Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science - A South African Teen Joins the Student Astronauts

Episode Date: November 3, 2003

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This is Planetary Radio. The student astronauts are coming from all over Earth to explore Mars. Hi everyone, I'm Matt Kaplan. This week on Planetary Radio, we'll visit with the Los Angeles couple that opened the door for a young South African girl to join this very select group. We'll also hear the words of that 15-year-old student. Bruce Betts has news of a lunar eclipse along with a new trivia contest, and Emily has the lowdown on longitude and latitude all around the solar system.

Here's the first half of her report. Hi, I'm Emily Lakdawalla with questions and answers. A listener asked, what are the criteria for assigning the locations of longitudes and latitudes on bodies other than Earth? The definition of latitude on other planetary bodies is pretty simple. Due to the process by which the solar system formed, every single body in the solar system rotates about a spin axis. A plane perpendicular to the spin axis that passes through the body's center of mass

defines the equator, or zero degrees latitude. So even potato-shaped bodies like asteroids and the smallest moons have an equator and therefore latitude. The end of the spin axis that points to the north of the plane of the solar system is the north pole of the body or 90 degrees positive latitude. And the end of the spin axis that points to the south

is the south pole or 90 degrees negative latitude. Longitude is much more arbitrary. There are 360 degrees of longitude, and longitude has to be measured from some reference point on the rotating body. On Earth, of course, longitude is defined with reference to the prime meridian, which passes through a point at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. On Venus, the arbitrarily assigned prime meridian passes through the central peak of the crater Ariadne, and on Mars it passes through the small crater Aries Zero. As it turns The Mars Exploration Probe If all goes well, the two Mars exploration rovers will begin rolling over the surface of Mars in just two months. Scientists at JPL will be eagerly watching the images and data flowing back from Spirit and Opportunity.

Right alongside them will be 16 lucky and talented teenagers from all over the world. They are the Planetary Society's student astronauts, chosen from among thousands of entrants who submitted comprehensive applications. Nomatemba Kantio is one of them. It may be a life-changing experience for this 15-year-old from a township in South Africa. Nomatemba does not have easy access to a telephone, so we are unable to speak to her directly. Instead, I asked my daughter, Claire, who is almost the same age, to read a portion of Nomatemba's student astronaut essay.

I'm a proud citizen of the Republic of South Africa. My nickname is Rara, and I simply don't mind if people call me that. I have a ten-year-old sister named Nomzamo, and her nickname is Riri. I am presently a grade ten learner at my school. I belong to the astronomy club at the school, and this extramural activity occupies much of my time. I love everything about space, and share the same love for the ocean. The place where I live is a peninsula with beautiful beaches, but most times I get to visit my teacher living near the ocean. It is always raining or too windy. From the month of November, we also see lots of whales in the waters.

Reasons for wanting to be a student astronaut. I consider myself as being very curious, and the Mars Exploration Rover mission is one thing that excites me. I am anxious to learn about past life and present conditions on Mars. As a young learner, I feel it is important to take an interest in the world and universe around us. I enjoy mathematics, physical science, and technology. Therefore, being a part of the Student Astronaut Program would enable me to be a part of something great which incorporates all my favorite subjects.

I am a female and live in an impoverished community. Being part of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission would show that women could achieve anything they put their minds to and show learners from similar environments that through dedication and hard work, everything and anything is possible. I would like to prove to all women, and especially here in Africa, that the time of a woman just being a housewife and cooking for a husband is long time over. I would like to promote the importance of math and science, as they are subjects that so many in my community do not see the importance and relevance of.

My ambition in life is to one day become a computer scientist, and being part of the Mars Exploration Rover mission is one step closer in that direction. I enjoy working with people, and being a part of an international team exploring another planet would be an exceptional experience and honor for me. The words of Nomatemba Cantillo, one of the Planetary Society's student astronauts. Cut now to urban Southern California, where Hildreth Howell Walker and his wife, Dr. Betty Walker, played an important role in making this opportunity available to Nomatemba. Howell and Betty have devoted their lives to educating young people and especially

to helping them understand and appreciate science and technology. Betty is a former school teacher and principal. Hal may be best known for his work in the 1960s on the Apollo Laser Rangefinder experiment, which determined the distance to the moon with incredible and unprecedented accuracy. Longtime friend Buzz Aldrin set up Hal's reflector on the surface of Earth's satellite. I caught this busy, dedicated couple late in the evening just a few days ago. Hal and Betty Walker, you are about to leave for South Africa. This is hardly your first experience there, though. Yes, Matt, we've been traveling to South Africa. This is hardly your first experience there, though. Yes, Matt.

