March 20, 2007

Beth Dickey/J.D. Harrington
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2087/5241

Jonas Dino
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
650-604-5612

RELEASE: 07-70

NASA SCIENTISTS AND TEACHERS TO STUDY MARS IN THE MOJAVE DESERT

Moffett Field, Calif. - A passionate teacher can make any subject come 
alive for students, and NASA is helping fuel that passion. 

On March 25-30, 2007, NASA's Spaceward Bound project at the agency's 
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., will take a team of NASA 
scientists and 40 teachers from throughout the country to study the 
unique geologic formations of California's Mojave Desert and the 
supremely adapted microbes that call it home. The Mojave's 
inhospitable, sun-scorched environment presents scientists with 
opportunities to study environments similar to what explorers will 
find on the moon and Mars. Leading the team is Chris McKay, an Ames 
planetary scientist with extensive experience in field work in 
extreme environments. 

"We have been doing field expeditions to Mars-like environments for 
years," said McKay. "Now we're bringing along the teachers, so they 
can see and participate in the exploration of these extreme 
environments. The teachers become part of the research team."

Based out of the California State University Desert Research Station 
at Zzyzx, Calif., 60 miles east of Barstow, Calif., teachers and 
scientists will perform scientific fieldwork. The team will study the 
similarities of the desert's geologic formations to those of the moon 
and Mars, how microbes and chemical oxidants affect desert soil 
formation, and the desert's hypolithic algae, cyanobacteria and 
stromatolites. Teams also will use a hot air balloon to test new 
remote-sensing equipment to detect subterranean formations such as 
lava tubes, caves and paleolakes. 

As part of the training for the expedition, teachers participated in 
four webcast training sessions that included presentations by the 
scientists explaining the research they will conduct during the 
expedition, training for field work in an extreme environment and 
discussions about how to bring their experiences into their 
classrooms.

During the expedition, teachers and students around the world can 
follow the action on the Spaceward Bound Web site via daily mission 
logs and image captures. On March 28, the team will hold two one-hour 
webcasts. The first webcast, in English, will begin at 9 a.m. PDT, 
followed by a Spanish webcast at 10 a.m. PDT.

"Beginning with the training webcasts and continuing through the 
expedition, 'Spaceward Bound: Mojave,' enables teachers to immerse 
themselves in authentic moon and Mars analog field research," said 
Liza Coe, co-principal investigator for the Spaceward Bound project. 
"Teachers will very naturally inject these experiences into their 
teaching, which is critical because their students are the ones who 
will actually go to the moon and prepare for the first human missions 
to Mars."

The Education Division at Ames developed the Spaceward Bound: Mojave 
educational program in partnership with the Desert Research 
Institute, Las Vegas, Nev., and San Jose State University, Calif., to 
train the next generation of space explorers. Previous Spaceward 
Bound expeditions include the exploration of the Mars-like soils in 
the Atacama desert in northern Chile and two week-long, immersive, 
full-scale simulations of living and working on the moon and Mars at 
the Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert.

The Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters, 
Washington, funds the Spaceward Bound project, which continues the 
agency's tradition of investing in the nation's education programs. 
The project is tied directly to the agency's major education goal of 
engaging Americans in NASA's mission. NASA is committed to building 
strategic partnerships and linkages between formal and informal 
education providers of science, technology, engineering and 
mathematics (also known as STEM). Through hands-on, interactive 
educational activities, NASA is engaging students, educators, 
families, the general public, and all agency stakeholders to increase 
Americans' science and technology literacy.

For more information about the NASA Spaceward Bound Project, visit:

http://quest.nasa.gov/projects/spacewardbound  

For more information about the Exploration Systems Mission 
Directorate, visit: 

http://exploration.nasa.gov 

	
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