Assignment The World; 4400

We are. Hi and welcome to assignment the world I'm Alisa Mara. Since its creation in 1958 NSA has been the leader in space exploration. Its mission to understand and protect our planet to explore the universe and search for life to inspire the next generation of explorers. For one little girl in Eastern Washington that inspiration came while lying in her parents front yard. Wyatt

Remus reports. Bonnie Dunbar remembers lying on her parents front yard in Houston Washington and watching the Russian spacecraft Sputnik fly through the sky. The space race had captured her imagination. I think there is a universal feeling. That we need to explore the unknown. We need to go back to the moon. We have a whole generation of children who don't realize we were on the moon. We walked on the moon. And have been the only nation to do so. But beyond the moon there's the quest for Mars and what may finally push us there is this age old quest for understanding where we are in the scheme of the universe. The whole potential of was there life of any form on this planet that is near us and to us. Human desire to explore and understand the environment around us led Bonnie into space. At this hour it's what drives her today to encourage others to continue the exploration of our universe.

I think it's inevitable. I think once the human species ceases to explore. it will deteriorate and implode on itself. It has to grow. To nurture itself, to survive. The first flight for any astronaut can be nerve wracking. But Bonnie remembers being remarkably calm for her first trip into space. It's an incredible view of our planet. It's an appreciation of our planet. It's a look out to the rest of the universe and really understanding. Not understanding as much as appreciating the concept of infinity. If you want to be an astronaut whether it be a pilot or a mission specialist. We're all technical which means right now whether you're in the third, fourth, or fifth grade you need to start learning about computers, operating computers, studying Math, studying Science but also being a very well-rounded person which means studying English. Probably studying a foreign language as well because we also have international crews now. For Assignment the World

I'm Wyatt Doremus. The space shuttle Columbia lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on April 12th, 1981 to begin the first shuttle mission. Primary objectives were to accomplish a safe accent and orbit systems and return safely. All objectives were met successfully. The first group of astronaut candidates for the space shuttle program was selected in January of 1978. In the future the United States with its international partners Japan, Canada, Russia, and The European Space Agency will need astronauts to man the space station now being built. Interested? Well with the right education and training, maybe you could join Bonnie Dunbar on a future flight. The following program is rated M for Mathematics. Mathimeticians The people who do the math and like the math are the ones that figure out when we launch

What time what kind of direction we have to go in. So that at a certain point in time we can actually help out, at the space station. Math skills are required to create and operate many of the devices NASA uses to explore the Earth in space from aircraft to aero jet. Rockets to robots And space suits to space stations. The following program is rated G For geography Part of NASA's mission is to understand and protect. Our home planet. In many instances you define a pair you'd like to go to science research but along the way you find many surprises.

In our story about Bonnie Dunbar, we told you she first became interested in space while living in Massachusetts. And the correct answer is number three. Bonnie Dunbar first became interested in space while living in Eastern Washington. Well NASA's always on the lookout for the next generation of scientists and astronauts and Math and Geography are just two interests you might have to have in order to get involved. But, they aren't the only ones. The following program is rated s for Science. Power switch on. If science is your thing. Try creating and conducting experiments help NASA

expand our knowledge of humans, plants, and animals. We will have to keep the fram going so eventually we will have the women scientists and. The following program is rated A for Astronomy A few light planets stars and galaxies and then accept our challenge to explore the universe and search for life. The thing that I really enjoy studying about the sun is activity that might influence earth. On May fifth 1961 Alan Shepard was the first NASA astronaut aboard a sub

orbital flight. Gus Grissom followed him two months later. John Glenn became the first American to complete an orbital flight aboard Friendship 7 in 1962. For nearly 50 years NASA has looked at space for answers. Twenty five years ago twin Voyager spacecraft departed earth to visit outer planets and to gather information. They continued to send back data daily to scientists at NASA's and around the world. A quarter century after NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft lifted off a mission is flying a race against time during the first 12 years of its mission. The Voyager has gathered information about four planets and forty eight moons including fast winds and Neptune kinks in Saturn's rings and volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io perhaps the most in important discovery in the sense of setting the tone for the whole mission was the discovery of the

