Challenger Learning Center St. Louis Celebrates 20th Anniversary

By Carmelo Turdo

Challenger Learning Center St. Louis celebrated their 20th Anniversary Saturday with an open house and STEM fair at the Challenger Center and the neighboring STEAM Academy at McCluer South Berkeley High School. St. Louis area STEM organizations and educators provided exhibits and activities for the visitors to enjoy, and the Challenger Center ran their abbreviated Expedition Mars space simulation mission every thirty minutes.    

We begin our coverage with a look at the guests arriving at the STEAM Academy and the announcement slides that were posted throughout the day.

The Challenger Learning Center's Expedition Mars space simulation mission was a popular activity throughout the event. Here we feature some views of the mission from pre-boarding to the "launch" and crew stations. The premise of the mission is an expedition to explore the surface of Mars with a rover looking for minerals and water. In order to keep the mission to just thirty minutes rather than the usual two-hour time frame, an asteroid was programmed to strike the target area, aborting the mission and forcing an early return to earth. 

 

A variety of STEM topics, from aeronautics to medicine, natural resources and robotics, were covered during the fair. Here we include a sample of the exhibitors interacting with the students and families at the STEAM Academy.

The Aero Experience congratulates the Challenger Learning Center St. Louis for twenty years of service to the community, and we wish them great success for generations to come.

Orion Launch Is Topic of Latest HEC-TV Live! Program - Orion: The First Step Into Deep Space

By Carmelo Turdo

Today's successful launch and recovery of the Orion spacecraft on the Exploration Flight Test No. 1 flight captured the hope of America's return to manned space flight in the coming years.  In anticipation of the flight, originally scheduled for Thursday, HEC-TV partnered with the Challenger Learning Center St. Louis and other local aerospace experts to produce an HEC-TV Live! program yesterday from 9am-noon during the launch and recovery window of the planned mission.  Even without the actual mission launch, the program proved to be an excellent learning experience for those participating live and it will be available for the public audience through future access to the archives.  The Aero Experience was privileged to be present during the production of the live program, and we now take you behind the scenes to meet the guest experts and those involved in making the program possible.

HEC-TV Live! programs offer opportunities for students around the country to interact with experts in various fields with hundreds of their peers.  Students are able to view the presentations, ask questions on the air, and in some cases produce background materials used to illustrate concepts discussed.  The HEC-TV crew goes on the road and sets up the stage for the program at a location that best illustrates the subject matter and accommodates the guest speakers.  In this case, the Challenger Learning Center was a great choice to host the Orion Mission launch as it showcased the St. Louis connection to past manned space flight programs and provided the mission control training facility for the on-site activities.  This particular event included a middle school class student audience that not only witnessed the live studio program and asked questions of the guest speakers, but also rotated in smaller groups to the mission control room to meet the experts and discuss what it takes to become a contributor to future space programs.  The Aero Experience audience has seen the Challenger Learning Center St. Louis in a recent feature story about the visit to St. Louis by legendary Flight Director Gene Kranz.      

Our day began with the arrival at the Challenger Learning Center St. Louis of the guest speakers around 8:30am.  The set and camera equipment were ready for action in the public gallery reception area, and preparations were under way to be sure that the live program would start promptly at 9am.  Prior to being issued wireless microphones and taking their places on the set, two former McDonnell Aircraft engineers and veterans of the Mercury and Gemini space programs on the 1960s, Mr. Dean Purdy and Mr. Norman Beckel, joined Washington University James S. McDonnell Distinguished Professor Dr. Raymond Arvidson on a brief tour of the mission control and space station work stations used for the simulated space missions regularly held at the facility with student groups.   

(L-R) Tasmyn Front, Director of Challenger Learning Center St. Louis,

with Mercury and Gemini space program veterans Norman Beckel

and Dean Purdy in the space station simulator 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The live program began promptly at 9am, and at that time the launch of the Orion spacecraft had been delayed three hours and it was cancelled for the day not long afterward.  The program's host, Tim Gore, began with the discussion with Dean Purdy and Norman Beckel, drawing parallels between the Orion program development and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs of the past.  Then Dr. Arvidson took the stage and discussed his specialty - his work with the series of Mars landers and advanced rovers that have led to breakthrough discoveries about the red planet.  Following the in-studio guests, there was a webcast with former astronaut Dr. Linda Godwin, a Cape Girardeau, MO native who flew four missions aboard the Space Shuttle between 1991 and 2001.  She gave her views on the future return of U.S. manned space program and gave the students a first-hand view of the effects of space on humans.  Students present at the Challenger Learning Center St. Louis rotated to the breakout sessions throughout the program.

