment the New Year began to the end of the first day in 2010, YOU on Earth have traveled a whopping 1.6 MILLION miles (2.6 MILLION km) along Earth’s orbit around the Sun.

That’s the same as traveling 200 Earth diameters. Another way to think about it—today you traveled the diameter of Earth every 7 minutes … and you didn’t even feel a breeze.

I actually wrote a blog post about your travels through space aboard Spaceship Earth. If you liked my New Years thought above, you’ll really like this post.

Ponder this too: You may have been standing there watching the clock as it counted down to midnight. But actually … YOU were flying to the location of midnight on Earth at up to 1,000 mph (1,600 km/hr) due to Earth’s rotation. The clock was just keeping track of your flight. Did you remember to buckle up?

Fun fact: It’s 2010. Thank goodness we made it through another 31,557,600 seconds since New Years 2009. (Hummm that’s almost pi x 10⁷ —that’s creepy.)

More pondering: the location in Earth’s orbit where you marked the start of YOUR 2010 orbit of the Sun is different from someone in another time zone.  In other words, someone on the opposite side of Earth from you started their New Year 800,000 miles (1,300,000 km) from where you started yours.

Earth to other planets: hey guys, I must be at that strange, rather non-descript place in my orbit again, ’cause the bipeds are all celebrating.

Other planets to Earth: we know, we saw fireworks sweeping across your surface as their cities and towns moved into midnight. Weird critters you’ve got living on you.

Pluto to Earth: hey if you were more like me, those bipeds would only celebrate every 240 Earth years!

Earth to Pluto: yeah but if I were more like you, there wouldn’t be any bipeds here, and hey, why am I talking to you anyway? You’re not a planet any more.

Pluto to Earth: even I think that’s pretty cold.

Hey gang, ready for another orbit of the Sun here at Blog on the Universe? May it be a safe journey, and I promise I’ll try to be a good guide.

—Doctor Jeff

Photocredit: NASA, ESA and J. Hester (ASU)

Photo Caption: Image taken September 29, 2009 by MESSENGER’s Narrow Angle Camera (NAC). The distance across the bottom of the image is 250 miles (410 km), which means the crater at lower left is about 80 miles (130 km) across! The crater’s appearance points to Mercury’s volcanic past—to a time when the crater was filled with lava and now only portions of the crater’s circular rim are visible. (Click on image for zoom.)

This post is a Teachable Moment in the News.

Remember the MESSENGER spacecraft we were all following back in September as it flew by Mercury? The little spacecraft that gave us all a scare during the September 29 flyby (hey little fella, don’t do that again) is day-by-day getting closer to orbital insertion on March 18, 2011. We’re now just 15 months away!

I promised to keep you all posted with new mission updates. My last was October 17, and there have been a bunch of things piling up to report. I could have just quietly inserted the new updates on the MESSENGER Mission Updates page here at the Blog, and snuck in a date change in the Teachable Moments in the News QuickLinks Box in the upper right corner above (your cue to look in upper right corner). But hey! When Time Magazine names a family member as one of the 50 Best Inventions of 2009 (and by the way, we were number 11) YOU’VE JUST GOT TO CELEBRATE WITH AN OFFICIAL POST!

And a BIG thanks to Dr. Harri Vanhala, (another) cool astrophysicist here at the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, for feeding me all the updates information. Dr. Harri (to his fans) also manages the MESSENGER Educator Fellowship Program, and oversaw the development of the brand spanking new Mission Design curriculum package that will be available in Spring 2010. The package has lots of middle and high school lessons that engage students in the design process for a robotic spacecraft mission to another planet, and teachers—you’ll be able to download it lesson by lesson at no cost. Your tax dollars at work.

So I invite y’all (a shout out to my friends in Houston and Corpus Christi) to check out the MESSENGER Mission Updates page for a link to the official honor from Time Magazine, LOTS of new images of Mercury, a way cool podcast on the results of the September 29 flyby by Team Member Bob Hirshon of the American Assocation for the Advancement of Science, and a link for the NASA Teleconference which showcased the scientific findings from the flyby.

Keep Truckin’ MESSENGER. And you folks in the blogosphere—stay tuned right here.

Photocredit: NASA

Photo Caption: The Pleiades as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.

This post is a Teachable Moment in the News.