We've been traveling to South Africa since 1994, and we have been on a semi-permanent basis there for about the last three years. And I guess your relationship there really got a start because of an invitation from a rather distinguished person. Yes, that's right. We took 12 of our students from our International Science Discovery and Learning Center on a study tour with their families, a total of 28 of us. Wow.

And we had an audience with President Mandela in 1997. And after meeting with the youngsters for about an hour, he asked Hal and me if we would agree to come back in 1998 and work with his students in South Africa to teach them what we're teaching our students here in science and technology, because that was the year of science and technology in South Africa. And of course, you have to say yes to this man. Weren't you kind of bowled over, I mean, not only getting to meet him, but a whole hour of his time?

Oh, it was incredible. It was an hour with him and the students, and then another 15 or 20 minutes with the parents alone with him. So we got, you know, over an hour and a half of time with this incredible gentleman. Yeah, one of the most amazing people of our time, or maybe of any time. So you now have, according to your website, which we'll talk about later, and I'll go ahead and give the address now. I think it's www.aman.org?

That's correct. And we'll explain what AMAN is in a couple of minutes. But on the website it says that you've got quite a few programs going over there, so I guess it was a pretty natural thing for you to get involved. What do you call it? Are you the sponsors of Noma Temba? Yes, you might call us that in a way, Matt. Noma Temba is a part of an astronomy club that we implemented there in our partnership with Mission to Dream.

And that astronomy club's name is the South African Students Astronomical Club, SESAC, Western Cape. And Norma Thimba along with approximately another 10 students are part of that Permission to Dream, Amen project there. And when we were made aware of the Red Rover project and the essay contest, we did ask she and about four other students to prepare essays. Now, there were only 16 kids there from all over the world, 16 teenagers who were chosen to make this trip to the Jet Propulsion Lab,

who will, and this is a real first, actually be working during the active part of the mission on the Mars Exploration Rover teams with the science teams. An incredible opportunity for all of these kids. But I'm thinking in particular of Noma Temba, who has grown up in a beautiful place, but not with a lot of opportunities that kids in the United States might have. That's true. that kids in the United States might have.

That's true. She lives in the township just outside of Cape Town, South Africa. I think the name of that place, is that correct, Betty, is Gugulatu. Gugulatu. And apartheid only ended in 1994, and she's just 15 years old. So you can really see what a life-changing experience this is going to be for her. Even in her young life, she's only 15, she has certainly seen a lot of changes. And for her classmates, too, I think this is one thing we can express, that her selection to be involved in this is a great adventure for her and also for her schoolmates.

I bet for the whole community. She must be a local hero. Yes, you can bet on that. So she's going to be coming here, but first you're going to be there because you're leaving what? November, is it? We'll be leaving in just a couple of weeks. Going over. And we will see her soon.

And, of course, have an opportunity to share with her some of the excitement of this trip. Now, what contact, if any, have you had with her so far? Only in the regard to try to assist the Penitentiary Society in making contact with her because, as we're aware, she lives in an area where there's very little telephone service and electricity. But let me tell you how we met her. But let me tell you how we met her. We raised funds to put state-of-the-art computer labs into township schools,, was selected by the Director of Education. And when we started working with the Rotary Club there and the principal and the staff to implement the, first of all, the background for the computer lab to be established so that they can really get online and be a part of the world, then we brought in the astronomy club,

and these students were selected by their teacher to be a part of it. So we have about ten students that are in this astronomy club at the Zeka High School, and that's how we met Nomathemba. She was selected by our teacher, and she really stood out among all the other students. She really stood out among all the other students. And so when we got the contest information, and she certainly wanted to, before we could ask her, she asked if she could participate in this competition. Now, are you going to be meeting her shortly after you arrive in South Africa?

Oh, yes. We'll be going out to the school, and we will spend some time with her, Oh, yes. She'll be going out to the school, and we will spend some time with her, and then we will be meeting with her at the science center that they have in the center of Cape Town. Her teacher will be bringing her over there so we can do some interaction together and use their computer lab. And then sometime early next year, she's going to head here to JPL in California, but you're actually staying in South Africa while she comes to the States. Yes.