Norman Beckel and Dean Purdy with host Tim Gore ready to start

    

Dr. Arvidson joins Robert Powell and Tim Gore on stage

Middle School students in the audience during the program

Tasmyn Front with Norman Beckel and Dean Purdy in Mission Control



L-R: McDonnell Aircraft Engineer Dean Purdy, Challenger Learning Center

St. Louis Education Coordinator Robert Powell, Washington University

James S. McDonnell Distinguished Professor Dr. Raymond Arvidson,

HEC-TV host Tim Gore, and McDonnell Aircraft Engineer Norman Beckel.

C      

Interstellar Movie Screening Brings Past and Future Space Travelers Together at St. Louis IMAX Event

By Carmelo Turdo

The new move, "Interstellar," is poised to launch nationally in a few days, in 70mm IMAX in some areas.  The Aero Experience was privileged to attend a screening sponsored nationally by Aerojet Rocketdyne and locally by the Challenger Learning Center St. Louis.  Our hosts had arranged for Space Shuttle veteran astronaut U.S. Army Ltc. Sam Gemar to introduce the film and relay some first-hand experience of space flight to the attentive audience.  A South Dakota native, Colonel Gemar was qualified for NASA astronaut duty in 1986 and later flew as mission specialist aboard STS-38 (November 15-20, 1990), STS-48 (September 12-18, 1991), and STS-62 (March 4-18, 1994).  

Sam Gemar (NASA)

Colonel Gemar opened his remarks by asking the classic question - Why do we explore?  He suggested the common responses - understanding our environment and discovering human destiny.  Both are valid answers to the equation.  He also mentioned that one of the questions asked of him most often is, "What is the most difficult part of going into space?"  He posited that one answer could be the 22 or more years of education and training obtained prior to even touching a spacecraft.  Another answer may be the rigors of space flight - the acceleration forces of takeoff in a multi-million pound machine and then weightless environment of space.  For Colonel Gemar, the answer was, "The night before!"  The 8-12 hours before a flight is a period of time of waiting for the chance to launch, not knowing the outcome of the flight.  The excellent NASA training had prepared him well for the mission, so once the time came for launch, he had total confidence in the crew's ability to fulfill the mission.  But thoughts of what would happen to those left behind if he and the crew were lost were top of mind.  Astronauts have a unique position in that the legacy they leave is both professional and personal.  "Few legacies are made at work (as with astronauts).  Legacies are made with family and friends."

Colonel Gemar introduced "Interstellar" by asking a rhetorical question - Is space exploration a flight of fancy or human destiny?  Some day the earth will cease to exist following the self-destruction of our own sun - it may take eons but it will happen.  What will the human race do to survive, and what level of technology will it have developed by then? 

"Interstellar" portrays the earth in a precarious state of self-destruction, with drought and dust storms causing crop failures and wide-spread starvation (at least in the U.S. where the story takes place).  The implicit environmental message is one of planetary dustbowl blight rather than global warming, and the script was carefully written to avoid making that the main theme of the movie.  Without giving away too much of the plot, the main character, a former astronaut is recruited/compelled to rejoin the underground NASA to spearhead a mission to rescue other astronauts sent on missions to find other habitable worlds beyond Saturn, through a black hole, and beyond. Throughout the adventures of the trip through time and space, just enough basic physics and recognizable space hardware are used to make the science fiction seem more believable.

It is also fairly obvious that beyond the general theme of human survival, there is another  pervasive and universal human emotion feeding the drive of the astronauts: Love.  Love of a father for his daughter, one astronaut for another, and from one generation of humanity to the next.  This message alone, regardless of the mechanisms used to form the plot, has been used in literature and movies throughout recorded history.  "Interstellar" takes the human need to leave a legacy to one's family and friends and even the rest of humanity to new heights.  The spectacular IMAX special effects seemingly put the audience in the spacecraft throughout the physical and emotional journey with the crew members as they use every ounce of their human strengths to reconcile their humanity with the forces of the universe.  The twist of the final scene puts the struggle into perspective, and gives some assurance of the survival of the species as long as it continues to be "human."

Special thanks to Challenger Learning Center St. Louis for providing the opportunity to attend the screening event.  