So here I am in NY, visiting my mom and my sister’s family. We’re sitting on the couch and my sister comes up with this bizarre Thanksgiving challenge. “Hey Jeffrey! (my family calls me Jeffrey … yuck), why don’t you come up with a personal Thanksgiving story involving the pilgrims. Sort of a 3 degrees of separation thing.” Ok, fine. Here goes—

I’m now (unfortunately) 52 years old. In 52 years, in the year 2061, Halley’s Comet will return. And if you look up on Thanksgiving Night in 2061, at the famously visible star cluster the Pleiades, the light you see will have traveled 440 years from the Pleiades to your eye. So that light must have left the Pleiades in the year 1621 (that’s 2061 – 440), and in just the right direction to hit your eye which is staring at the Pleiades in 2061. And hey look! There goes Halley’s Comet. But that means that the light you see on Thanksgiving Night 2061 left the Pleiades when the Pilgrims were holding the first Thanksgiving in 1621 in Plymouth colony.

Now here is the spooky part. I actually went to Pilgrim Monument on my way to Nantucket, when I was visiting my good friend who was the Director of Nantucket’s Maria Mitchell Observatory. I knew him ’cause we worked together a few years earlier in the Lab for Astrophysics at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. And while working in the Lab, I made lots of trips to the Big Island of Hawai’i where I was part of teams at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility on the summit of Mauna Kea studying among other things—Halley’s Comet. And right next to the NASA telescope you can now find the Japanese National Telescope called Subaru, which in Japanese means …. “Pleiades”.  (I know!!!)  Hey you Subaru owners, look at the emblem on your car—it’s that star cluster.

So ‘sis, how’d I do?  “Jeffrey I just got chills—I’ve owned 4 Subarus.”

Happy Thanksgiving 2009!!

ps-

I’m claiming a heaping helping of writer’s artistic license, since I’ve assumed the Pleiades is exactly 440 light years away. But don’t tell my sister.

Photocredit: NASA, ESA and AURA/Caltech

This is a supplement to my earlier post NASA LCROSS to Slam into Moon October 9, 2009.

This is crossposted at the Huffington Post HERE.

We’re slamming this thing into the Moon?! Hasn’t anybody thought this through?! The Moon’s going to be forced from its orbit! Giant tides will wash around the Earth! Buildings will topple! The Man in the Moon will be mad at us! Do we really need another catastrophe?!

An hour after I put up my NASA LCROSS to Slam into Moon post to help teachers make this a Teachable Moment on the Moon in classrooms, my good Twitter friend Heather Good at FoundonMars.com tells me there are actually folks out there thinking about impending doom (check out the comments at this recent HuffPost article.) She asked me to come up with something that can put everyone’s mind at ease. There was tension, anxiety, scared people … shades of Orson Welles War of the Worlds radio broadcast that had folks running from their homes. Cool (not the running thing. The “can you come up with something to calm folks” thing.)

Ready?

Okay, first, the target for the impact is the crater Cabeus. The operative word is CRATER. All those large craters on the Moon are from massive things hitting the Moon—far more massive than an Atlas V Centaur upper stage vehicle heading moonward. Yet we’re still here.

What? You think that virtually all were from impacts long ago, and “who knows what effect they had on Earth back then?” OK, I knew that was coming (since I wrote it). The Atlas V Centaur upper stage has the equivalent mass of a meteoroid less than 2 feet (1/2 meter) across. Believe it or not, Moon and Earth are struck regularly by meteoroids of this size—and we’re still here.

You want more?

The Atlas V Centaur upper stage has a mass of 2,000 kg (the more massive of the two vehicles impacting the Moon). It will be moving at 5,600 mph (9,000 km/hr.) BAM! By comparison, the Moon is orbiting the Earth at the measely speed of 2,300 mph (3.700 km/hr). On the other hand, the Moon is just a tad bit more massive (heavy sarcasm aside—UNBELIEVABLY MORE MASSIVE) than the human-built specks on a collision course with it.

So let’s say we wanted to change the Moon’s speed by JUST 1 MPH (1.6 km/hr)—which is less than 1/2,000th its orbital speed—and we were going to do it by hurling Atlas V Centaur upper stages at the Moon. How many would we have to hurl its way? HEY, let’s give every person on planet Earth an opportunity to hurl one. Would that do it? Uh … nope. Every person on Earth (all nearly 7 billion of us) would each need to hurl 1 MILLION Atlas V Centaur upper stages at the Moon. I’d rather just hurl one and not worry about it. Rest easy, sleep well, and let’s see if we can find water on the Moon at the South Pole.

