After School Astronomy Clubs Dorian Janney Tools of an Astronomer After School Astronomy Clubs Dorian Janney

How do we know what is out there in space? We observe things in the night sky. We wonder about the things we observe. We design tools to use to learn about these things. As our technology improves, our tools get better too! Scientific Inquiry Process involves making observations, making predictions and forming hypotheses, collecting data, and analyzing that data for trends and patterns. How might ancient astronomers used the scientific inquiry process to learn about the length of a day on Earth?

Ancient Astronomers Observed and measured repeating patterns of Sun to create clocks and calendars Used such tools as astrolabes to determine the positions of stars and planets in the night sky and to determine the latitude of ships at sea

Telescopes There are many different kinds of telescopes. We use many different kinds of telescopes to learn about things that exist in outer space. Some telescopes have special filters, called “solar filters”. These allow people to look at the Sun using a telescope. You must never look at the Sun, even without a telescope, unless you have a very special filter that will block the dangerous solar radiation that can injure your eyes. Telescopes range in size from very small ones to some that are so big that huge buildings, called observatories, have to be built for them! There are many different kinds of telescopes. We use many different kinds of telescopes to learn about things that exist in outer space. Some telescopes have special filters, called “solar filters”. These allow people to look at the Sun using a telescope. You must never look at the Sun, even without a telescope, unless you have a very special filter that will block the dangerous solar radiation that can injure your eyes. Telescopes range in size from very small ones to some that are so big that huge buildings, called observatories, have to be built for them!

Space-based Telescopes Using space-based telescopes, we can see much further into space because we don’t have to look through the Earth’s atmosphere. In 1990 the United States launched the first space telescope, called “The Hubble Space Telescope”

Fly By Missions These are missions that simply fly past an object, or maybe several objects in a long period of time. Voyager 1 and 2, which were sent into space in 1977, sent us detailed images from the four gas giants- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Orbiter Missions These missions are sent in orbit around a planet, and allow us to learn about the planet as a whole. They may stay in orbit for many years, and send us back so much information that we can create detailed maps of that planet’s surface. Image 1- Mars Odyssey, was launched in 2001, is an orbiting spacecraft designed to determine the composition of the planet's surface, to detect water and shallow buried ice, and to study the radiation environment. Image 2- Galileo, imaging Jupiter since Orbiting Jupiter since 1995, has studied the gas giant and its moons in more detail than any previous spacecraft. started out as a two-year study of the Jovian system, was extended twice with the Galileo Europa Mission and the Galileo Millennium Mission. Returning an enormous wealth of scientific information, the spacecraft has discovered evidence of a sub-surface ocean on Europa, collaborated with the passing Cassini spacecraft in the study of a new volcanic plume on Io, and provided the only direct observation of Comet Shoemaker-Levy's impact into Jupiter. Undertaking one last mission extension, Galileo will perform five more flybys of the gas giant's moons before taking a final plunge into the crushing pressure of Jupiter's atmosphere in August 2003.

Lander Missions A lander does just that- it actually lands on the planet. What kinds of things might we be able to find out about a planet by landing on it? Why can’t we send a lander mission to the Sun? Why don’t we send people to other planets? Image 1- Mars Pathfinder Mission, launched in 1996 and landed in 1997, was originally designed as a technology demonstration of a way to deliver an instrumented lander and a free-ranging robotic rover to the surface of the red planet. Pathfinder not only accomplished this goal but also returned an unprecedented amount of data and outlived its primary design life. Image 2: Mars Polar Lander, launched in 1999, was lost on arrival in Dec., 1999, was an ambitious mission to set a spacecraft down on the frigid terrain near the edge of Mars' south polar cap and dig for water ice with a robotic arm. Piggybacking on the lander were two small probes called Deep Space 2 designed to impact the Martian surface to test new technologies, good mission to use to explain that mission science is very complicated and can be dangerous, and that is why we haven’t sent people anywhere except to the Moon and close by in space shuttles.

Rover Missions With Rover missions, we aren’t stuck in one spot on a planet or moon. What do you think we might discover with a Rover mission that we couldn’t with another type of mission?

Future Space Missions Image 1: Future Missions - Deep Impact, This mission will be launched in Dec., 2004. It is spacecraft that will travel to comet Tempel 1 and will release a small impactor. This impactor will hit the comet and create a hole in the side of the comet. The main spacecraft will measure and observe the gas released from the crater in order to discover what makes up fresh comet material, and to understand what's inside a comet. Image 2: The Kepler Mission will look at the extended solar neighborhood to detect possibly hundreds of terrestrial and larger planets in or near the habitable zone (the zone that astronomers have determined could host living organisms due to their proximity to the Sun)

International Space Station The International Space Station is the largest and most complex international scientific project in history. Led by the United States, the ISS draws upon the scientific and technological resources of 16 nations: Canada, Japan, Russia, 11 nations of the European Space Agency and Brazil

What would you design? You will be our next generation of explorers! Imagine you are designing a spacecraft- What would you want to learn about? What type of spacecraft might you design? Where would you send your spacecraft?