Astro Class Meets Dr. Jen Heldmann

In the midst of their planetary unit, Deborah Skapik's Upper School Astronomy class had a stellar visit from cosmic scientist Dr. Jen Heldmann of NASA Ames on Tuesday, December 8. Dr. Heldmann is a Research Scientist for NASA. Her research focuses on the study of the Moon and Mars.

 

Dr. Heldmann spoke of her trajectory in the field, from being inspired by the movie Spacecamp at age 10 to attending the actual Space Camp program as a junior in high school, followed by her solid mentorship at Colgate University. When 11th grader Sophia Haggray asked about her experience at Space Camp, Dr. Heldman responded, "My experience at Space Camp I would qualify as life changing... It was the first time that I went somewhere where there were people like me who had the same interest in space... That was one of the most important things – finding a community of other people with shared interests."

 

You can watch the full recording of Dr. Heldmann's visit on Youtube here.

 

Her visit was very timely, as the students are currently planning their own fictitious missions to an imaginary system of planets called Glucas1. The three mission crews (CAGEN, STARSHIPS WMTF, & SAVE LEA) presented their missions on Thursday before break. Each group had to submit a proposal for their space mission which included a $75 million budget. They also had to consider the amount of power and the weight of the spacecraft for a successful mission using formulas they learned in class.

 

The STARSHIPS WMTF crew plans to catalog enough images of the planet to create a Virtual Reality experience for those back home. They are hoping to make the "space experience" more accessible to people on Earth. Check out the assignment details here.