There’s an exciting event scheduled on the Moon, and you’re invited. The NASA LCROSS spacecraft and it’s Atlas V Centaur upper stage rocket will slam into the lunar South Pole on October 9 at 4:30 am PDT. It is going to be a BIG news story AND IT SHOULD BE VISIBLE TO YOU if you’re west of the Mississippi (in the U.S.) AND you can hook up with an amateur astronomer with a good-sized (recommended 10-12-inch aperture) telescope. Sounds like a good motivation for an impact party to me.

There is a Blog on the Universe Post—If I Could Gift Wrap the Moon—that is perfect for a thought-provoking, conceptually hard-hitting classroom discussion about the size of the Moon and its relationship to Earth in advance of (even after) the LCROSS impact. It includes simple and quite elegant hands-on activities.

Here are the links:

An overview of the LCROSS Mission

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/overview/index.html

On viewing the impact

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/05oct_lcrossvg.htm?list1339238

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/impact/impact_amateur.html

Where on the Moon to look and the technical requirements for viewing

http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/observation/amateur.htm

At Blog on the Universe: If I Could Gift Wrap the Moon

http://blogontheuniverse.org/2009/07/02/if-i-could-gift-wrap-the-moon/

If I Could Gift Wrap the Moon: essential questions, key concepts, learning objectives, math skills, and special features are all listed in the Teachers Lesson Planner.

Hope you see it!

-dj

P.S.—  OH NO! We’re slamming this thing into the Moon?! Here’s the new post to calm your mind.

Teachers and Parents: make sure to read about The Teacher’s Toolbox which is designed to help you put this Blog to work for your class and your children. If you’re new to Blog on the Universe read About this Blog.

Photo caption: Part of Mercury’s never before seen surface, from MESSENGER spacecraft data obtained during the first flyby on January 14, 2008. 

You want to see spectacular? Click on the photo.

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/Arizona State University, 2008.

This post is a Teachable Moment in the News.

The picture above was the central image for my recent Special Post on the MESSENGER spacecraft’s September 29, 2009 flyby of Mercury. It is an incredibly compelling image, and there is a great back-story for how it was produced. In the image caption at the Special Post I had invited you to read the story, but I suspect many missed the link. So I decided it was worthy of its own post!

Digital images taken of a planet by a spacecraft obviously provide views as seen from the spacecraft’s position—which changes over time. The set of images, with views of the planet from different angles, allows a 3-dimensional digital model of the planet’s surface to be created. You can then ask a remarkable question, “If I could place a camera at a location in space over there, and at this particular time, what would I see”? It’s a remarkable question because the spacecraft’s camera was never at that location in space and time, yet the data can be reassembled into an image as seen by a ‘virtual camera’ placed there. The resulting image is very real. It is the original data reassembled.

Why would you do this? Maybe because your hypothetical location offers some unique viewing angle not seen in the original images.

Just in time for this post, HERE is the surface of Mercury pieced together from multiple images by Mariner 10 in 1974-75 and during MESSENGER’s 3 flybys, including the latest on September 29, 2009. This global map of Mercury was just released on October 2, 2009.

The image above was created by the MESSENGER Team for the Voyage National Program overseen by my Center. It is an initiative dedicated to the public understanding of Earth’s place in space—and celebrates that we can even know it. Voyage is a scale model Solar System permanently installed on the National Mall in Washington, DC, in front of the Smithsonian Museums, and the Voyage national and international programs are permanently installing replicas in communities world-wide. The goal—100 Voyage model Solar Systems installed across the planet, for the story of our existence on Earth knows no national boundaries, and is a thread that binds all humanity.

Each of the Voyage exhibition’s 13 stanchions include a central image that captures the subject of the stanchion. We wanted a new central image for the Mercury stanchion that captured MESSENGER’s monumental achievement during its first flyby on January 14, 2008. The location of the virtual camera was chosen to provide a very dramatic view of the side of Mercury never before seen by the human race until MESSENGER’s encounter. The image was also created at a point in time when the image would include—Earth. We wanted a view of home from an alien world.

