RocketSTEM Issue #3 - October 2013 | Page 9

Image: NASA Ames NASA’s John Grunsfeld (left) talks during a NASA Social at the Wallops Flight Facility. Also, a crowd at NASA’s Ames Research Center (above) awaits the launch broadcast for Ames’ LADEE mission. Image: NASA/Carla Cioffi the Orbital Sciences Corporation. The Minotaur V lifts off very quickly – rocket reached mach 1 in 20 seconds! The first stage burned out in 57 seconds and was travelling at mach 4. There are some great videos of the launch on YouTube. NASA invited television and newspaper reporters as you would expect, but there are 50 people for something called a “NASA Social” as well. They come from as far as Oregon, Oklahoma, and Texas! They come from all walks of life including teachers (one of whom is streaming live to his classroom!) welders, photographers, sales and marketing, and a tattoo artist. I was one of those invited. I post lots of stuff about space on Twitter and Facebook and I signed up when NASA announced the opportunity on Twitter (the twitter handle is @ NASASocial). I highly recommend trying to go to one of these NASA Social events – I have been to a few and seen two rocket launches and met 6 astronauts. There was one other ‘uninvited’ guest at the launch. A frog was evidently in the water used to cool the area around the rocket launch pad and was ‘rocketed’ up into the sky when the Minotaur V lifted off. A picture of him was taken by an automated camera set up by NASA photographer Chris Perry. The frog is now tweeting about his experiences on twitter @RocketFrog1. Anyone can participate in the science of LADEE. The MeteorCounter app for smart phones allows for anyone to count the number of meteors entering Earth’s atmosphere. That’s an important number to know since the moon and Earth fly through the same area of space together. If you’re counting the number of meteors entering earth’s atmosphere, you’re basically also counting the number of meteors hitting the moon (remember the dust?). Since these meteors can be as small as a grain of sand, the impact on the moon won’t be visible from earth (it’s much too small), but they can make a bright streak in the Earth’s atmosphere. All you need to help out there is a smart phone and a blanket or lounge chair. Look up at night and count the meteors. A meteor impact on the moon can be visible on earth with a telescope as small as 8” in diameter for meteors as small as a walnut! So if you have a telescope or a smart phone, you can also participate in LADEE science! For more information on LADEE, visit NASA’s LADEE webpage at http://www.nasa.gov/ladee 07 www.RocketSTEM.org 07