But we hope that our plan is that while she's here, we will be in contact with her through the Planetary Society and also the fact that we would like to have her come and visit our science center here in Inglewood where we'll have an opportunity to talk with her by telephone. Excellent. And listen, we've got to talk with her by telephone. Excellent. And listen, we've got to talk about, since you're going to be gone, you told me, for something like six months, when we come back from the break, we should talk about who's going to be mining the store for you at home, because you've got a heck of a lot going on right here in town. Okay.

We'll do that right after we take this quick break. We'll be back with Hal and Betty Walker here on Planetary Radio right after this. This is Buzz Aldrin. When I walked on the moon, I knew it was just the beginning of humankind's great adventure in the solar system. That's why I'm a member of the Planetary Society, the world's largest space interest group. The Planetary Society is helping to explore Mars. We're tracking near-Earth asteroids and comets. We sponsor the search for life on other worlds, and we're building the first-ever solar sail.

You can learn about these adventures and exciting new discoveries from space exploration in the Planetary Report. The Planetary Report is the Society's full-color magazine. It's just one of many member benefits. You can learn more by calling 1-877-PLANETS. Planetary Society Exploring New Worlds PlanetarySociety.org. The Planetary Society, exploring new worlds. Welcome back to Planetary Radio. Our special guests this week, Hal and Betty Walker, talking to us from their home in the Los Angeles area,

but they are about to leave for halfway around the world, South Africa, where they will be looking into the many activities that they have going on there and meeting in person for the first time, Nomatemba Kantio, one of the 16 student astronauts who will, early in 2004, be coming to California to participate in the Mars Exploration Rover programs, actually to work as part of the science teams. Before we took the break, Hal and Betty, I said that you're going to be gone for six months, but you've got a lot of projects underway here in the Los Angeles area in Southern California

and elsewhere in the United States that are, I assume, going to continue on in your absence. Yes, Matt, and one of the programs that we're really excited about back here in Los Angeles will be our National Science Foundation program, we call Project SUM, which we've implemented over the past year. And SUM stands for Science Unveils Mysteries. We're really excited about that because it focuses on space science and technology. You guys have all these great acronyms. Yeah. We love them.

Betty makes those up for us. So this is funded by the NSF. Yes. Yes, and our International Science Discovery and Learning Center, located in Los Angeles County, just does a myriad of things to encourage students to be involved in science and technology. And we have hands-on activities and projects where students from ages 5 through 18 can come into the center

and get involved and participate and put their hands to work and put their minds to work. And this just goes with our theme of YET, Youth, Education, and Technology. There's another one of them. And these are kids you often do field trips, sometimes visiting places like JPL. That's correct.

We're doing National Space Week and, of course, engineering activities at JPL that are open to the public. We always have some of our kids out there. Talk a little bit about another of the organizations you've created, the African American Male Achievers Network, Incorporated. That's correct. That's a program that started about 14 years ago from some research that Betty conducted as part of a grant from UCLA to study the underachievement of African Americans. grant from UCLA to study the underachievement of African Americans.

And one of the areas that she chose to look at was to encourage students using science and technology as motivation and to look at how effective that was. And, of course, this was concluded with a very positive report. And she also was principal at her school where this research was conducted. So we took that research then, Matt, and folded it into a community-based program called AMAN Incorporated, the International Science Discovery and Learning Center. And on the website, www.aman.org, right up front on the homepage, you've got a couple of outstanding, I don't know if the right term is graduates, but a couple of boys, young men who have benefited from the program. Absolutely.

And I'm sure you've taken a look at some of their performance information there. They represent a very powerful influence of using science and technology in their lives. And, of course, the intent is not to create scientists and engineers. It's just to really build a strong technical-based community interest in our young people. Betty, you obviously came to this as an educator almost from the start, but how you started out as someone who was doing science and engineering, of course, the Apollo program involvement that we mentioned in your introduction. But I wonder, how did you turn from doing it to wanting to bring young people into it,

something you've been doing for a lot of years now? I felt mad after 35 years in the aerospace industry and, of course, recognizing that there just wasn't a lot of participation by minority people. I thought that once I retired, I would work in the community, try to influence more minorities to get involved in science and technology. Betty, you seemed like a pretty good partner to join that effort. Absolutely. Science has always been very important in my growing up days. I grew up in Washington, D.C., going to the Smithsonian,

visiting air and space, and my father worked at the Pentagon, and my science teacher in high school was a neighbor, and on the weekends, that's all we did is had fun with all kinds of experiments. So we were a natural match.

