Module: Other Topics

An Idea to a Flight Payload: A Simulation

Grades: 4-8

Activity created by: Cheryl Connolly, STELLAR teacher 1996-97

Principal Investigator: Dr. Gary Jahns

Overview

Real space science is the combined efforts of many teams, often international in scope. Numerous ideas for space experiments are devised by teams of scientists, but not all experiments can be done due to limitations of time, money, and room on the spacecraft. NASA has a stringent selection process that determines which experiments fly. In this activity, students will be introduced to the process of how an idea for an experiment becomes a NASA biological flight payload.

Key Questions

• How are space experiments developed and selected?
• What steps are required to successfully fly an experiment as a NASA biological payload?

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Time Frame

Preparation Time: 30­60 minutes

In Class Time:

Phase 1: The Idea-Scientific Communities-2­4 class periods (depends on experiments chosen)

 

Phase 2: The Announcement & Submission of Proposals-2­3 period

 

Phase 3: The Review Cycle-2 class periods minimum

 

Phase 4: Meetings to Define the Experiments-3 class periods minimum

 

Phase 5: Flight Time allotment-1 class period

 

Phase 6: Flight Manifest-5 minutes

 

Phase 7: Launch-5 minutes

Total minimum time for the entire simulation is 10 class periods.

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Materials

For each team (8 students):

• Experiment materials; recycled items
• 1 copy each of all forms:

Research Announcement

Engineering,Cost,and Management(ECM)Review - Page One

Engineering,Cost,and Management(ECM)Review - Page Two

Mission Science Evaluation

Checklist for Proposers

Proposal Summary Page One

Proposal Summary Page Two

Project Description

Drug-Free Workplace

• paper (writing and drawing) and pencils (lead and colored)
• a clock with a second hand

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Getting Ready

1. Review the section "Background for Teachers" at the end of this document.

2. Read through the entire simulation and decide on a time frame for the phases. Times are adjustable dependent on how much student activity is involved and what limitations are set.

3. Decide whether to have a single class do the simulation or to have other classes/schools interact, with each class playing a specific role. If doing this activity with a single class, decide on how many teams you will have in the class.

4. Photocopy a set of forms (on the previous pages) for each team.

5. If you want to give concrete suggestions for experiments to your students, look over some of the other STELLAR activities for ideas to propose.

Classroom Activity

Phase 1-The Idea

NASA and the Scientific Community

1. Introduce your class to the idea that space science is the combined efforts of many teams and that ideas for space experiments are devised by teams of scientists. Tell them that not all experiments can be done due to limitations of time, money, and room on the spacecraft. Explain that they will be playing the roles of "Scientific Teams" and "NASA Teams" to learn about the selection process that determines which experiments fly.

2. Divide the class into groups.

(a) For single class simulation, divide the class into scientific teams with 4­5 students each.

 

(b) If you are coordinating several classes, each entire class may represent one scientific team.

Designate the groups to be "scientific teams" as representing:

• The United States
• Russia
• Japan
• The European Space Agency
• Canada

Further define student's roles within the scientific teams:

• Payload Scientist
• Experiment Support Scientist (E.S.S.)
• Principal Investigator (P.I.)

Roles for "team specialists" can be deliberately set factoring in multiple intelligence. For instance: The P.I./coordinator (Interpersonal), Taking measurements (Mathematical), Drawings (Photo-Spatial), Record keeping (Linguistic), Making observations (Intrapersonal), Drawing conclusions, etc.

3. The scientific teams must design experiments-gather their necessary materials, perform the experiment, recording important data. The experiments can be either completely student designed and developed or experiment ideas can be suggested or assigned. You may find suitable ideas for experiments in other STELLAR activity modules. For example, possible plant experiments can include:

• the effect of gravity on plant growth
• the effect of varying nutrient requirements (water, food)
• the effect of altered substrates

Possible experiments involving live specimens might include:

• the effect of habitat size on the reproduction of a species such fish or fruit flies
• the effect of receiving stimuli or pictures from a different orientation than is normal

Phase 2-The Announcement and Submission of Proposals

1. A NASA official will read the NASA Research Announcement. Predetermine the due date for the written proposals.

2. Have students read the "Proposal Applications" that you have photocopied for them. Clarify any elements of the forms that you think may be unclear to the students and allow them to ask questions about what each part means. The scientific communities will then write up their proposals. The bulk of the information should be based on their previous experiments.

3. The proposals should be submitted in hard copy or through the use of Internet if available and you are interacting with another site or class.

Phase 3-The Review Cycle

1. Tell the class that the scientific teams must now temporarily give up their scientific team identities and become NASA review teams. Each team member must take on a new role from the following NASA team roles:

• Payload Manager
• Engineer
• Operations Leader
• Hardware Developer
• Program Manager

If you are coordinating several classes/schools, the "NASA teams" referred to here may be whole classes of students. In that case, it may be helpful to either (a) make a few photocopies of each proposal to facilitate review by the class, or (b) have volunteers read aloud sections of the proposals for the whole class to hear.

