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Welcome to the Archive Webcast from Yungay, Chile
June 28, 2006 @ 9:00 a.m. PDT, 12 noon EDT and Chilean time
Click here for Spanish Webcast 27 June

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>> Hi, my name is Whitney Brown, a former Jason Project Argonaut, currently an undergraduate student at the University of Chicago studying biology and anthropology.
Coming to you live from the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, but our signal is actually coming a lot farther.
Our signal is coming to you, as I said, from where we are sitting in Atacama, going two miles over to our station called Yungay, then being replayed to a satellite up above Mexico, finally to California, where it's being transmitted to the web.
We are coming a log way to you guys, we hope everything is going well.
To give you a little background on our research material, the Atacama Desert is a desert that stretches 100 kilometers north to south and about 80 kilometers east to west.
It's possibly the driest place on Earth and certainly the most Mars-like environment on Earth.
In part because rainfall in the desert is not measured in inches per year, but rather in millimeters.
We'll hear a little more about the conditions here a little later from Dr. Chris McKay.
If you take a look at the other worldly landscape behind me, you can see it's really not very hard to imagine we are sitting on Mars rather than in a desert in South America.
As a little background to the Spaceward Bound Program of which we are all a part, it includes three different missions or objectives.  
Scientific research is the first, education and professional development for teachers is the second, and robotics and technology is the third.
The first mission, the scientific mission, which Dr. Chris McKay will talk about, sitting on my far left, 20 researchers and scientists were stationed at the Yungay station, two miles away from where we are right now.
Investigating the threshold between an environment that can support life and one that cannot, of which the Atacama Desert is  a really excellent example.
The educational component is equally as important.
NASA explore school teachers from around the U.S. were able to join us down here in the Atacama Desert and assist the researchers in their scientific research, and we are also assisted by seven Chilean teachers, a little collaboration that happened between the two, which is pretty special.
We'll also talk about that later.
And the robotics and technology mission was occurring in which researchers are investigating the challenges in a very remote location.
We have a chat room going and would really like to encourage you all to send any and all questions you might have about the research going on, or the educational components, robotics or anything.
So please send us your question.
We'll have a question and answer session at the end.
So to talk about the first mission of the Spaceward Bound Program is Dr. Chris McKay, planetary scientists at NASA Ames, and the principal investigators of the Spaceward Bound Program, to talk to us about the science and research program going on.
Chris, can you tell us about the scientific importance what we have been doing here the last few weeks?
>> The main scientific interest in the Atacama Desert, this particular place, is that it really is a little bit of Mars right here on Earth.  
Earth is a plant rich in life.
We want to know if Mars was ever a planet rich in life and if there's any islands of life on Mars.
And paradoxical way we are studying life on Mars by looking at the one place on earth where there is no life.  Where 
conditions are so dry, the instruments we except to Mars to search for life would not detect life right here.
This one region, about 100 kilometer by 100 kilometers, this one region receives very little rain and also very little fog because the mountains block the fog coming from the ocean.
And it is in this region and the rain shadow of the Andes and the fog shadow of the coastal mountains we fine the very, very dry soils.
And in three ways they are like Mars.
Very low organic material, undetectable by most instruments, low levels of life, and present in the soil is some kind of chemical reactivity similar to what we saw on Mars with the Viking instruments.
So we have assembled scientists all over the world to study the sigma tures that remain in a place that is like Mars.
We are looking for life on Earth, the most Mars-like place we can find, and we will develop instruments and approaches that we will take to Mars and search for life on Mars.
We will use this as our training ground.
Train our senses, our approaches here, and go to Mars and apply them there.
>> Great.
Thank you so much, Chris.
I think we'll excuse you now and hopefully see you later in the broadcast.
I would like to remind you all that the ideas that Chris mentioned are fresh in your mind to send in any questions you may have.
>> Liza, teachers have played an integral role in the program, and we have five of the seven teachers standing by.
Two of the teachers also working with us this week, Carrie and Jeff are off on an expedition with Dr. Linda Powers.
But can you tell us about the teachers working with us, how they got here, what they have been doing, that kind of thing?
>> Sure.
I would like to mention Carrie and Jeff were with us until midpoint in the week and an awesome opportunity opened up for them to accompany one of the scientists, Linda Powers from Utah State University up three volcanoes and their task was to join her in climbing up these three volcanoes and taking samples at the top for her experiments.
And when they get back, we'll make sure to have that kind of information on the web so you can find out more about it, and as the other teachers here talk about their work, they'll also introduce the work that Dr. Powers has been doing.
They had a really amazing opportunity to go do this, which they took, and they apologized profusely to their friends and family who expected to see them today, but they are in very good hands with Dr. Powers who is a mountain goat, and has done this for years and years and years, and they are having a blast.