Folks, you know, we could go for much, much longer. There are probably more programs that you are standing behind that we won't have time to talk about than we have. But, Hal, I know there's one more that you wanted to mention, something that you're going to be up to in South Africa, another project in conjunction with the Planetary Society. Yes, Matt, the Planetary Society is interested in putting on display an exhibit there in Cape Town that will allow the community of Cape Town to participate and observe a Lego rover model in a Martian environment. And they've asked us to work with our partnership there with the MTN Science Center to implement that,

and that will be done probably by late December, early January. Well, so that will be done hopefully before we talk to you next, because I'm sure hoping that we'll be able to talk to you when you get to South Africa and maybe have Nomatemba Kantio join the conversation. That would be swell. We look forward to that. And you're out of here, I think you said already, in early November? Yes.

Well, we'll wish you a wonderful trip and a very productive one. I'm pretty sure it's going to be that way, and I bet you're going to have fun. Well, we'll try to. This is always a lot of fun to go over. We look forward to it, and the youngsters have such a thirst for learning. It's very rewarding to work with them. Well, thank you for the great work that you're doing, and we'll look forward to talking to you again.

Thank you. See us on www.aman.org. There it is. And that website, of course, will also be on the webpage where this radio program is archived on the website of the Planetary Society, planetary.org. We'll leave it at that for now, but it won't be our last visit.

Thanks again, Hal and Betty Walker. Thank you, Matt. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. And I'll be back with Bruce Betts right after this from Emily. I'm Emily Lakdawalla, back with Q&A. Longitude on other planets was first defined by astronomers. As the planet rotates, they define the longitude so that it increases with time when observed from a distance.

Thus, if the planet rotates in the same sense as the planet's motion around the Sun, as with Mercury and Mars, longitude on a planet is measured positive to the west. If the rotation is retrograde or backwards as it is for Venus, longitudes were measured positive to the east. Unfortunately, however, tradition had this backwards for the Earth. Longitudes on Earth are measured positive to the east so that an astronomer observing Earth from a distance would see the longitude decrease with time as the Earth rotated. This difference in convention from planet to planet has resulted in a lot of confusion, and it's only gotten worse as scientists have started to use computers to create digital maps of the planets. To deal with this confusion, in 2002, the International Astronomical Union

formally recommended that the Mars Convention be changed so that longitude is now measured positive east the same as it is on the Earth. The same convention may soon be applied to all the other planets. According to Mars mapper Ken Tanaka, the transition may be unpleasant, but in the long run, it will make our work less confusing. Got a question about the universe? Send it to us at planetaryradio at planetary.org. And now here's Matt with more Planetary Radio. Time again for What's Up with the Planetary Society's Director of Projects, Bruce Betts.

Bruce, welcome back. Thank you very much, and happy November to you. Thank you. Your special guest last week was a big hit. Got some very admiring email and an offer from NBC. Really? That's great. My son will be happy to hear that.

Well, what do you have for us this week? Well, we've got something exciting and different to look for in the night sky, which is a total eclipse of the moon. It will be on Saturday, November 8th. The totality will begin at 5.05 p.m. That's Pacific Standard Time, which, as you can tell, means it's going to be really tough to see totality very easily from where we are, the west coast of the United States. But people in all of Europe, western Africa, eastern South America, and eastern United States and Canada will have good views of things that vary. If you're in the central United States, then things will probably rise in totality. central United States, then things will probably rise in totality. If you're on the west coast of North America, then look for it low in the east,

coming up in totality or nearly in totality. It leaves the umbra, the umbra, which is the central part of the shadow, basically the part where it's completely within Earth's shadow, as opposed to only part of Earth's shadow, leaves the umbra at 7.05 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. I'm going to try and catch it. It's going to be good. It's going to be good. So go out there.