2. Explain that each NASA review team will review all the scientific project proposals EXCEPT the one that they submitted in their scientific team identity, so they cannot introduce bias towards their own proposal. The "Review Cycle" is to determine which experiments continue on. The NASA review teams basically evaluate each proposal based on its scientific merit as well as engineering and cost feasibility. If necessary, designate certain NASA groups as subcommittees to match the proposal groupings so that smaller groups are reviewing independent projects. These smaller subcommittees may need to use Internet or the library to find out the answers to the questions on the ECM and Mission Science Evaluation.

3. Distribute a proposal to each team and allow 15­30 minutes for them to read, discuss, and evaluate the proposal. They should fill out the ECM and Mission Science Evaluation. Encourage them to write notes and comments on additional sheets of paper to help them remember the key features of the proposal.

4. Have each team send the proposal that they have been reviewing to another team and allow 15­30 minutes for review of the second proposal, again filling in the evaluation forms and taking extra notes as needed.

5. Continue exchange of proposals until each NASA team has read and evaluated all the proposals, EXCEPT their own, of course.

6. Allow each team time to discuss the relative merits of the proposals and pick which one they think is MOST worthy of flying.

7. Have each NASA team report its findings to the rest of the class and allow "inter-team" discussions of reasons for their findings.

Phase 4-Meetings to Define the Experiments

1. The scientists and their NASA review group need time to meet to plan out how the hardware and materials for the flight version of the experiment will be obtained and built. Tell the class that in space there are size and weight restrictions. You may wish to put out a variety of recycled materials for the children to build with, pointing out that everything in space is a recycling issue, again because of space restrictions.

2. Organize the class to pair a NASA team with a Science team to discuss and plan the flight version of the science team's experiment. Allow time for actual construction. While size of their structures should be true to the actual experiment, certain difficult-to-obtain items may be represented by a model or drawing. If possible, have them perform ground tests to see if their experiments or structures will need revision.

3. Optional: repeat step 2 with the "NASA team" and "Science Team" reversing roles and working on the new "Science Team's" project.

PHASE 5-FLIGHT TIME ALLOTMENT

1. The NASA program manager will announce the time that is available to the group aboard the space vehicle for actual experimentation to be performed by astronauts. It may be only 5 minutes a day! You as the teacher may predetermine this based on the experiments that will be performed.

2. Have each scientific team draw up a daily schedule minute by minute of activities they want to occur.

3. Have the scientists partially test part of their plan on Earth using a clock with a second hand.

PHASE 6-FLIGHT MANIFEST

Have the NASA Project Manager announce that the experiments can go off to Cape Kennedy! [5 minutes]

PHASE 7-LAUNCH

Have a countdown to officially send off your experiment. [5 minutes]

Wrap-up Session

Have students make a time line of what happened in order to successfully launch their project into space. Have them include illustrations and photos.

More Activity Ideas

1. Students may want to try to test their experiments under conditions of microgravity if possible. Clinostats are available for loan through the STELLAR office at NASA or can be built using an old clock or 2 rpm motor attached to a disk that can rotate slowly and constantly in an upright position.

2. Refer to the NASA web site for future experiments or past experiment reports for other ideas.

Background for Teachers

Prerequisites

• Teamwork, cooperative learning experience
• Previous experience in performing and documenting experiments
• Recommended but not required: familiarity with use of the Internet and electronic mail

Vocabulary

• protocol-list of explicit procedures to be followed
• payload-combined objects sent into space as cargo
• parameters-guidelines
• microgravity-a level of gravity MUCH less than Earth's gravity (much less than 1% normal Earth-gravity), generally caused by free fall or space flight.

Skills

• Science skills: observation, measurement, comparison, analysis, drawing conclusions, making a hypothesis, record-keeping, critical thinking
• Life skills: perseverance, cooperation, initiative, organization, responsibility

Concepts

• There is a delineated process for successfully experimenting in space that includes scientific and human value as a priority

Additional science background:

Announcements for proposals are actually now available through NASA computer links. They are quite detailed as some of the examples included here show. The requirements vary slightly depending on whether the projects can fly the International Space Station, the MIR, or the Shuttle.

NASA will usually specify the type of project, as well as the size, containers, weight, available. They will work with scientists to modify their budgets, adapt their projects so that they will work in microgravity, and refine engineering to fit space available. Often, required hardware can be fulfilled with existing technology and if workable, that will then be used. Every project must account for all materials used and what happens to that material. The normal garbage cannot exist in microgravity.

Upon returning from space, the scientific community has approximately a year to complete any other testing before written documentation of the project is required for the public.

Editing by: Alan Gould, Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley

Keywords: payload, microgravity, protocols

More Background For Teachers-Authentic NASA Forms:

Research Announcement: Avian Developmental Biology Flight Experiments - Spacelab Mir-I

Download MS Word file:

Engineering, Cost, and Management (ECM) Review - Mac version

Engineering, Cost, and Managementt (ECM) Review - PC version