A few entries ago, I made mention of people who go the extra mile to help inspire the next generation to pursue their dreams in fields related to math, science and engineering. Today I am going to tell you about one particular educator and his inspiring efforts, Mr. Dan Anderson, an 8th grade science teacher at the Christa McAuliffe Regional Charter Public Middle School in Framingham, Massachusetts. This school, named in honor of the late educator/astronaut, is an expeditionary learning school incorporated on the basis of emphasizing high achievement through active learning, character growth and teamwork. In the spirit of this education model, Mr. Anderson took the initiative to give his students first-hand exposure to the professional world of many aspects of the space industry. In preparation for an event to honor the memory of Christa McAuliffe and the rest of the STS-51L crew who met their tragic end 25 years ago onboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, the students in Mr. Anderson’s class were given a unique opportunity to interview space professionals from all over the world and from multiple disciplines. These students were assigned into sub-groups to study these different disciplines ranging from planetary science to propulsion and even to human physiology in extreme environments. After learning as much as they can from this experience, these students will compile reports and presentations which will be given at the memorial event held on the evening of January 27, 2011, at Framingham State University. At the beginning of last December, I received a phone call from Mr. Anderson when he asked me if I was interested in participating in this activity and also if I could help spread the word to other professionals that might be interested. I was immediately interested of course, and after telling him about my areas of expertise, we decided that I ought to talk with the students about lunar landers and rovers much like those being designed for the Rocket City Space Pioneers (RCSP) effort. I became very excited about this prospect and immediately asked around for others interested in participating and gave a few leads for Mr. Anderson to pursue. Due to the tight schedules of the students and interviewees, the first sessions were conducted via Skype and telephone during the week of December 20. The dedication of teachers and students alike is extraordinary when considering this was happening during the winter break, and I am hard pressed to think of another such example. Among the interview subjects, there was a scientist from Japan talking about the Venus Climate Orbiter, an MIT professor talking on electric propulsion, a geologist from North Dakota talking about volcanoes on the Moon and other planetary bodies, a NASA scientist talking about meteors and asteroids, and even former astronaut Scott Parazynski talking about human adaptation to extreme environments. Other topics included gamma-ray bursts, space suit design, minerals on Mars, and the New Horizons mission to Pluto. My first interview occurred on December 21 with Mr. Anderson and four of his students. We operated in a round-robin session over the telephone where one student would ask a question and I would do my best to provide an answer. After introducing me and giving some background, the ball got rolling pretty quickly. In this first session, I was able to outline the challenges of getting a small payload to the surface of the Moon and rolling a rover across the unforgiving terrain and harsh environment of space. In describing the challenges of the RCSP mission, I brought out a notable one, achieving the delta-V to slow down from lunar orbit to a soft and controlled landing. The students got a good dose of the real world of requirements and constraints. Since our lander design is so small, it is very challenging finding a way to pack enough fuel for the descent into such a small package; I outlined one solution to this with cutting- edge research that Dynetics is participating in to reduce mission risks in propulsion. Another topic that got much play was financial; every space endeavor runs on money, not propellant. I believe that I was able to convey to the students the real-world challenges and constraints in designing ambitious space missions, and I hope I was able to do so on a level that 8th-graders could easily grasp. After the New Year and snow apocalypses in both Alabama and Massachusetts, I was able to finally do a follow-up interview on January 19. This time around, the questions were focused mostly on Mars missions and sending rovers to other destinations. One question I remember most was about the ability for landers to take off again, to which I replied there are no gas stations where these landers go. That also allowed time to talk about designs for ascent stages like those on the Apollo lunar module and various Mars sample return concepts. Another question asked when people are going to Mars, which I thought was a really hard question to answer. My response was that 20 years ago I was in the 8th grade and was told that humans on Mars would be at least 20 years away and from the best I could tell that this goal was still at least 20 years away. Maybe someone in 8th grade today will be the first person to walk on Mars… Finally, the best question I got in my opinion was about what kind of other ideas and destinations were out there for landers and rovers. As far as destinations, I could see in the near term, there being asteroid rovers and more Mars and Moon rovers and maybe in the far off future a rover on the night side of Mercury and maybe the moons of Jupiter. As far as new ideas went, the best answer I could give was to tell them that they ought to think of those ideas themselves. I would love to see and hear about anything they design, no matter how creative or far-out those ideas could be. So that is a challenge that I will give to you Peter, Ben, David, and Ryan, there in Mr. Anderson’s class; we eagerly await those fresh ideas, as we are already doing so with local schools. In conclusion to this entry, I want to thank Mr. Anderson for taking the time to arrange all of these events and follow through with his students. This will go far and make an indelible mark in the educational experiences of everyone involved providing more fuel to inspire bright young minds to do great things. David Hewitt Propulsion Engineer Dynetics, Inc.