volcanoes and as we approached Isle we saw an object that didn't look unlike anything we had ever seen before in fact we have not seen anything like it since. And we did not understand what we were looking at at all it was so different than anything we had imagined. And it was only as we were flying by that a navigation image was taken that is an image taken with deep exposure displaying the stars in the background. The navigation engineer the more of your CO noticed that there's this large ploom off the limb of this little moon of Jupiter And that was the first indication that this is the most mechanically active body in the Solar System 100 times more volcanic activity than earth and yet it's just a small moon orbiting this giant planet as they mark the silver anniversary of the missions. It helps that at least one of the spacecraft will pass beyond the boundary of the sun's influence before its nuclear power supply runs out the sun creates a bubble around itself of the solar wind which is a million mile per hour wind creates a bubble called the heel sphere.

We don't know exactly how large that will be a sphere that is today void your is 85 times further from the sun than the Earth is and may be beginning to approach the interface of this bubble with interstellar wind which is just beyond. We hope that these two spacecraft will be the first to. Leave the heliosphere and enter into interstellar space while they're still operating so we can for the first time directly observe what is out and beyond our own solar system. The Voyager team still receives information almost daily from the spacecraft traveling beyond all the planets in our solar system. The mission is examining the far reaches of the solar wind gust flow of particles world outward by the sun. Eventual goal is to become the first spacecraft to taste interstellar space. Void your head that sense of exploration of going where no one has gone before. And I think there's a real appeal to learning.

Something new going somewhere and seeing as spatial when you go somewhere and see something which is different than where you came from. I think that's what Voyager was about. You know our story about the Voyager spacecraft we told you they discovered about Saturn's rings. Do they not really exist, have kinks, disappear twice a month and the correct answer is number two. Saturn's rings have kinks. We went to the moon in 1969. Forty years later we may go to another planet. We went back into our video vault to learn more about a possible mission to Mars. Wyatt or Remus reports. In the year 2009 NASA plans to launch a manned mission to Mars astronauts will spend two years exploring the Martian surface. For those who can't wait. NASA's "Mission to Mars" interactive

museum exhibit is traveling the United States and Canada. "Mission of Mars" is a $3.8 million exhibition designed to promote both math and science in young people and also in their families. Visitors to each science center that houses a "Mission to Mars" exhibition will have the opportunity to check their height, their weight, their visions, blood pressure and their hearing and compare with NASA's minimum qualifications for the pilot and Mission Specialist candidates for the shuttle program. Highlight of the exhibit is a simulation of the planned Mars base, the actually habitat planned for the Martian surface. Crew members will be able to work with remote controlled robotic arms lasers satellite imaging systems. Uh, some of our crew will even have the opportunity to don spacesuits. Inside the Mars base are scientific stations each designed for their own experimentation and research. The science that we're doing inside the Mars space is simplified versions but make no mistake it is the same science that our astronauts will be conducting when we set down on Mars. It is not a ride it's not a movie they're actually responsible for conducting our research

on the surface of Mars could change the way we live on Earth. The space program is responsible for many things we use every day. I mean we could talk about spin off technology until i'm blue in the face everything from smoke alarms to digital watches and the technology that's involved. Just about all of our parents are using technology has its basis in the space program. So here's a chance for young people to learn about just some of the benefits that they're receiving every day. The bottom line is for every $1 that we spend towards the space program we receive the benefits in time and comfort devices well over $50 back in return so it's an excellent return on investment. And right now we're trying to make an investment in our future and that starts with our young people. And that's it for this week's program. From all of us here on Assignment the World I'm Elisa Mara. We'll see you again next week. (Music playing out)