Earth was not in the camera’s field-of-view when MESSENGER was taking images of the unseen side in January 2008. So we moved a virtual camera to a place in space and time where Earth would be visible among the stars, and the newly revealed surface would be seen in dramatic fashion. The virtual camera for this image is placed in low Mercury orbit, on February 3, 2008, when the Earth would have been seen as a blue star-like object above the horizon (seen on the left side of the image). It is a real image of Mercury obtained from the MESSENGER data, and Earth and the star fields are superimposed at their proper locations. By the time this ‘virtual’ image was taken, MESSENGER was long gone, departing Mercury three weeks earlier. But the images she left behind allowed us to ‘see’ what would have been a truly remarkable site.

The image above is now part of the permanent Voyage exhibitions in three communities.

You’re probably  a little curious about Voyage, and I’m very proud of it, so I thought I’d show you some photoalbums at Facebook. Here is Voyage in Kansas City, Missouri, along downtown Baltimore Avenue from the Power and Light Building to Union Station; in Houston, Texas, at Space Center Houston, the visitor center for NASA Johnson Space Center; and along the historic waterfront in Corpus Christi, Texas (the captions for the Corpus Christi photalbum are pretty funny—read them in order.) Voyage is also approved for installation on the State Capitol grounds in Des Moines, Iowa; in Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland; and on the campus of the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

I will soon be doing a post on a one to 10-billion scale model Solar System—Voyage’s scale—to give you a true sense of the nature of our existence on a tiny world in a vast space. I’ll also provide you with links to lessons at grades K-2, 3-4, 5-8, and 9-12, and to an activity for families at home, so you can set up paper versions of Voyage in a local park. Students (off all ages) will be blown away.

And hey, you might think about a Voyage in YOUR community. If you want to explore the possiblity, contact me.

Flyby 3 may be over, but MESSENGER’s mission continues. Bookmark this page for MESSENGER updates. Also note you can always access this page from the Teachable Moments in the News Quick Links box in the upper right column of this Blog, which includes the date of the latest update.

Teachers—place the mission in the greater context of human exploration, and exploration of the Solar System, using this Blog’s MESSENGER Ideas for Lessons in the Classroom, and Educational Resources page.

This post is a Teachable Moment in the News.

Photo Caption (click on image for zoom): Image taken September 29, 2009, by the MESSENGER spacecraft’s Narrow Angle Camera,15,400 km (9,600 miles) above the planet’s surface. The double-ring impact basin is approximately 100 miles (160 km) in diameter, with another large impact crater on its south-southwestern side. The image and caption was prepared by MESSENGER Educator Fellows Christina Dorr (Hilliard City School District, Hilliard, OH) and Julie Taylor (Adelanto School District, Adelanto, CA), at the MESSENGER Science Operations Center.

The September 2009 MESSENGER Special Post at Blog on the Universe, with live Web 2.0 coverage of the spacecraft’s third flyby of Mercury on September 29, generated significant interest in the NASA MESSENGER mission. Teachers and their classes were following along and posing questions to the six Voices of Mission Control via Twitter and email. I’ve created this page to provide ongoing MESSENGER mission updates through the date of orbital insertion on March 18, 2011.

Below you will find the Updates Archive. Also below are Blue Titled sections that provide an overview of the tense time in Mission Control when the signal from the spacecraft was unexpectedly lost during close approach on September 29, and a Twitter archive for the Voices of Mission Control—captured live during the flyby—so you can relive the experience.

Updates Archive

April 22, 2010: Blog on the Universe Post

Hero Engineers and Scientists Preparing for MESSENGER Spacecraft Orbit of Mercury

January 28, 2010: MESSENGER Searches for Vulcanoids

The MESSENGER spacecraft started the year 2010 by making its closest approach to the Sun on its current orbit on January 18. At that time, MESSENGER was just 0.308 AU (astronomical units; the average distance from the Earth to the Sun, which is about 150 million kilometers or 93 million miles) from the Sun. The mission team used the opportunity to conduct a survey for vulcanoids—asteroid-like objects that could possibly exist between the Sun and the orbit of Mercury—by taking four sets of 64 long-exposure images by the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) instrument. No vulcanoids have been found yet, but the analysis of the new images continues.

Learn more about the MDIS instrument.

Read an archived NASA news story from 2002 discussing the hunt for vulcanoids.

