Glenn Mahone, NASA’s assistant administrator of Public Affairs

Excerpts from speech:

"In the months and years and decades to come, the men and women of NASA will be working on exploration projects that literally stagger the imagination ...."
"We need those people [our country’s next generation of explorers] to carry the torch of exploration to the heights unimagined and to frontiers that are unknown."

"I am here to share with you the excitement we experience on a daily basis as we take advantage of the opportunities to do things that have never been done before and see things that have never been seen before."

"It is a risky business that we’re in. It’s not easy."
"When you conduct daring scientific activities, sometimes you don’t obtain all your objectives, but we’d rather come up short than not even try to expand our understanding of the amazing universe around us. That’s what NASA and space exploration is all about."
"There’s one common link .... these missions and facilities are helping NASA advance the objectives of the Vision for Space Exploration, which we will accomplish one mission, one voyage, one landing at a time. And along the way, we believe the exciting potential of our exploration initiative will help reverse a decade-long trend of declining interest in students in math, science, and engineering fields, and help refresh NASA’s talent pool and our national technology base overall. This is a matter, in America, of no small importance."
Report from National Science Board: U.S. now ranks 17th among nations surveyed whose 18-24 year old population earns degrees in natural science and engineering. Even behind Ireland!
"Our nation is losing a long-distance race to maintain its edge in human scientific resources."
"A regeneration of our nation’s commitment to exploration and discovery will help, we believe, to reverse that trend."

"We’re convinced that we are setting the stage for a space program that will boost the opportunities we will have to become a smarter, safer, healthier, and more intelligent world. And if we do it right, on a scale never seen before in the history of this planet, at a pace highly thought possible, we are also quite confident that our exploration activities will spur technologies and developments that will lead to new products and services, and tangibly improve the lives of people throughout the world. Just as the Apollo program led to important advances in computing and electronics, the potential spin-off benefits from this broad-based exploration program could be considerable."

"We believe the technology developments necessary to execute and implement the President’s vision will accelerate advances in robotics, autonomous systems, human-machine interfaces, materials, life support systems, as well as micro-devices."

"We’re putting out a lot of effort in reaching out to our next-generation explorers."

"When the history of this second century of flight is written, we can well imagine that our next generation of explorers will have sought life’s abodes in all corners of the universe. These explorers will be able to look up to the stars that once guided the sailing vessels of yore, and map continents on dozens of their planets, and in so doing, define the next possible giant leap for mankind."

"The President has described a promising vision for our future in space, and said the cause of exploration is not an option that we choose, it is a desire written in the human heart. We are just at the beginning of this journey and we are facing the future with a combination of wonder and humility as we strive to extend our exploration reach throughout the solar system." Dr. James Garvin, NASA’s chief scientist for Mars and Lunar Exploration

Excerpts from speech:

Not a vision, but a "vision of visions"

"What we do today is a way of exciting our children, our students"

"We have two human-sized explorers working on the surface of Mars. It is the most tremendous engineering event of the 20th century. 30 years ago, human beings went to other planets, against all odds, pushing the envelopes of technology in the name of exploration, and they returned a legacy that inspired people like me, and many others, to go into this business."

Why Mars?

"It’s really a combination of pieces. As we look at Mars, Mars is one of the first cases where we can combine what we’re learning about our own planet, here on Earth, with this other world which shares many common elements. Many of us in the field look at Mars as a great control experiment for one of Earth’s destinies."

"There’s something on Mars for everyone-literally billions of square meters of real estate to worry about. A Mars program that is really a program."

Have found fossil river deltas virtually identical to one in Iran. "Looks into the record of life."

"Six-wheel drive, golf-cart size vehicles with better tools than geologists have ever had in the field. A way to train us people to go there and follow. The little pucker marks by cosmic collisions, these outcrops of rocks, they are the history books of Mars waiting for us to figure them out."

"Never met a rock that lied to me."

"On Mars we found things that are staggering beyond our wildest expectations."

Currently getting ready to launch the greatest reconnaissance satellite ever on an Atlas 5. Made by Lockheed Martin and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory – orbiter will return terabytes from Mars that will tell us where to go, what to do

Also presently completing payload for the first lunar reconnaissance orbiter since the 1960’s – building at Goddard

"The Moon has a lot of hidden secrets that are going to help us get onto places like Mars."

For the next generation, we need to ask, are we alone?

"Getting people and machines to ask those questions is our opportunity to get those kids excited." Robert Curbeam, Jr., Astronaut

(Speech excerpts unavailable)
Bio:

Robert Curbeam, Jr. grew up in Baltimore, MD, and then attended the United States Naval Academy, where he received a B.S. in aerospace engineering. He received an M.S. in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School. Upon graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy, Curbeam commenced Naval Flight Officer training. In 1986, he reported to Fighter Squadron 11 (VF-11) and made overseas deployments to the Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas, and the Arctic and Indian Oceans onboard the USS Forrestal (CV-59). During his tour in VF-11, he also attended Navy Fighter Weapons School (Topgun). Upon completion of Test Pilot School, he reported to the Strike Aircraft Test Directorate where he was the project officer for the F-14A/B Air-to-Ground Weapons Separation Program. In August 1994, he returned to the U.S. Naval Academy as an instructor in the Weapons and Systems Engineering Department. Selected by NASA in December 1994, Curbeam reported to the Johnson Space Center in March 1995. After completing a year of training and evaluation, he was assigned to the Computer Support Branch in the Astronaut Office. He is a veteran of two space flights, STS-85 in 1997 and STS-98 in 2001, and has logged over 593 hours in space, including over 19 EVA hours during three spacewalks. Between the two flights, Curbeam served as a spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM) responsible for relaying all voice communication between Mission Control and crews aboard the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. After his second flight, he also served as the CAPCOM Branch Chief. During the spring of 2002, he served as Deputy Associate Administrator for Safety and Mission Assurance, at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Currently, Curbeam is assigned to the crew of STS-116, an assembly and crew-rotation mission to the International Space Station. The mission will launch in 2004. Penny Glackman, teacher, NASA-trained educator

When I graduated from college with a degree in psychology, I had no inkling that I would become a space educator. It has been a wonderful and exciting journey, from then until now.