Legendary NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz Inspires Students During Mission at St. Louis Challenger Learning Center

By Carmelo Turdo

Legendary NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz spent this morning on Day Two of his visit to St. Louis at the Challenger Learning Center in St. Louis County.  The Challenger Learning Center has joined other local aerospace community organizations in welcoming Kranz to St. Louis to participate in a series of events planned this week in early commemoration of the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission.  The Challenger Learning Center offers a unique setting to welcome Gene Kranz back to St. Louis - he was able to join students as they flew to the moon and back during their simulated space mission, which included opportunities for participants to serve various roles in Mission Control!  When asked how he felt seeing students role-playing as controllers for a moon mission, his response was, "Absolutely delightful!"

The student mission today put the actual moon missions into some context for the students, but also for those of us who were too young to remember the Apollo Program.  The students were given the roles of spacecraft crew and mission control crew (each group later switched roles), and it was a unique opportunity for The Aero Experience to accompany THE Flight Director Gene Kranz as he visited with the students during the mission.

Gene Kranz reflected on his time as Flight Director for the Apollo moon missions during his visit to the Challenger Learning Center.  He framed his role as the leader of the team that held the safety of the crew and success of the mission in their hands, especially during the times of ultimate crisis such as with Apollo 13.  

“Flight Director is the ultimate leadership role in the space program," he said during an early morning media interview.  "It’s like the quarterback of a football team.  You call the signals.  And when you’re down to the last twenty yards, it’s up to you with your team to carry that ball across the goal line.”  The stakes, though, are much higher than the outcome of a football game.


NASA photo

“The Flight Director’s job description is probably the simplest in all America," he continued.  "It’s only one sentence long: ‘The Flight Director may take any actions necessary for crew safety and mission success.’  During the course of the mission, there is no higher authority.  The Flight Director is given a team of about 21 controllers – people who specialize in spacecraft systems, trajectory work, facility operations, planners, procedure writers, and it’s up to the Flight Director to take this team and turn it into a powerhouse.  Basically, that’s what my job was.”

That job description makes sense in the context of recent space missions, where highly-trained engineers are stationed behind banks of super computers with instant access to information and solutions to problems at their fingertips.  It is another matter to consider fulfilling that responsibility in the 1960s, “…a time before (modern) computers.   A time when you used slide rules.  A time when everything was done with pencil and paper," Kranz remembered.  "And with the technology we had, it’s hard to believe that the backup form of communication we had within the ground tracking network and our crew was Morse Code.   So we had to learn to communicate at a rate of only sixty words per minute with a spacecraft that’s moving five miles a second.  We had incredibly gifted people, and they learned by doing.  There were no text books – we wrote the text books so that the next generation would have something to work with.  It was incredible to be the leader of a group of young people who were absolutely brilliant and devoted to their job.”

Of course, a mission to the moon is never completely free of minor incidents that need evaluation from Mission Control, and Apollo 13 proved that catastrophic failures of the complex Apollo spacecraft were also possible.  About 56 hours after takeoff on April 11, 1970, an explosion in cryogenic oxygen tank number two occurred due to a short circuit following power-up of the tank's circulation fans.  The subsequent damage reduced electrical power generation significantly, affecting the amount of oxygen and water supplies in the command module.  The crew took refuge in the Lunar Module intended for the moon landing, and returned safely to earth following a harrowing trip around the moon.  The method of adapting the Lunar Module lithium hydroxide filters to the Command Module system to maintain adequate oxygen generation ultimately saved the crew from suffocating as the spacecraft raced around the moon and reentered into earth's atmosphere.  The crew, James Lovell, John Swigert and Fred Haise were saved.   

NASA photo

Failure Is Not an Option

Gene Kranz described the situation from his perspective.  “We were given an impossible problem to solve.  In all of our training, we had never faced anything like that.   But I had the confidence in this team that I had grown through the Mercury Program, the Gemini Program (we struggled frequently during the Gemini Program), when we got into Apollo (and we had problems in Apollo).  So I said, ‘This team is a powerhouse if we can get them focused upon solutions.  Don’t tell me what the problems are, tell me what the answers are.’  The challenge was to really make the people believe that under this very dire situation we’re in that we could get the crew home.”

He continued, “I made the speech: ‘We’ve never lost an American in space, and we sure as hell aren’t going to lose one now.  This crew is coming home.  You’ve got to believe it.  Your team must believe it.  And we must make it happen.'  And from that moment forth, this team had a sense of direction, and they did make it happen.”

The students seemed to understand his message as he discussed his experience as Flight Director with them following the simulated space mission, and a kind of passing of the torch began to take place by the time lunch break was in full swing.  The following photo says it all.

Special thanks to Tasmyn Front and the St. Louis Challenger Learning Center staff for their hospitality and excellent support for today's activities.