Shuttle Experts Chat Live with Students Via the Internet

John Bluck

NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA

650/604-5026 or 604-9000

jbluck@mail.arc.nasa.gov

RELEASE 00-18AR

How a crawler carries the Space Shuttle to its launch pad, space
suit care and babying the Shuttle before, during and after flight are some
subjects students will discuss live via the Internet with an astronaut and
other experts during a week of web ‘chats’ from March 13 – 17, 2000.

By way of simple Internet ‘chats’ and more intricate ‘webcasts’
that include live audio and moving video pictures, youths will use
computers to direct questions to, and receive real-time answers from, more
than a dozen NASA professionals through the NASA Quest website:

http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/events/cc/

“The Vertical Motion Simulator at NASA Ames is the world’s largest
motion simulator. I am one of the engineers responsible for ensuring this
simulator responds exactly as a real aircraft would in the air,” said
Leslie Ringo at NASA Ames Research Center, located in California’s Silicon
Valley. She will kick off the Internet activities on March 13 at 10 a.m.
PST with two other NASA experts. “Some of the simulations I have worked on
include the Comanche helicopter, Space Shuttle and future versions of
fighter jet aircraft,” Ringo added.

“No, I don’t really work on kitchen sinks,” said ‘kitchen-sink
engineer’ Ken Schrock of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL,
who will also participate in the March 13 chat session with Ringo. “It’s
just that I’ve had lots of different types of jobs as an engineer, You
know the expression, ‘everything but the kitchen sink.’ I’ve worked as a
technical writer (flight manuals), flight test engineer, instrumentation
engineer, telemetry engineer, data communications engineer and now radio
frequency engineer,” he explained.

First-come, first-served pre-registration via the Internet is
required in order for students to participate in the chat sessions. Other
people can observe the conversations without registering.

The NASA Quest Project is collaborating with Classroom Connect,
Foster City, CA, to provide the week of Internet activities with NASA Space
Shuttle experts, according to Linda Conrad of NASA Ames.

Educators can register to receive e-mails with advanced notice of
other NASA Quest Internet events by e-mailing: subscribe@quest.arc.nasa.gov

Internet Chat Session Schedule

Monday, March 13, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. PST, chat with Leslie Ringo, a
simulator engineer at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA; Frank
Merceret, Chief of the Applied Meteorology Unit, NASA Kennedy Space Center,
FL; Engineer Ken Schrock, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville,
AL; and, if time permits, spacecraft designer Andrew Petro of NASA Johnson
Space Center, Houston, TX.

Monday, March 13, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. PST, webcast with Astronaut Michael P.
Anderson, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX.

Tuesday, March 14, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. PST, chat with Tracy Gill, NASA
Kennedy Space Center, FL, who installs experiment hardware into the Space
Shuttle; and Space Station Payload Integration Manager Diane McMahon of
NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX.

Wednesday, March 15, 10:00 -11:00 a.m. PST, webcast with Mike Ciannilli and
Brandt Secosh of Kennedy Space Center, FL, about the huge crawler that
carries the Space Shuttle three-and-a-half miles to the launch pad.

Wednesday, March 15, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon PST, chat with the vehicle
manager for Space Shuttle Discovery, Jenny Lyons, Kennedy Space Center, FL,
who follows the Shuttle orbiter through ground testing and checkout; and
Chuck Davis, also of Kennedy Space Center, who is in charge of fuel
delivery to the Shuttle launch pad.

Thursday, March 16, 10:00 -11:00 a.m. PST, chat with a panel of experts
from NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, including Space Shuttle Flight
Controller, Mike Moses, who monitors data from the Shuttle during missions;
Space Shuttle flight controller Lisa Shore; Ground Controller William
Foster who is responsible for providing all other flight controllers with
timely and reliable access to Shuttle data; and Tim Terry who prepares the
flight control teams.

Friday, March 17, 10:00 -11:00 a.m. PST, chat with Ron Woods of NASA
Kennedy Space Center, FL, who is on a team that works with space suits.

Schedule updates are on the Web at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/events/cc/

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