New image releases on the MESSENGER Web site during January:

Honoring Haitian Painter Benoit and American Photographer Lange
Extensive smooth Plains on Mercury

December 23, 2009: MESSENGER Highlights in 2009

The MESSENGER team looks back on 2009 this week by releasing a collage of images highlighting some of the most interesting new findings about Mercury during the last 12 months. While celebrating the achievements of the past year ­ including the final flyby of Mercury on September 29 ­ the team is also looking ahead to 2010. Even though there is no planetary flyby in store next year, the MESSENGER team will be busy analyzing previously collected data and preparing for the orbital phase of the mission to begin in 2011. Many thanks to the MESSENGER team for a memorable year, and best of luck for 2010!

See the 2009 Collage of Images

December 18, 2009: New Global Mosaic of Mercury

During the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, California, the MESSENGER science team released a new global mosaic of Mercury to the public. The new map, created by the MESSENGER team in collaboration with cartographic experts from the U.S. Geological Survey, incorporates images from MESSENGER’s three flybys of the planet, as well as Mariner 10′s observations from the 1970s. Combined, the images cover 97.72% of the surface area of Mercury. The new map will be a valuable tool in planning observations for the orbital phase of the mission, starting in March 2011, since it allows the science team to pinpoint features on the surface for closer study.

For more information on the creation of the new global map of Mercury, see THIS MESSENGER press release.

The map is available for download on the USGS Map-a-Planet web site:  or at the MESSENGER Web site.

December 10, 2009

Two new images released

The Sun Sets on Rembrandt

A Southern Horizon as Seen during Mercury Flyby 3

November 25, 2009: Final Deep Space Maneuver

MESSENGER performed its fifth and final deep-space maneuver on Tuesday. The spacecraft fired its engine for 3.3 minutes to achieve the velocity change necessary to place it on course to go into orbit around Mercury in March 2011. At the time of the maneuver, MESSENGER was 143 million miles (230 million km) from the Earth, on the far side of the Sun. At this distance, it takes 12 minutes and 49 seconds for the radio signals to reach ground control. Data sent back from the spacecraft indicates the maneuver was performed extremely accurately, and the spacecraft is on target to its meeting with Mercury in 16 months. To see where MESSENGER is right now, visit this LINK.

New image released this week: A Long Scarp Revisited

November 17, 2009: Time Magazine—MESSENGER One of 50 Best Inventions of 2009

Time magazine has named the MESSENGER spacecraft as one of the best 50 inventions of 2009. The magazine credits the technical challenges facing a spacecraft flying to a planet so close to the Sun as the reason for the recognition, and the results from the third flyby of Mercury in September certainly demonstrate how well the spacecraft is operating in the hazardous environment.

Read the MESSENGER press release about the award.

Here is Time Magazine’s list of best inventions of 2009 (with MESSENGER at #11).

A new image taken during the flyby was released today: a comparison between a true color image and an enhanced color image of the planet. Enhanced color images allow scientists to examine different terrains better and in this manner help uncover the geologic history of the planet.

November 3, 2009: NASA Media Teleconference on MESSENGER Findings

from Third Flyby, and New Images

MESSENGER mission team held a NASA media teleconference today to discuss scientific findings from the spacecraft¹s third and final flyby of Mercury on September 29. Among the topics covered were: images of previously unseen parts of the planet; a region with a bright area surrounding an irregular depression, suspected to be volcanic in origin; a double-ring impact basin that may contain the youngest volcanic material on Mercury found so far; measurements of how Mercury¹s very thin atmosphere, called the exosphere, varies with the planet’s distance from the Sun; and information on the abundances of iron and titanium in Mercury’s surface materials.

Here is the press release about the new science results.

Images and other multimedia resources from the teleconference are available HERE.

New Mercury images from the teleconference:

A Color View of the Solar System’s Innermost Planet

Mercury Flyby 3 Reveals a Highly Diminished Sodium Tail

Evidence of Volcanic Activity on Mercury

Mercury’s Surface Has More Iron + Titanium Than Previously Thought

October 30, 2009: Readying for Solar Conjunction, and New Images

of Mercury from a Distance

MESSENGER is rapidly moving away from Mercury after its third flyby of the planet a month ago. It is now preparing for an upcoming solar conjunction on November 3-17, when the spacecraft will be on the other side of the Sun as seen from the Earth, and no communications with ground control are possible. To minimize the chances of any mishaps during this time, all instruments have been turned off except for the gamma-ray spectrometer, which has to stay in its maintenance mode to keep its cooler at a safe temperature. Before being turned off, MESSENGER¹s dual imaging camera snapped pictures of Mercury from a distance; the images were released on the MESSENGER Web site this week.

