March 28, 2003 News Releases
Released 3/27/03
MEDIA
ALERT: LIVE TELECONFERENCE FROM UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY TO INTERNATIONAL
SPACE STATION
LOGAN — A 30-minute live teleconference between Utah
State University NASA Get Away Special (GAS) students and NASA
astronaut Don Pettit on the International Space Station (ISS)
will take place Saturday, March 29, at 8:30 a.m. at the Science
Engineering Research Building in the CASS Physics conference
room (room 244) on the Utah State campus.
Utah State physics professor Jan Sojka, Utah State students
representing almost all departments in the college of engineering
and other colleges on campus will attend the teleconference.
Teachers and students from the Logan area, Mount Logan Middle
School, Spring Creek Middle School and the Idaho Shoshone-Bannock
High School will be present at the teleconference. The group
will talk science, ask questions and suggest hands-on experiments
for Pettit to perform.
The invitation to join the teleconference was extended by Ned
Penley at NASA and David Peak, Utah State physics professor
and assistant department head, who brought the opportunity to
Sojka’s attention.
Pettit, aboard the space station, initiated the hands-on science
activity, also known as Saturday Science, with common materials
found on-board the station.
Like the other members of the space station’s three-person
crew, Pettit is busy most of the week doing research and building
the ISS, where he's been living for the past three months.
“Saturday is when we have a bit of free time,” said
Pettit. “Some of the crew read books, play musical instruments
or watch movies. I prefer to do ‘Saturday Morning Science’—fun
experiments of my own design.”
Several years ago, the Utah State GAS team flew an experiment
on the KC135 (Vomit Comet). This experiment dealt with blowing
bubbles in zero-gravity. Pettit flew the experiment again on
the KC135 for Utah State in February 2003.
Sojka is the faculty advisor for the NASA GAS project at Utah
State and oversees the entire program. The GAS team includes
interdisciplinary undergraduate students developing experiments
that will fly on the NASA Space Shuttle.
In fact, Soijka said, Utah State has put more experiments into
space than any other university in the world.
Sojka has also invited many elementary and high schools to participate
in the GAS project the past eight years, involving more than
80 undergraduate students, 200 high school students and more
than 800 elementary school students. Sojka is especially pleased
with his relationship with the Shoshone-Bannock High School
in Idaho, which flew the first Native American payload and has
flown two more since then.
“Dr. Sojka and the GAS program represent a challenge for
our Native American students,” said Ed Galindo, science
teacher at Shoshone-Bannock High School. “We had to meet
the very high standards that NASA requires in order to fly our
experiments. Our highly successful first mission would not have
been possible if it weren’t for the personal dedication
and enthusiasm of Dr. Sojka and the GAS team.”
March 27, 2003
Contact: Jan Sojka, (435) 797-2964, jan.sojka@usu.edu
Writer: Heather Butikofer, (435) 797-1350, hmbutikofer@cc.usu.edu
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