NASA TEAM BRINGS SPACE TO PA FARM SHOW

12-22-97
University Park, Pa. - - The NASA International Space Station Program Outreach Team will participate in the Pennsylvania Farm Show, in Harrisburg, Jan. 10-15, under the sponsorship of the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium of Penn State.

Among the many activities, a videoconference link between the Farm Show exhibit and the Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas, will allow visitors to take an electronic field trip to the NASA Space Station Training facility where astronauts will prepare for upcoming Space Station missions.

The live interactive videoconference sessions will take place twice daily at 11 a.m.-noon and 2-3 p.m. (EST) except Sunday. Penn State faculty member and astronaut James Pawelczyk is scheduled to appear on a teleconference on Thursday, Jan. 15 at 11 a.m. Visitors will have an opportunity to ask him questions about the space program and about his upcoming mission on the Space Shuttle slated for April 1998.

The ISSP team also will provide information on the new space station, which is scheduled to begin assembly in space during 1998. The future orbiting laboratory will support investigations in human life sciences, plant and animal research, Earth sciences and space technology. Free of the influence of gravity, researchers will be able to study the basic properties of life and physical mechanisms of fluid, combustion, and crystal growth.

At the show, visitors will be "trained" on several hands on interactive simulators that are used to train astronauts at the NASA Johnson Space Center. They can climb into an engineering model of the Manner Maneuvering Unit and take a virtual ride around the Space Station, graphically presented on a large screen monitor. An extravehicular activity (EVA) space suit will be on display, which the younger astronaut trainees may climb into. An electronic still camera will be available to record the experience.

The ISSP outreach team will be at a booth located in the new Family Living and Agricultural Learning Center on the second floor of the Northeast Building of the Farm Show Building on Cameron Street. Teacher materials will be available.

For more information on the ISSP, check the URL http://station.nasa.gov. For more information, check the Web site: http://www.psu.edu/spacegrant or contact Geraldine Russell at paspace@ psu.edu by email or at (814) 863-7688 by telephone.

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