LINK: Mercury from Nearly Two Million Miles

October 20, 2009: NEW Podcast; Results of Third Flyby Presented at 2009 Geological Society of America Meeting

During MESSENGER’s third flyby of Mercury, Bob Hirshon (American Association for the Advancement of Science) recorded reports on the events at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. These reports include interviews with the MESSENGER team during the flyby, live reaction to the unexpected loss of the spacecraft’s signal prior to the closest approach, and discussion of the situation once the signal was restored and the spacecraft had been confirmed to be operating nominally. You can now experience the nail-biting moments as if you were right there at the Mission Operations Center by downloading Bob’s recording as a podcast available at the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcasts Web site, one of the programs celebrating the International Year of Astronomy.

MESSENGER science team members are presenting the first results from the spacecraft’s third flyby of Mercury at the 2009 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon. Some of the topics discussed in the meeting are featured in new image releases on the MESSENGER web site and include tectonic activity of impact basins, as shown in the image: The Rim of Rembrandt and Neighboring Scarps and volcanism, as showcased by large expanses of smooth plains and craters flooded with lava in the image Flooding Mercury’s Surface. The full list of papers presented at the meeting can be found HERE.

Other new image releases at the MESSENGER web site include a high-resolution mosaic of Mercury taken during the spacecraft’s approach of the planet on September 29: Approach Mosaic from Mercury Flyby 3 and a picture showcasing Mercury¹s complex geologic history: Mercury’s Geology: A Story with Many Chapters.

October 17, 2009: MESSENGER’s October 21 Trajectory Correction Canceled

To be able to go into orbit around Mercury in 2011, MESSENGER is taking a complicated route to its target planet. In addition to six planetary flybys, the spacecraft also performs five deep space maneuvers, during which it fires the main engines to change its orbit around the Sun. In between these main events, smaller trajectory correction maneuvers can be performed to tweak the spacecraft’s path slightly as necessary to make sure the spacecraft remains on target. The next trajectory correction maneuver was scheduled to take place on October 21, but because MESSENGER performed its third flyby of Mercury so accurately, the mission team has decided that no adjustment to the spacecraft’s trajectory is needed before the mission’s final deep space maneuver on November 24, 2009. Here’s a Diagram that provides an understanding of MESSENGER’s roller-coaster journey to Mercury.

October 16, 2009: New images from MESSENGER’s September 29 flyby released by APL (release date: October 7 through 14, 2009.)

Tip of the Crescent

Look Back – Look Ahead

Evidence of Volcanism on Mercury: It’s the Pits

It’s Just a Phase that Mercury’s Going Through

October 9, 2009: Peter Bedini, the MESSENGER Project MANAGER at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, sent out a personal message to the entire MESSENGER Team. I wanted to share it with all of you, and got Peter’s permission:

Before too much time passes, I want to offer the entire MESSENGER team sincerest thanks for the substantial amount of hard work that went into the preparations for last week’s encounter with Mercury. That flyby completes a set of three such encounters with our target planet, and will be the last opportunity to study Mercury close-up until we meet it again for orbit insertion in a year and a half.

As you all are well aware, the gravity assist was extremely accurate once again, with the spacecraft this time passing within 1.25 miles of the targeted aim-point, and within 1200 feet or so of the desired altitude. MESSENGER passed within 142 miles of the planet’s surface at a relative speed of about 12,000 mph and altered its trajectory as needed to enter orbit about Mercury in March 2011. Although the science observation campaign was interrupted by a nervous fault protection system, all subsystems behaved nominally throughout the encounter, and the spacecraft remains safe and healthy.

The science data are being analyzed and will be studied for some time, but already it is known that the observations made on approach were highly successful. Measurements of the exosphere and magnetosphere will add to our understanding of those aspects of Mercury, and our camera system imaged about 6% of the surface never before revealed.