So they send their hellos and their love, and they wish they could be here but they are on top of a mountain.
So -- okay.
A little bit about the Spaceward Bound program.
Education portion and mission was provided by the mission directorate at Mission headquarters, that's been the overarching concept we have worked on.
Another big thank you to the NASA explorer schools who were excited about the project from the very beginning.
They helped us with the teacher selection, and also the teacher support prior and during the trip.
We did do five training sessions using the distance learning network prior to the trip so the teachers got to know each other.
I gave them some pretty good homework assignments that they did a great job on, and through those homework assignments, they got to know each other and also a little bit about the Chilean teachers we teamed up with over the past week.
And thank the supporters through the ner  -- Internet and the press communities to help us get the word out, and we thank you for your interests.
As far as the program goes, the beliefs that guided the development of this program reflected the beliefs of the people who were doing it, obviously.
And overarching is the act that the students now in school probably most likely in middle school will be the ones that are those, will be the ones first go to explore the moon and Mars.
It won't be us old foggies, we'll be near retirement, it will be the students in school.
We traditionally teach students in singular aspects of science, biology, chemistry, natural science, we teach them singularly.
And the skills needed to do exploration are fundamentally different from that in two very important ways.
First of all, students have to have an understanding of the synthesis of all these parts of science, of the chemistry,  biology, and human factors was a major issue over the past two weeks which the teachers concentrated on, which comes directly out of psychology and so ciology, and so we need to train our students to look at exploration as a synthesis of all these things.
There isn't one scientist here that deals only in chemistry or only in biology.
They also deal in a synthesis of those subjects.
The second way that it's fundamentally different, exploration is experience.
There is a large amount of lab work, but scientists are in the field, digging holes, taking water samples, one of the scientists yesterday wrapped a garbage shopping bag around her shoes so she could sample some of the bacteria that has collected around the station because of the human presence.
So it was those two aspects of student understanding of exploration that we really have been targeting with this program.
Now, the teachers.
These guys have been fantastic.
And if we could show a picture of our teachers, the American teachers.
We went out and talked with the NASA explorer school people and said we need seven really, really good teachers who are passionate about bringing science into their classroom, and schools really came through with that.
Good teachers will naturally meld their expertise and their experiences and leverage that into the classrooms.
They do that very, very naturally.
And so we wanted to, in our way, leverage that passion and that experience to bring forward the, bring forward the education about exploration.
And I have extreme confidence that that is exactly what's going on.
So the question S what can NASA do in this context.
And I believe there's three things.
Among others, that we can do, but three things we concentrated on in this program.
Fireworks we have provided a stimulating, life changing experience to the teachers to build up that base of experience that they have.
They have gotten a lot of science content and training in science processes by teaming with world class scientists.
They aren't learned it out of a book, they have been in there with the field and the scientists, digging holes, and not necessarily by a candlelight, but a single watt bulb doing the analysis.
So they have worked alongside the scientists.
We can support their development in the classrooms.
They will, as I said before, will naturally want to leverage that in the classroom and we want to provide them the support for them to do that.
So those are the three areas that as a program we have really concentrated on in a belief of what NASA really can do to support the teachers.
Exploration as we're thinking about it nowadays is an essential component of that is international collaboration.
 The transfer of ideas between countries, between people is very, very necessary.
So we decided to draw an analog to that in the Spaceward Bound program.
We worked with Dr. Gomez from the University, and he went out into his area and selected seven Chilean teachers to join us at the station.
He did an equally as good a job as the NASA explorer schools did in selecting seven wonderful teachers from the area, and I think we have a picture of them hopefully up.
And this is just an amazing experience for everyone involved.
The result was wonderful for me to witness as an educator, and extremely compelling in  terms of what it is we saw, the  work that all 14 teachers did, planning for the future, how they will continue the collaboration, and the sharing of the ideas that they did.
We took a two-day road trip, and had the experience of how many teachers does it take to fix a flat fire, and the answer is 14.
That was a challenge that we faced out in the middle of the desert, and but we made it back.
And we had a really good time.
We learned a lot about the culture of Chile, and the culture of education in Chile, which is different than ours but also similar in a lot of ways.
So it is my extreme pleasure to be able to introduce to you these teachers and Whitney will guide us through them one by one.
They have distinguished themselves throughout the expedition, both with the science community who they have worked very closely with, and also the international education community.
And I'm very proud of them.
And I think you will enjoy listening to what they have learned and how they are going to bring that into the class rom.
>> Thank you so much, Liza.
It has been a pleasure to work with you and the teachers.
I think it's time we bring them out.
See you later in the broadcast.
 The first teacher I would like to invite over is Phyllis.
