Kennedy Space Center: No Boundaries to Possibility

By Jean Xin

The warm, humid Florida air hit me the second I stepped off the plane. Huge smiles spread across our faces as we realized that we were actually here. While I know that nobody likes looking through other people's vacation photo albums and getting to hear all about someone else's fun trip at length while they are stuck in Wisconsin, I ask you to bear with me, especially if you're interested in science. Aside from basking in the Florida sun (well, for two of three days, it was actually warmer in Wisconsin on one of them), we also met so many passionate people dedicated to absolutely fascinating research.

Dr. Weaver, Mr. Dan Barry, Tatiana Barry, Julie Iuliano, and I were fortunate enough to stay in Florida from Nov 11 to Nov 13, and it was am extraordinary experience. During late April/early May of 2009 (conveniently right in the middle of AP Exam induced panic, but that's another story altogether), we entered the No Boundaries contest after Mr. Vanden Heuvel brought it to our attention. It started as a good alternative to making a circuit (which reminds me a bit too much of daycamp craft projects and was rather conducive to third degree burns) or a photography contest for which I had no inspiration. However, as the idea evolved, it quickly became a lot of fun, despite the weekend during which I worked on it for about 6 hours straight on Saturday and then another 5 hours on Sunday. My eyes swam with HTML tags. We created a website and promotional video marketing a STEM career of our choice, astrobiology, to youth. According to the NASA educators we spoke to, the USA is suffering a severe shortage of people going into Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math fields. This is creating great concern for the future workforce of the large engineering firms, and especially for NASA, as they can only hire American citizens. While the making of our project was a story in and of itself, let's fast forward a few months to the actual trip.

Unfortunately, Kaitlyn could not make it, but the rest of us arrived at the Orlando airport the evening of November 10, and after a desperate scramble to find late night food, turned in quickly. The next day, we were welcomed to the Kennedy Space Center by a NASA educator. We had expected to spend only a few hours there, but we managed to stay the whole day. Kennedy Space Center is a great educational experience combined with a lot of fun touristy things. Some highlights include the Rocket Garden, Robot Scouts: Trailblazers for Human Exploration! (This would become a motto for the remainder of the trip), seeing two phenomenal IMAX films narrated by Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise, and The Shuttle Launch Experience, a relatively unexciting ride whose buildup was fantastic (complete with giant television screens, robotic arms, and way too many fog machines). Educationally, there were very accessible and well-designed signs everywhere, which gave a layman's explanation about the space program and application stemming from space research (e.g. the materials science research for the shuttles provide us with many of the heat resistant materials, and even metals, that we use today). If you're ever down by Orlando, it's definitely worth the stop.

Due to our fantastic time management skills, we worked for about six hours straight on the presentation we were to give NASA, which induced significant coffee consumption the next morning. Nonetheless, the five of us squished into the car, and shipped off to NASA. After a bit of a run-in with security (not nearly as dramatic as it sounds), we met people from NASA education and boarded an official government minivan. Our first was the Orbiter Processing Facility, where we were catapulted into a world of a zillion safety hazards, scaffolding, and some really excited people. I looked up, and that's when I realized that I was standing directly under the space shuttle Discovery. Someone with a great vertical probably would have been able to touch it. We talked about the insane temperatures that these tiles could withstand, despite the fact that they felt like a piece of Styrofoam. Most of the tiles on Discovery have been there since 1984! Seeing the orbiter up close was phenomenal, especially as we learned random facts. (Did you know that the external fuel tank, the giant orange thing, is held on by one bolt?) What struck me most was the atmosphere in the building, though. Instead of the daily drudge of your average corporate office or high school, everyone there was having fun and doing what they loved. Here's my shameless plug for NASA, but the employees at the OPF are truly being paid to do what they love, and how many people can say that? It's certainly enough to make me push a STEM career up on my possibility list. After, we went to see the engines after being ushered into a pristine white room, with a billion posters that warned of F.O.D. I know next to nothing about engines, but these are engineering miracles. Their material is designed to withstand the temperature of liquid hydrogen (−423.17 °F) and the temperature encountered in reentry (upwards of a thousand degrees). In fact, the nozzles on a space shuttle are actually made of little tubes, where liquid hydrogen flows as both coolant and fuel. They are capable of producing thrust up to 1860 kN at sea level- translated, it's insane. Ahem, excuse the geek-out. If you thought that sounded cool, though, you really ought to consider a STEM career.

After seeing the orbiter facilities, we were interviewed and spent some time at the launch pad, though we couldn't go up, since it was so close to the departure of the shuttle Atlantis and there were too many safety concerns (which is saying something, considering how many tanks of liquid gases I walked past). We also saw a gator, as KSC is also a wildlife reserve (I still don't really get that logic, but let's roll with it.) After that, we headed over to the Space Station Processing facility, another pristinely white building complete with a sticky floormat to prevent you from tracking in debris. Though much of the ISS is already up in space, we saw modules which bring waste, new clothes, etc. to and from the ISS. The Italians named them Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo. Yes, like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, although they were giving a nod to the great Renaissance talents. There's even a ninja turtle on their logo. The only (two, technically) word to describe the SSPF (NASA really likes acronyms and warning labels) is sci-fi.

Finally, we explored the Materials Science and Life Sciences labs. As far as materials science goes, *please prepare for geekiness overload,* I got to ogle electron microscopes and pretty much every spectrophotometer imaginable. They analyze unknown samples, since every minute detail must be checked and double checked. We took a quick break from touring here to give a presentation to the NASA education staff. Tip for all the Hawkeye 2.0 readers: if you don't want to pay for graduate school, go study a science. Honestly though, STEM careers have a lot of potential, not only for your career, but for the betterment of the world.

Afterwards, we went to the life sciences/astrobiology lab (appropriately, since we studied astrobiology) to see some really amazing experiments. First, we saw chambers that mimicked conditions for outer space living, and explored an experiment in which plants are grown in colored LED light (plant pigments only absorb a small range of wavelengths of light efficiently, but they also need other wave lengths for growth modulation). The second scientist we visited ran into a bit of a disaster that morning. After his microbial spore experiment spent about a month exposed the harshness of outerspace (makes you appreciate our ozone layer!), his experiment was shipped back to him that morning with a giant orange sticker that said, "X-rayed by the United Postal Service." While highly unlikely, these hardy microbial spores might have survived the radiation of space only to be killed by the USPS. Yikes. Finally, we talked to a scientist who has created the world's best "Mars Chamber," a pressure, temperature, radiation, and light controlled cylinder to mimic the conditions on Mars. In order to avoid "space pollution," we must be certain that we don't bring microbes to Mars that could mutate. He has been testing the hardiest bacteria on the planet, and none have survived the UVC exposure of Mars, so you can put that horror movie to rest for now.

Almost 1500 words later-- we basically had an absolutely amazing time. We go the movies to witness fantasy, but they say the truth is stranger than fiction. There is so much amazing research happening right now, and we're the generation that will push it forward. Don't miss that opportunity.