I learned this morning that one of our science products has grabbed the attention of those at the very highest levels of our government. Members of our team created a stereo mosaic of a portion of Mercury by overlaying images taken during the second encounter last year with those taken from a slightly different angle last week. When viewed through 3-D glasses, the stereo effect greatly enhances the topography of the planet. A copy of this 3-D mosaic was brought by our Program Scientist, Marilyn Lindstrom, to NASA HQ last week, and yesterday afternoon the NASA Administrator himself presented it – along with pairs of 3-D glasses – to representatives of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. It is a testament to the high quality of the work each of you has contributed to MESSENGER that the head of NASA saw fit to use this product to represent the great things that NASA can do. There is much yet to do to prepare properly for the prime phase of the mission, but please take time to remind yourselves that what you’re doing is really cool, that you’re doing it extremely well, and that we’re not the only ones who think so.

Sincerely, Peter

Peter D. Bedini, MESSENGER Project Manager

Peter also wanted me to pass along an October 8, 2009 Washington Post article about a Star Party on the White House lawn. You might recognize the photo of Mercury on one of the flags.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/10/07/on_the_south_lawn_white_house.html

October 7, 2009:

Today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day features a MESSENGER third flyby image of a Double Ringed Basin on Mercury. APOD (as it’s called by its fans) always includes a description of the daily image with links to other websites for a deeper look at the subject matter. The MESSENGER image description includes links for other related geologic features and a relevant movie on volcanic flow.

IMPORTANT POINT: the APOD description can be interpreted to imply that the inner ring may have been caused by a volcanic flow as a subsequent event unrelated to the initial impact. The expert opinions, however, are that the inner ring formed at the same time as the outer ring.

The link: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

October 6, 2009: Some of the images taken by MESSENGER during its third flyby of Mercury are of the same areas photographed during the second flyby, but viewed from a slightly different angle. Combining the two sets of images creates a stereo effect that helps visualize the topography of the surface. E.g., viewing the stereo image of a portion of the 715 km (444 mile) wide Rembrandt basin through 3D glasses makes the effects of tectonism, impact cratering, and volcanism inside the basin more apparent.

I don’t know how many folks have a cheapy cardboard pair of 3D glasses with the left eye covered with red plastic and the right eye covered with blue, but that’s what you need to see the effect. At the science team briefing at the Science Operations Center we all got a pair of these glasses, and I just looked at the image with them on (link below). Very cool!!  By the way, at the meeting we all had our glasses on, and a famous Smithsonian geologist walked into the room late and said “Hey this looks like some bad horror film.” From the audience someone shouted “Hey! You’re looking at the audience!”

The link to the image:

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=347

October 5, 2009: One of the big surprises from MESSENGER¹s three flybys of Mercury has been the revelation of the planet¹s complicated geologic history. A great example is the two neighboring craters visible in a new image taken during last week¹s flyby. The inside of one of the craters has a complex structure, while the other appears to have been filled nearly to its rim with smooth, probably volcanic, material. A complicated geologic past is needed to explain how two craters of roughly the same size and right next to each other look so different.

The link to the image:

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=346

October 2, 2009: One of the most important science goals of MESSENGER¹s third flyby of Mercury was to obtain images of the previously unseen parts of the surface. The newly imaged terrain bridges the gap between areas imaged during the previous flybys by MESSENGER in 2008 and Mariner 10 in 1974-75. We now have almost complete coverage of the surface, and only the polar regions remain unseen. The global map of Mercury will be valuable in planning MESSENGER¹s orbital operations, which will begin in 18 months.

Here’s the link to the newly released global map of Mercury:
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=345

Other images release October 2:

Young and Wrinkled

A Terminator Shot

Capturing Mercury through MESSENGER’s Dual Cameras

October 2, 2009: Science in Pictures at the New York Times (pictures 1 and 2). Picture 2 was selected by MESSENGER Fellows Christina Dorr and Julie Taylor for release to the public, and they wrote the draft caption.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/10/02/science/100209_Sciencepix_index.html

October 1, 2009: A Paw Print on Mercury!

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=341

Other images released October 1:

Crater Ejecta and Chains of Secondary Impacts

Seeing Double?

Evening Shadows

A Bright Spot in the Latest Imaging

September 30, 2009: During flyby 3, MESSENGER imaged another 5% of Mercury’s surface that has never been seen. MESSENGER’s three flybys, and the flybys of Mariner 10 in 1974-75. have now imaged 90% of the planet. Only the polar regions remain to be revealed. The newly imaged portion of Mercury on September 29, 2009:

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?page=1&gallery_id=2&image_id=334

Other images released September 30:

A Newly Pictured Pit-Floor Crater

A Newly Imaged Basin

A High-resolution Look over Mercury’s Northern Horizon

MESSENGER Sees the Previously Unseen!

