NASA Glenn Academy

**2005 Group Project**

# "Agents for Change": The Academy's First Educational Television Program

## **I. Abstract**

The 2005 Glenn Academy will film, produce, and distribute a twenty-five
minute program. This program will focus on outlining issues surrounding
the completion of the projected manned-mission to Mars in 2020. It will
include short segments on cutting edge technologies needed for this
mission, economic and political implications of such an endeavor, and
interviews with relevant scientists, engineers, and administrators. The
program will culminate with a segment dedicated to simulating the
possible problems such a mission would involve in the style of the "Real
World", which is familiar to our target audience.

## **II. Introduction**

After considering various group projects based on both research and
outreach programs, the Glenn Academy has decided to undertake a project
that incorporates elements of both of these programs. Our goal is to
produce twenty-five minutes of high-quality edited video in the style of
a common news-reporting program. This time will be split into different
segments. These segments will serve outreach purposes, while
incorporating different research ideas important to the five members of
the Glenn Academy. The members will alternate responsibilities of
interviewing guests, hosting the show, filming the show, and editing the
footage. Moreover, each of the five members will document their work in
a weekly web log ("blog"), available on the group's website.

## **III. Goals**

The three main goals for "Agents of Change" can be found below:

-   Demonstrate how NASA improves everyday life

-   Motivate young adults to pursue careers in science and engineering,
    and promote general interest in NASA's projects

-   Present not only our individual research, but also NASA's "cutting
    edge" technologies in terms of basic science and engineering
    concepts.

### IV. Purpose

Our program will help NASA by generating interest in the Agency during
this crucial time of transition. One of the main factors in NASA's great
successes five decades ago was the Agency's ability to captivate the
fascination of the general public. With the new administration being put
in place, NASA once again has an opportunity to achieve great success,
but only with the support of the American public. Our program could
contribute to this effort by directly fostering interest in existing and
potential interns at the collegiate and high school level, while
enforcing our own knowledge of our research through this educational
endeavor.

***IV. Contacts***

This project will involve many scientists and engineers throughout the
Glenn Research Center. All five of the Principal Investigators of the
Academy students will take part in one of the segments. A top
administrator will also need to be contacted, as well as some
researchers like Dr. Bryan Smith, Dr. Landis, and Dr. Pencil who can
contribute to our "cutting edge" segment.

***V. Distribution***

The distribution of our video is crucial to the success of this project.
There exists a need within NASA to communicate the value of our
internship programs, and to stimulate growth of these programs. Since
NASA's current workforce lacks diversity in age, race, and gender, and
the fact that NASA's future success in missions like the manned-trip to
Mars depends upon the contributions of our generation, we must reignite
interest in the Agency among everyone in our demographic. Specifically,
our program will be shown to all incoming and current interns,
recruiting exhibitions, and will be streamed on the Glenn Academy's
website, along with the aforementioned "blog".

***V. Projected Segment Schedule***

**"Mars Real World"**

Weeks 1-2: Discussion of Topics

Organization of Team Structure

Completion of Proposal

Weeks 3-4: Write a preliminary outline for the show (who we will
interview, general topics of the program)

Finalize the script

Present our progress to Dr. Kankam

Weeks 5 Interview 1

Begin shooting for introduction of Academy members

> Presentations of our individual research, and relevance of this work
> to the Mars mission

Week 6 Interview 2

"Cutting Edge" Technologies

> Have P.I.'s send problem scenarios to Rob for Mars Mission simulation
>
> Begin obtaining needed props for simulation.

Week 7 Interview 3

> Shooting of segment regarding the politics involved in the Mars
> mission.

Week 8 Interview 4

Mars Mission Simulation shooting

(During Weeks 5-8, we will begin initial editing)

Weeks 9-10 Final editing

Post-production

Distribution

***VI. Projected Segment Ideas***

> Segment 1: "The Mars Simulation" or "Mars Real World"

-   Each of the Academy students' P.I.'s will assign a possible problem
    a space crew traveling to Mars might encounter. The students will
    have a limited amount of time to solve that problem, detailing their
    solution in their weekly blog, and then reporting their adventure on
    the program. The program will also deal with issues facing the
    President's plan to return to men/women to the Moon, and eventually
    to land a person on Mars.

Segment 2: The Administrator Interview

-   The Academy students will conduct a phone interview with a top
    administrator at NASA, discussing important topics pertinent to the
    Agency. The program will focus on the different politics of the
    Agency, the problems facing the mission goal, and the possible
    solutions to these problems.

> Segment 3: Presentation of Individual Work

-   The Academy students will present their individual research in basic
    science and engineering terms for the young adults the show is
    focused on. These lessons will contain brief demonstrations of
    experiments pertinent to the research that will enthrall the
    interest of the audience.

Segment 4: "The Cutting Edge"

-   This program will focus on the interesting new project that NASA is
    focused on. The nuclear lunar power system, the new ion thrusters
    being tested in the Megawatt range, as well as advances in radiation
    protection can all be reported on by the Academy students. This
    information will be presented in a basic and interesting fashion.