How are you?
Would you -- would you like to introduce yourself and tell us a little about some of the research you have been involved with here?
>> Sure.
Hi.
I'm Phyllis, hi Bob, hi Lee, I teach at Key Peninsula Middle school in the state of Washington.
I'll tell you about the first two days of our experience after we landed, landed in san at  san at Santiago, it's still 800 miles.
We drove up the highway, and the question was why would we do that.
A very good reason.
The difference in latitude and the difference in the climate, by traveling the 800 miles, really good sense of the country, of the plant growth, of the organisms that would survive, and as we headed north we began to see more and more desert.
And it was a really good experience for us as we prepared for what we were about to do.
Eight of those scientists working at the station, there were more than eight, almost double that throughout the last two weeks, came with us.
Along the way to also talk to us about what they were doing.
The morning of our second day when we were still only halfway here, there was a briefing about what they were going to be looking for in the desert, as we stopped to take samples and what they were looking for, how they would test it and what they would do.
The amazing thing is, there were only four basic tools.
There was a sterile spoon like you get from the kitchen, your plastic gloves, zip lock baggy, and markers to mark on the bag.
There's a picture of us doing the transects.
>> Can you tell us what each of the scientists were looking for specifically?
>> Okay.
I'll give you some examples.
We worked with Dr. Henry Sun, and he was looking for life under transluscent rocks.
So we would be searching for transluscent rocks and examine them to see if there was any evidence of algae or microbes there that he might want to take the soil back and  test it in the lab.
We worked with Dr. Linda Powers, and that was the most work.
She liked to dig down.
We had to take sample from the top, the middle, and from  sometimes further down so she could compare what she found at the different layers.
She used a light machine that would tell her if there were microbes living or dead or if there were spores, and of course if there was nothing.
So that was her main test she did.
She was able to do some of that out in the field.
Dr. Penny Boston was looking for desert varnish, a dark color on the top of rocks we learned, because the underside is clear and it's growing microbes on that.
And she'll take those back to her lab and grow those over a long period of time as well.
And then one of the other scientists, Dr. Jim was looking for algae, and he would test the presence of algae on the rocks he thought had them, after he kleked  -- collected them with a  fluorescent light.
There is a picture of some of the science examination being done.
>> Thank you, great, Phyllis.
Can you tell us, obviously a big part of the program is trying to figure out ways that you have learned into the classroom.
Do you have any specific ideas or still thinking how you are going to do that?
>> Yes, I'm penciling down ideas all the time.
I'm so excited to gate back and -- to get back and use it in the classroom.
It opens my mind to the possibilities of what I have been doing and how I can do it, and engage the students and collect samples, and I teach life science, look for living things and non-living things and trace, and to be able to, as the scientists do here, discuss with each other, how the experiments are going, and give each other ideas.
And the questioning that goes on here, you get the samples, you test them.
Not only question what you got, you question your samples, your machines.
There's so much higher level thinking I'm just really excited to use this information and science that I have in creating a great curriculum for next year.
>> Thank you so much, Phyllis.
See you later in the broadcast.
I would now like to invite Kobe to join us.
>> Hi.
>> Do you want to introduce yourself and tell us what you have been doing the last week?
>> Hola, America.
My name is Kobe.
I've been doing quite a bit since we dot here -- got here, or since we left san Santiago.
The more you see, the more you want to see around every hill.
As we finally pulled into the station, we'll put a few pictures of the station up there, it's just amazing how barren the life is here, and how lifeless it seems.
And all the work that the scientists are trying to do, hunting for a different piece of living material.
It's just something that I can use in all kinds of ways back at home.
And as I was going out into the field, with different scientists, it became apparent to me that it's sunny down here.
There's -- there's no clouds any time that we can see.
And during the day.
Maybe a few in the very early morning if you are up before sunrise.
And as the sun hits the tops of the mountains you can see some clouds way off in the distance.
But I'm looking around, and I look at the station and I say, I thought to myself, this would be a perfect place to try and self-sustain a scientific research station.
So I got together with Chris McKay and Penny Boston, tossing ideas around about developing a self-sustaining Mars-like research base.
Not only doing analog research, but doing it in an analog research station.
I have been working with Chris and Penny to develop some ideas on how we can situate some working situation, working laboratory and working living, living quarters and all the things that you are going to need up on Mars, put them down here, right here in the desert.
>> That's great, Kobe.
Do you anticipate this this  -- that this kind of a research platform would provide opportunity for further cooperation since the U.S. and Chilean government?
>> Since I've been down here, Chris has gotten me in touch of two men, and we have talked about the developing the station and using  the input to look at the Mars-like research station.
And after I started thinking about tharx I also decided that I was going to try and take some of this design, building design home and create some sort of modules that we could send out across the country, even back here with the teachers.
And use that to let students do a virtual field trip in a virtual research station.
And see what it is, what kind of problems they are going to run into with power, communication, living and all the different things we are going to run into.
So that's been pretty exciting.
And I hope to be able to develop that over the next year.
>> Sounds absolutely fabulous.
Thank you so much, Kobe.
And thanks for keeping us sane.
He was the class clown here, too, so we appreciate your humor and we'll see you later in the broadcast then.
>> Adios.
>> Next I would like to invite Kathy to join us, take the hot seat.
Literally.  
How are you?
>> Good, thank you.
>> You want to say some hello, tell us what you've been up to?
>> Say hello to my family, of course, back in Michigan.
And to the D.L.N. in Glen Research if you are watching.
And I'll tell you a little bit about myself.
I've been teaching 11 years at Scarlet Middle School in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
I learned that a rock is not a rock.
When I first looked at the opportunity to come, I thought what exactly is a biologist  going to be doing there, and I am quite surprised to see how busy the biologists keep themselves, along with the geologists.
So when we were on the transecn,  and working with Dr. Henry, the right rock, I realized you can't just take a rock and find what you need in the rock.
So we spent a lot of time looking at a lot of different rocks.
>> That's great.
I know it's been really fascinating for me to see how much more there is to the landscape and geology around us than what meets the eye.
>> True, very true.
 The other thing, knowing that this is an experience that we need to take back to the classroom, I have spent a lot of time thinking about this as sort of the ultimate field trip.
And how can we translate something that fabulous to our students, and the thinking about the way we normally set up a field trip for the students, compared to the way this field trip was set up for us.
After we were selected, we got to know each other through videoconferencing, but also Liza assigned us some very targeted homework which introduced us to the different Mars analog stations, introduced us to the scientists we would be working with, so we actually -- then she formed us in little groups that we were looking at the different components of what we would be dealing with out here, and we wrote papers and collaborated with each other then.
And to me that was, it made this more real.
Before we even got here.
And I started thinking about the difference between that, the way Liza set up our field trip and the way normally teachers set up a field trip.
We say we are going to go here and do that, we take the kids out and go there and do that, and then say what did you find out?
Science teaching has moved to an inquiry based in the classroom.
I started thinking about how you bring this science in the same kind of inquiry-based out in the field.
And my hope and my intention is to start working on protocol, and writing much like backwards lesson design for field trips that would translate not just in this region, because obviously we don't all have access to this region, but could be used in a wide variety of applications.
So it's -- I mean it's an exciting opportunity.
It's unbelievable.
And you know, I'm really happy that I got to do this.
>> I think we all are.
Thank you so much, Kathy.
We'll see you later on.
>> Thank you.
>> No problem.
>> I would like to bring Matt on down.
How are you?
You want to say some hellos?
>> Definitely, thank you.
Say hello to my family, my wife Jessica, and our two children, Isabel and Nathan, and everybody in Sioux City.
>> I'm going to interrupt from the question room, because we are getting comments from some people who say could they take their hats off so we could see them?
But, but, I've argued that it's not really a good thing to do, but Sioux City writes and says we would like to know the current conditions.
It looks pretty comfortable.
>> I'm glad we are making it look comfortable.
>> Tell them why you might not want to take your hats off.
>> First of all, kind of having a bad hair day.
I'm not taking my hat off.
The sun is pretty intense.
We have to keep sun screen on daily.
Although we look comfortable, the temperatures during the day gets up around the mid upper 90s.
Even some recordings around 100 degrees, and of course the temperatures at night drop well below the temperatures that my sleeping bag was rated for.
So even gets a little colder, and you have to wear and dress in multiple layers.
So I think we are all glad we brought some coats and things that Chris recommended.
>> Got a nice breeze right now.
But definitely cooking out here.
We apologize for the shadows around our faces.
Matt, you want to tell us about some of the science you have been working on this week?
>> Sure.
We kind of focussed on an area we are presenting today.
It was unbelievable to see the things that we had prepared for and worked on as a group prior, so at least we knew what things to look for, things to anticipate prior to the tripsch the homework really helped.
There were so many different factors that came into play and how the group dynamics developed, friendships and gotten to know each other.
But also not just teachers, but also with the science community.
This has been for myself personally  the first opportunity to see science in the field.
>> Great.
Has it been all fun and games for you, or have there been any challenges that you have had to overcome or handle while you've been out here?
>> We have been working, assisting the scientists in the research.
But it has been fun.
You have times when you are serious and doing things, and enjoy the  group and enjoy where you are at.
We, Jeff, can you put on the picture?
We have had some things to deal with a little bit.
A few days ago we went on a trip to San Pedro, and we stopped to do some sampling, and we noticed there was a hissing noise toward the back of the vehicle, and we had hit a rock or something and split our tire.
So we had, it wasn't a slow leak, it was a fast leak.
We put our thumb on it which was nice temporarily.
But we found out there were some things we weren't prepared for.
We had a dysfunctional way to change the tire, but we had other vehicles, we switched out and found a vehicle that had a Jack.
And then when we lowered the tire, the spare, a huge bubble about the size of a softball, we agreed it went  -- it wasn't normal and didn't put it on the car.
We are trying to patch the hole, what we ended up doing, we had to patch the tire there on the spot.
Probably have a picture of that, or did.
You can see us working.
And it was interesting.
We didn't have a lot of time, we were running out of daylight and had to make a decision.
There were a lot of people giving input.
So coming to that conclusion on what to did and how to do it best was really interesting.
As far as the games, if you run into anyone involved in the trip, ask them about Poto.
>> That's a story in itself.
I know what we have been dealing with is a language barrier.
Some of us speech more Spanish than others, but we had an opportunity to collaborate with seven wonderful Chilean teachers.
>> That was amazing.
I spoke with several people, we had time to talk and visit about the interaction between the scientists and the Chilean teachers, and American teachers, but we had people that spoke polish, Russian, German, French, diversified, and also Chinese, diversified group of people and to see people trying to communicate.
The first few days everyone was a little quiet.
The interactions were not really there.
They were basic things.
And I know from the U.S. teachers, different teachers had different levels of knowledge.
Some had none at all, some had a few basic words.
Some could do the directory, ask for directions, where they were, their name.
It was neat to see the progression.
Even people who couldn't community started using their hands for verbs, and for words they needed, it was funny seeing the struggle.
But over time, all loern -- learned to community.
>> Extraordinary thing to witness.
Anything else you want to add, Matt?
>> I was asked to talk a little bit about the human factors issue that came up, and Jeff and Carrie, who are not here today, are off with Linda, we had to come to a decision, the opportunity that arose for Jeff and Carrie to go on the expedition involved four teachers and not two.
So we had to as a group, the decision was left up to us on who would go, and it was very fascinating.
It wasn't a decision that was made right away.
Actually sat on it for a few hours and later in the evening came to a consensus.
I had a videoconference lined up with my hometown and that was important to me I be here for that.
And then amongst the other three in the group, one person designated as a person who would -- the other two drew straws.
 The decision for the two that went was unselfish for the group.
>> Thank you so much for your input and see you a little later in the broadcast.
>> Thank you.
>> Our final teacher to come on down is Cherylynn.
>> 8th grade science teacher from Sand Hills Middle school in South Carolina, a little bit outside the state capitol.
This is an amazing trip.
First say hi to my family, I'm sorry we haven't been able to call.
I've tried to email.
My grandson in South Carolina and our granddaughter in California.
One of the fascinating things to me is geology.
My students know that I just love rocks.
Rocks, sand, dirt.
And to be able to drive along as we did on the transect, along the coast, and see the effects of tectonic on Earth, it was just amazing.
I can teach plate boundaries and converge  plate boundaries but to see the actual effect as in folding and faulting and fracturing is totally astounding.
I think we have a picture along the great sand dune, and in the background you can actually see the folding of the layers there.
And then of course with Penny Boston in the same car, has a fascination with rocks, we were looking out one window at the mountains, and Matt was looking out the other window at the great surf waves popping up along the coast.
Last year my students and I had the opportunity to participate in the project mysteries of Earth and Mars, we can a comparative study of the geology of fars and geology of Earth, and one thing that fascinated the students was how do we explore other planets.
We learned some of the design challenge, we have two  recoverys on Mars, Spirit and Opportunity, and we learned the design challenges that designed them and getting them there safely, and to still have wonderful data coming back from them long after they expected.
When I got here and found out that we would actually have rovers here, I said it's going to be awesome to bring back to my students next year.
I did an after school class with the Lego mind storm robotics and the students loved it.
And next year a semester long robotic program, and I met the man you will introduce in a bit, and his rover, and so excited I'll be able to connect engineers like Cory to my students and has share his expertise with building rovers and robotics there.
It's been a fascinating trip.
I'm really excited that we have had the opportunity to do this.
>> Thank you so much, Cherylynn.
An excellent segue into the third portion of our broadcast.
We'll see you a little later.
And now I would like to invite Cory, if he's ready, to come join me.
Cory is an engineer at NASA Ames, with the adaptive control and evolveable systems group.
It's a mouthful.
Can you tell me about the rover you brought out here?
>> Certainly.
First I would like to thank everyone who came out here, especially our hosts, Chris, the list goes on and on.
 The people have been outstanding.
We have been very appreciative of the support everyone has been giving us.
Our research is looking at the rovers and very low cost rover, a lot of commercial off the shelf, reduces the cost, instead of having five, six people operating them, only one at a time.
They are durable, and also lower costs.
Off the shelf components.
A GPS/INS unit has a way of measuring where you are on the Earth to about a meter accuracy.
And sonar, and laser range finders.
An thanks so much, Cory.
Because robotics and technology is the third  mission of the Spaceward Bound program.
How has the rover integrated into your own research?
>> Looking at how you can adapt to failures in the low cost environments, we have to have a way the operators at NASA Ames driving this can overcome failures, so they can look to other rovers around them, and look at reconfiguring the components on the fly, and we are looking at low latency operation for the rover, somewhat in a different location has to operate them.
They know the time they get to put a command in and receive the results back, five, six seconds.
How can you overcome that.
Try and use simulation loop from the controllers side.
>> That's really wonderful.
Cory, thank you so much.
At this point I would like to invite Dr. Liza and Chris McKay to come join me for a question and answer session.
Start out with general questions about the scientist  or robotics, and if they have people that would like to say hello to the people in the field, we would welcome that.
>> I might add Whitney, earlier today and last night we actually drove this robot from California, so we handed over our control to a lab, to the lab in California, and they actually drove the rover, and there was a group of Girl Scouts and other students that looked for water here on the desert using this little rover.
And it was an absolutely fantastic experience.
>> Great.
Thank you for that addition, Liza.
.
>> Question ready?
>> We sure do.
We are getting some good questions.
I do hear that sound is coming in and out, so we are going to try to stay as close to the Mikes as possible and speak really slowly.
How long have scientists been studying this desert in regard to being a Mars analog?
>> Sounds like a question for Dr. Chris McKay.
>> We first started Mars research program here about six years ago as part of NASA's astrobiology program, and the technology for exploring planets program.
We had known this desert was unusual because it was so dry.
We had already identified it as a potential place to do research for a Mars-like analog.
And about six years ago we came down with a group of scientists and did a transect down 500 kilometers south.
As a result of that work, we identified this place as the dryest place, the most Mars-like, and have been focusing on that ever since.
>> Thank you, Chris.
>> Okay.
From Chile wants to know how can you define successful expedition?
>> How did you can  -- how can you define a successful expedition.
>> From my point of view rb the most important thing about a successful expedition is that everybody returns safely.
That has been our number one, overriding issue here, the safety.
We are in an extreme environment.
We are driving four-wheel drive vehicles off road, up hills, down valleys, so safety has been our number one concern.
We have had incidences here where we have had a fire, for example, fortunately mostly because of Cory's good planning we had a fire extinguisher handy.
Number one is safety.
Second, scientific results which we measures as papers published in the peer reviewed scientific literature >> From an education perspective, I consider success when I see the gleam in the teachers' eyes that tell me they are going back to the classrooms and this information will make it far and wide.
And several months down the road I get to  see that actually happening.
And another I think I wanted to mention who asked about the conditions, its very hot right here and we are looking right into the sun.
Also notice there's a ton of dust all over the place.
That has gotten into every nook, cranny, piece of clothing, body area that you can ever imagine, and there is one toilet and one cold shower for over 50 people.
So, because we had three crews here.
We had the science crew, the education crew, and the broadcast crew.
So we really, really have pushed the environment about as far as it can go.
And you don't see any palm trees or swimming pools in the distance.
So it has been a truly extreme experience.
>> That's for sure.
Coming up with clean clothes to wear for the broadcast was a little difficult for some of us.
Do we have another question, Linda?
>> You saw briefly a picture of the place they have been staying out here.
Yes, I do.
From Sandy.
For many of you it sounds like this desert experience will change how you teach your kids once you get home.
How can you also pass this experience on to your fellow teachers so that they, too, can also benefit from your once in a lifetime field trip?
>> Really excellent question, Sandy.
I'll pass it up to the teachers.
>> One thing I'm going to try and  do with the teachers, develop the modules where we can experience this kind of trip and relative problems to it in the classroom so that the teachers will help me develop that with, the the prototype off to them where they can test or comment on.
I know everybody is very excited that at the prospect of sharing what we have learned with each other and our wider audience of teachers.
>> I would also like to add something too, on maf of -- behalf of Jeff who is not here.
He came up with a great idea as we as U.S. teachers go back home, when you go home it's hard to stay in touch, and it  dwindles and diminishes over time.
And take the Lewis and Clark expedition and use it as an experience here, and bring it back to the classrooms and share with students and teachers.
And three, four of us actually live on the trail, so it will only tie into what we are doing at home naturally.
So we are excited about coming back and trying that as a group collaborative effort that we can video kfrps  -- conference with each other.
>> Another thing I might add, keep an eye on the Quest web site, the web site you went to join this webcast.
And a rallying point for the input for all these teachers and what they are going to be doing, how they are going to bring it into the classroom is going to be that web site.
And so you'll be able to sign onto the web site, sign onto the listserv, and you'll get messages about when new and exciting programs come up on the web site, and you'll be able to use a lot of it in your classroom.
So keep an eye on it.
>> Thank you.
>> There is a specific question for Sioux City.
KTIV is interested in knowing what kinds of things Matt expects to bring back into his classroom this next fall.
>> Matt, it's for you.
>> One of the things I would like to do, and of course with funding support from KTIV I can do this.
I would like to have an opportunity to, I would like to have an opportunity to take our kids out and get them an opportunity to experience what we have experienced here, the camping aspect, the, the entire aspect what it's like to plan for a trip, what supply considerations you need.
Some of the human factors we didn't get a chance to talk about really big were the eating.
We have eaten a lot of ham and cheese sandwiches.
And in San Pedro it was nice to have a different meal.
 The concept of bathrooms.
You don't have the luxuries when you are living in a remote environment that you do at home, and you take those things for granted.
And we appreciate things while we have been here.
I hope to bring the experience back and let kids experience it.
Not just have us experience it here.
>> One thing I would like Kathy to comment  about her greenhouse idea.
I think it's a cool idea of taking the notion of the environment here and putting it right back in Michigan.
>> All right, Kobe, since you insist.
One of the things I was considering along with rewriting protocol for science class field trips, is to try to take this whole idea of a transect into the classroom, you have the very dry, semi dry, wet, very wet, and in a greenhouse environment, try to start some cultures.
I don't know if we really talked a lot about how the, there's a, the tie between classification of organisms from a biological standpoint could be brought into the classroom, and if you can't get out into the field you can bring the field into your classroom, too.
So that's something -- maybe this is more for Sandy and for Matt's question.
But you can think about it, too, Sandy and look forward to seeing some of that on the Quest site.
>> We have lots of sand to bring home.
One thing I want you all to notice -- is Mrs. Campbell's hand.
This did not happen on the trip.
So not get confused about that.
>> I have a new story.
>> She experienced a break of her hand before she came on the trip, and we had quite a few discussions about whether or not she would be able to make the the trip.
And part of it obviously was her doctor's call.
 it  -- it brought up some issues, she had to keep it clean, be careful when she walked over the rocky surfaces and avoid walking over some of the rocky surfaces because she could fall and hurt it.
And that was an interesting study during the expedition what you do about injuries.
>> Connects to a possible future expedition to Mars as well, so it's really very relevant.
>> I have a couple questions for Cory, if he can come up close and grab -- okay.
From Robert.
First one is are the actual rovers on Mars the same size as the one you have there on display?
>> No, the actual rovers on Mars are a little larger than the ones we have here.
>> Robert also asked, is there a possibility of more students being able to control rovers remotely as a part of their school year experience during this next school year?
>> It can be controlled from anywhere on the web, so -- South Carolina, Washington, any of the locations would definitely be able to.
We actually sell this product as a kit through a company, so they can be purchased with a curriculum that can be taught to a class.
>> Okay.
The NASA explorer school at Ames wants to know how deep are your core samples?
>> We take samples below the surface nor -- for a variety of  reasons, from depths to centimeters to meters.
Normally enlisting the age of strong graduate students, but holes from the mining companies that are deep.
And we have had scientists rappel down the deep holes to take samples on the side.
So the underground is as interesting as the surface.
>> Jeffrey Bruce, who is the photographer who has provided us the virtual field trips which you can find on the web, on the Quest web site will also be photographing one of the scientists rappeling down the infinitely deep holes this afternoon.
So stay tuned and check the web site.
We'll get it up as soon as we can.
>> I'm going to translate a question that came in in Spanish.
Yesterday was our Spanish webcast.
Today is English.
So did they find any type of bacterial life that theoretically might live on Mars?
>> That's a very good question.
One of the hypothesis we had when we first study  this core regions, they show different adaptations and organisms have regular deserts.
The organisms we find here seem to be the same type of organisms we find elsewhere in other places of the world.
What's unusual, the concentrations in places can be 10,000 times less than the concentrations in other deserts.
So it's the number, not the type, that seems to be unusual.
>> Okay.
FTC asks when taking samples, how many will you collect in a given area, how far apart, and I guess are these samples taken?
>> Actually with  -- we had, whenever we stopped at one of the sites, and they were not preplanned.
It was wherever the scientists thought we might find interesting materials.
It could have been spur of the moment.