Look at the total lunar eclipse. While you're out there, take a look at Mars. Still in the southeast. Still fading. Still bright, though. You can take a look out, since you're going out just after sunset, some of you anyway, take a look for Venus. Venus will set about an hour after the sun in the west-southwest,

and Saturn's in the east-northeast four hours after sunset. And before dawn, Jupiter, high in the southeast. This week in space history, on November 3, 1957, Sputnik 2 carries Laika, the first living creature dog, to orbit. Yes, and we won't talk about what happened to Laika because that only upsets people. My daughters were so disappointed. They thought that was just the cruelest thing ever. I said, oh, what do you want?

They were dirty commies, but they're not anymore. I don't know what to do with that. Bruce has nothing to say to that. I don't know what to do with that. Bruce has nothing to say to that. Laika, the dog, turns out terminally ill. Would have died shortly thereafter anyway. And Laika requested a hero's death.

So Laika gave her life. Yes, became a hero of the Soviet Union rather than a dog being put to sleep. This has gotten so dark. Other things happened. November 7th, 1996, no animals were killed in the launch of Mars Global Surveyor, which is still working fabulously around Mars. One of the original founders and first president of the Planetary Society, Carl Sagan, was born November 9th, 1934. Yay. On to random space fact.

The eclipsed moon appears reddish often because, like sunrises and sunsets, it's because you're getting the longer wavelengths penetrating through the Earth's atmosphere, in this case being bent around a little bit and lighting up the moon in a reddish hue. So, trivia? Trivia. I'm in favor of it, although not as much this week. The old question, last week's question, as of October 23, 2003, how many moons is Uranus known to have?

We have, and this is a first, almost a year on the air, we have two winners. Now, we had to do this because, to be fair, well, I'll explain why we have to be fair. Really, the shame of it all. Here's a very legitimate winner, Sean O'Leary, who has entered in the past, but I don't think has won. I couldn't find him in the records anyway. Hey, Sean, of West Jordan, Utah. I think we've mentioned him before because they probably have coyotes and roadrunners

out there. But Sean said, according to the most reliable source... One of the recurring motifs of Planetary Radio. According to the most reliable source of planetary info on the web, planetary.org, there are currently 27 official moons orbiting Uranus. The correct answer. Does anyone have a handful of sand, he offered. Now, here's why we have to have two winners this week.

We also got an entry from Brian Martell, who lives in Waverly, Nova Scotia, I believe. And he said the answer to this week's trivia question is that Uranus has 26 moons, according to your website. And he even gave the web page. Good choice. Yeah. Brian, we goofed. What did you say? I think you found two places where we had it correct, the newest moon making it 27?

Yes, and apparently one we hadn't found where we still had 26, which has now been updated to 27. In fact, we went ahead and changed it to 28 just so we're a little ahead of things. So, Brian, just because you went to the – somebody actually did say 28, one of our regulars. He said because there'll probably be another one by the time the show airs. But I had to point out that you did say the number of moons as of, I think it was the 24th. October 23rd, 2003.

There you go. Okay, how about this week? Talking about the moon and moons, in this case the moon and the eclipse. And this one, not that hard. Test of those of you who have been listening will be able to answer right off. What mission is on its way to the moon right now? So what mission is on its way to the moon right now? You can enter the trivia contest for a fabulous Planetary Society calendar.

How do they enter? Go to planetary.org, follow the links to Planetary Radio. And don't worry, it's not a Men of the Planetary Society calendar. Space, objects, and pictures. One other random note. In space, no one can hear you scream. So anyway, there was also, speaking of Men of the Planetary Society, what a terrible lead-in.

I just want to let people know that there has been congressional testimony recently by the chairman of the board Bruce Murray and president of the Planetary Society Wes Huntress regarding the future of human exploration you can find both transcripts of those as well as links to videos of those on our website

planetary.org and if you want to hear just an excerpt a little bit of what Bruce and Wes had to say before that congressional committee, find in our archives last week's radio show because we do have a little touch of what they had to say and Lou Friedman's comments. Exactly. But those of you who shame on you this time didn't listen last week, go play with them now. What a show. Time to say thank you and good night. Look up in that night sky and think about Havarti cheese.

Thank you. Go on. Well, that was the Planetary Society's Director of Projects, Bruce Betts, with another edition of What's Up? No animals were harmed in the making of this segment. Join us again next week for another edition of Planetary Radio. Take care, everyone.