I am here to talk about how education can be part of the coalition for space exploration and how we can all work "together to continue the journey" as we venture forward with NASA’s new vision for space exploration.

The highlights of my past ten years as a teacher have been seeing the emergence of interest, excitement, and passion for space science and exploration in my students.

I have found that it is incredibly enjoyable to teach about space exploration to young people, and to learn along with them. Space captures their imagination, stimulates their curiosity, and intrigues their developing minds. The magic and excitement of exploring other worlds is without rivals. It is not difficult to integrate the study of space into every educational level, and to use it when teaching math, social studies, and language arts.

It is very important to continue to ensure that children are excited about learning and that we offer a learning environment that is not confined to the classroom. I have found that space science is a way to engage, enrich, and encourage a powerful learning experience for my students.

In 1997, I participated in NASA’s NEWEST Program where I spent two weeks at Kennedy Space Center. It was here that my spark was fueled and nurtured, and it was truly a transformational experience for me – I became a space enthusiast and had caught a bad case of space fever.

I returned to the classroom that fall imbued with new ideas and a strong desire to infuse my curriculum with space.There was no turning back and not only was the sky the limit, but the universe was.

Through networking with NASA professionals, my students have had the opportunities to email questions to scientists, communicate with launch managers, engineers, authors, and astronauts.Their classroom has extended beyond our school building. We visit a local university observatory at least once each year to learn about the heavens above and look through the large telescope at the wonders of space.

We celebrated Space Day 2004 as guests of Analytical Graphics, Inc. where we were received with great enthusiasm and treated royally. The AGI staff were very engaged with my third graders, as we launched model rockets and created spacecrafts of our own in small groups. Besides the fact that everyone was so nice to the children and interested in answering their questions and helping them with their inventive models, there was something that stood out. After the students made the models in small groups, each had the opportunity to share with the entire class the highlights of the spacecraft. They explained how the craft would launch, where the SRB’s or SRM’s were, where the astronauts would eat and sleep, where the re-entry heat shield was, and so on. As my students explained this in great detail, AGI employees passed through the area and took a few moments to listen to the children. It was clear to me that they were interested in what these 8-year-olds knew about space. They were also curious to look into the minds of budding engineers and space scientists. The image that emerged for me, that day, was adults in the world of space science and exploration seeing themselves in the past. I realized that my students were the very children these adults once were. And, we were all seeing the future knowing that some of these students would become the scientists, engineers, astronauts, and creative minds of tomorrow. I was witnessing the present looking into the past, and we were all looking at the future>.

Partnerships between schools and the private sector are extremely important. It is not only my job to teach the youth of today, but also the responsibility of all of us together. The walls of my classroom have extended to AGI, as well as to Goddard, NASA Headquarters, Johnson Space Center and Kennedy Space Center. I want to thank the people who have been so responsive to my students in answering e-mails, letters, and responding to their questions. And also to those who have created such wonderful materials for classroom use. I cannot do my job alone. As I learned at KSC – it takes a team to make a dream. Part of my dream has been to excite and inspire children to learn, and space science and exploration has been a wonderful vehicle for me.

My own experiences in teacher education programs such as NEWEST and the teacher academy project of the National Space Biomedical Institute held at Texas A&M and JSC have given me the opportunity to network with people in the aerospace profession and then to enhance the education of my students. It is an opportunity to make learning come alive.

There are hundreds of teachers like me across the nation who love teaching about space. I know because I have met them in numerous programs. Some are involved in NASA’s Explorer Schools. But many are not. We space educators seem to remain the outliers in our educational system. I encourage all of you to find ways to continue these programs so that more individual teachers have fluid access to the kinds of experiences I have been privileged to enjoy. I encourage you to partner with teachers like myself to help educate our youth.

I would like to share one more story that demonstrates how children become engaged and captivated with space.

This past year we celebrated one hundred years of flight. My students went to the local observatory to look at Mars in its close proximity to earth. We designed a t-shirt—From Kitty Hawk to Mars—celebrating both the Wright Flyer and the Mars rovers. We had several model building sessions creating rovers and Mars crafts and of course had Mars day in January to applaud the successful landings of Spirit and Opportunity. Jessica told us that her mom wanted to know why everyone was so excited about Mars. She told her mom the rovers have landed – there is evidence of water on Mars – that means they could have been life there! Then Jessica looked at me and said with amazement: Mrs. Glackman, can you believe that I had to tell my mom why Mars is so important!!???

When my students become the teachers, when their enthusiasm, confidence and knowledge grows as Jessica’s did, then I know why I enter the classroom each day, prepared and excited, and not always knowing what to expect.

We can all work together to enhance the experiences of our youth so that we are all participating in educating the explorers, scientists, engineers, technologists, and teachers of tomorrow. I applaud you all in the coalition for space exploration in your efforts to work together to continue the journey. As an educator, I have been thrilled and honored to be part of this incredible journey.

Closing comments by Paul Graziani, AGI president and CEO:

Returning the Shuttle to flight, going to the Moon, Mars and beyond are extremely important. I am confident we can make this happen, but we need the general public’s support.

Get the message it out by having as many people as you can sign the petition so we can take it to Congress and show that the American people want this. Touch as many people as possible in your sphere of influence, and soon we will succeed way beyond our expectations.