The scientists would jump out and go and take a variety of samples, usually from a communal site.
Dr. Sun wanted surface samples, Penny wanted deeper samples.
 At one point we were taking up to ten centimeters in different samples.
And then Linda Powers was taking samples to test the  flouresence.
>> They are at all different levels.
From below a meter, up to the surface.
So we can get many, many samples from that hole in different ways.
>> To add to what they said as well, we can bring this back to the classroom, and this is something we have all talked a lot about, how to collect sterile samples, go through the techniques.
But also with Linda's work, we collected samples, went back, she liked what she saw, so we went back to the same spot, had to find where we were digging, we had to journal where we were, identify it, and then we had to take several pictures of the area and also and the area so she had a good idea where we were digging and what was around it.
A lot of great ties we can bring back to the classroom, when you find an area that's of interest, how you go back to the site and record information that's of potential use to scientists.
>> Okay.
We are getting a request from the outside that teachers please mute your Mike, it's going back and forth between us and you and it's a little difficult to focus.
A question from Amy.
How long is Kathy's exploration visit, is it a week, or for the summer?
>> Well, it's almost over.
I will be going back, tonight's our last night in the desert.
We head back, it's really a two-day drive back, so  we'll be heading out first thing in the morning tomorrow and back in the states on the 1st.
So two weeks total.
>> Okay.
We have several more, I'm going to start to wrap this up just because we have an hour after this particular webcast for family and friends to check in with their missing in action loved ones here.
So one more question.
Will there be, which leads in very nicely, will there be future expeditions to this region, allowing additional educator opportunities to have similar experiences?
Or, possible extreme environment as in cold climate, and the Antartica?
>> Bring it on.
>> Yes.
>> Headquarters, are you listening?
Let me step back a minute and I will answer your question in just a second.
In looking at the overall question of what's next, we leave here tomorrow morning very sadly, in some respects.
Showers are looking really good at this point.
But we have charged the teachers to go forth and prosletize, and into the education community, the towns, and nation, as well as now international venues is very, very important and we are going to work very hard on that one when we get back.
These teachers are the ambassadors of exploration, at this point.
They have been there, they have done it, and they are going to be our best way of communicating that bad and the concept of exploration to students and the general public.
They are charged, as I said, with bringing their knowledge into their classrooms, not only in their classrooms, but into their schools and other teachers and to the general public.
And knowing these guys now after having been with them for two weeks, I have absolutely no question in my mind this will happen.
I'm really, really looking forward to seeing it and watching it in action.
Also in the fall, as part of Spaceward Bound we will be taking at least one, if not two contingents of college stunts uld -- students and graduate students into the Utah desert, we have a thing about deserts, to a station called the Mars desert research station run by the Mars society.
We will partner with them and bring students out for full simulation of what it's like to live and work on Mars.
So you live in a habitat.
Every time you go out of the habitat they have to have a space suit on.
They are in somewhat similar environment to this, however it's not as strictly Mars-like as this desert is.
So that's going to be a big experience in the fall, and of course you'll be able t  -- to find out more about it on the Quest web Site.
Spaceward Bound was proposed and is a pilot program.
So we as NASA has been looking at it within the larger context of NASA itself, and NASA education, and analyzing it to determine whether or not it is a program that is worthwhile and should go forward, and I think we have seen really unqualified success with the teachers and what they have experienced, and we --
And there's a number of different ways we can do it.
We can -- the international cooperation has been extraordinary.
Might want to think about potentially bringing the Chilean teachers back to the U.S.
Many places are likely candidates.
It is interesting because teachers are at school during the fall and winter, which is generally the time you like to go to the desert in the northern hemisphere, and so that is why one of the reasons we came down to the southern hemisphere, the teachers are out of school.
And also the graduates of this program will play a extremely vital role in the development of further programs, and they are also charged with mentoring future teachers that would participate with us in this type of program.
So with that, I'll wrap it up.
And stand by.
>> They will them to stand by.
Family and friends who want to greet their teachers.
>> Family and friends please stand by and speaking of which, say hi to Alexi and Peter, and dad and Fran and Peter.
>> We will go from the formal webcast to an internal family and friends thing.

Curator: Allison Pasciuto
NASA Official: Mark León
Last Updated: February 2005
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Welcome to the Archive Webcast from Yungay, Chile June 28, 2006 @ 9:00 a.m. PDT, 12 noon EDT and Chilean time Click here for Spanish Webcast 27 June

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Welcome to the Archive Webcast from Yungay, Chile
June 28, 2006 @ 9:00 a.m. PDT, 12 noon EDT and Chilean time
Click here for Spanish Webcast 27 June

Video Feed Using Real Media:
Have you downloaded the Free RealMedia Player?

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