September 23 – October 1 2009: Select Media Coverage of Flyby 3

msnbc.com, Oct 1, Mercury’s bright spot gets an up-close photo

Nature.com, Oct 1, Mercury MESSENGER, fault foxes final fly-by

Baltimore Sun, Oct 1, Mercury probe shuts down instruments during flyby

Universe Today, Oct 1, More New Looks at Mercury from MESSENGER

Universe Today, Sept 30, MESSENGER Went into Safe Mode Approaching Mercury

The New York Times, Sept 28, MESSENGER Spacecraft to Photograph Mercury

Science Daily, Sept 28, MESSENGER Spacecraft Prepares For Final Pass by Mercury

Bad Astronomy Blog at Discover, Sept 27, MESSENGER: Three days out from Mercury

USA Today, Sept 25, Mercury ready for a rare close-up

UPI,Sept 24, NASA Mercury probe to scan mineral ores

NASA Press Release, September 23, 2009, MESSENGER Spacecraft Prepares For Final Pass By Mercury

Nail Biting in the Mission Operations Center

MESSENGER Flyby 3 Summary

The MESSENGER spacecraft’s 3rd flyby of Mercury took place 5:55 pm EDT, September 29, 2009, passing within 142 miles of the surface. The gravitational assist from Mercurysuccessfully modified the spacecraft’s trajectory to enable orbital insertion on March 18, 2011.

14 minutes before Close Approach, the spacecraft passed onto the dark side of Mercury, and switched from solar power to onboard batteries. The event was incorrectly interpreted as a problem by the spacecraft’s autonomous system that checks the health of all spacecraft systems 50 times each second. At 6 minutes before close approach, the autonomous system placed the spacecraft into Safe Mode, which stowed the science instrument payload, and shut down science operations already in progress. By then, nearly 50% of the science to be conducted 4 days to either side of close approach had been achieved.

Back on Earth, some 70 million miles away, all that was known was signal was inexplicably lost 6 minutes before close approach, and 12 minutes later the spacecraft was to go behind Mercury realtive to Earth, causing a forced communications blackout for 51 minutes. As one mission controller told me in the hallway, “we all got a pit in our stomachs.”

Signal was reacquired after the end of the blackout period, but controllers determined that the spacecraft was in safe mode, rather than normal mode. Into the evening and early morning hours at the Mission Operations Center, in Columbia, Maryland, what had happened near close approach began to unfold.

By mid-day September 30, mission controllers knew that the autonomous system safed the spacecraft as a result of the switch to battery power, they put the spacecraft back into normal mode, and all the data acquired before close approach was received on Earth. Planetary scientists at the Science Operations Center began looking at the data, and the MESSENGER Fellows were selecting and captioning images for release later that day (see September 30 update in the Updates Archive below.)

Twitter Archive of Flyby 3, September 29, 2009: Relive the Experience!

MESSENGER’s third flyby of Mercury was covered live via Web 2.0 from mission control at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Columbia, Maryland. SixVoices of Mission Control—MESSENGER Educator Fellows and MESSENGER Education Team members—provided the play-by-play and answered questions via Twitter for the Sept 29 flyby and the two days that followed when the preliminary science results were being presented. With the Twitter archives below, you can relive the experience—including the dramatic loss of signal 6 minutes before close approach, and 12 minutes before the start of the 51 minute communications blackout.

The Twitter archives below reflect the Schedule of Live Events September 28 through October 1, 2009 :

The Voice of the MESSENGER Spacecraft (Heather Weir)

http://blogontheuniverse.org/M3-twitter-archive-messenger2011/

The MESSENGER Fellows

Gene Gordon http://blogontheuniverse.org/M3-twitter-archive-porchdragon/

Christina Dorr http://blogontheuniverse.org/M3-twitter-archive-chd2009/

Annette Iwamoto http://blogontheuniverse.org/M3-twitter-archive-aniwam/

Sally Jensen  http://blogontheuniverse.org/M3-twitter-archive-cosmicfrog/

Julie Taylor http://blogontheuniverse.org/M3-twitter-archive-julietaylorca/

Jeff Goldstein, (doctorjeff) http://blogontheuniverse.org/M3-twitter-archive-doctorjeff/

Photo Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington