Purdue alumnus and astronaut headlines Fall Space Day
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The two-day program will begin with Harbaugh's presentation on his experiences as an astronaut from 8-9 p.m. on Friday (Nov. 10) in Stewart Center, Room 314 on the Purdue campus. The event is free and open to the public.
The 11th annual Fall Space Day event on Saturday (Nov. 11) includes festivities from rockets to satellites to solar cars. About 175 Purdue students are helping with the program. The day kicks off at 8:30 a.m. with a presentation by Harbaugh to the students in the Purdue Memorial Union. Activities will continue until the closing ceremonies at 3:15 p.m. Students are pre-registered for this event and it is at maximum capacity.
"This year, we have more students coming than ever before," said Ann Broughton of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics and organizer for the event. "In addition to the students from 104 different schools and from the Home School program, we have 20 Science Bound students from the Indianapolis area coming."
The Purdue University Science Bound program mentors eighth through 12th grade students at Indianapolis Public Schools, encouraging them to enroll in classes and pursue careers in science, engineering, technology, and math/science education. Those students who complete the five-year program and gain acceptance to Purdue University in an approved field receive a full-tuition scholarship to Purdue for eight semesters.
"We're delighted that Greg Harbaugh will be participating in this year's Fall Space Day," Broughton said. "As an astronaut he has 818 hours in space, and he will be able to share some very interesting stories with the young people."
Harbaugh graduated from Purdue in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering. After graduating, he went to NASA’s Johnson Space Center and held engineering and technical management positions in space shuttle flight operations. Harbaugh was selected by NASA in June of 1987 and became an astronaut in August of 1988. There, he worked in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory, the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System, telerobotics systems development for the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission development, spacecraft communicator in mission control and extravehicular activity for the International Space Station.
Harbaugh served as a mission specialist on STS-39 Discovery, STS-82 Discovery, on Endeavour and as the flight engineer on STS-71 Atlantis.
Throughout the day, Harbaugh will participate with students in the scheduled Fall Space Day activities.
Those in grades 3 and 4 will participate in the following events:
• Film canister rockets. Students will learn about space propulsion and design and test their own rockets. The film canister rockets will be propelled by dry ice.
• Rotor motor and straw paper gliders. Students construct a rotary wing model to demonstrate how air moves across the surface of a wing to produce flight.
• Egg drop. Teams of students will make a spacecraft out of various materials and use eggs to represent astronauts. The devices must safely land the "astronauts" after being dropped from a third-floor window.
Students in grades 5 and 6 will participate in three activities:
• Straw rockets. Students design and build miniature straw rockets and test them on the straw rocket launcher. Rockets can be launched up to a distance of 50 feet.
• Go fly a kite. Students will discover the principals of flying in the same way that the pioneers of flight did, by constructing a tetrahedron kite and demonstrating the dynamics of lift, area, volume and density.
Students in grades 7 and 8 will participate in these activities:
• Solar rovers. Students learn the methods of generating and storing solar power and the mechanisms that power real-life solar vehicles. Participants then design, test and race a vehicle powered only by sunlight.
• Satellite launches. Students design and build a replica of an antenna to learn about antennas and space communication.
• Water rockets. Students convert empty plastic soda bottles into high-flying rockets. The rockets' movement will be based on space propulsion. The rockets use several scientific principles, including Newton's laws, acceleration, thrust and inertia.
Indiana youngsters from the following areas will participate: Angola, Attica, Avon, Bainbridge, Battle Ground, Bloomington, Boswell, Brookston, Brownsburg, Burlington, Carmel, Cicero, Clarks Hill, Crawfordsville, Danville, Darlington, Delphi, Demotte, Ellettsville, Elwood, Fair Oaks, Fishers, Fortville, Fort Wayne, Frankfort, Greenfield, Greentown, Indianapolis, Jamestown, Kempton, Kewanna, Kokomo, Ladoga, Lafayette, Lebanon, McCordsville, Mishawaka, Monticello, Mulberry, Muncie, New Richmond, Otterbein, Paragon, Pine Village, Pittsboro, Renssalaer, Rochester, Rockville, Romney, San Pierre, Terre Haute, Tipton, Westfield, West Lafayette, Wheatfield, Williamsport, Wingate, Yorktown and Zionsville.
Students from other cities and states include: Apollo, Penn., Broadview, Ill. and Riverwoods, Ill.
The Purdue Chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space created Purdue Fall Space Day in 1996 as an educational outreach activity for students in grades 3 to 8. Participants learn about astronautical engineering and space exploration through hands-on experiences that will help foster their interest in science and engineering.
Purdue's Students of the Exploration and Development of Space program and the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics host Fall Space Day. Sponsors include the Indiana Space Grant Consortium, DaimlerChrysler, United Technologies Corp., Purdue Engineering Student Council, Eli Lilly and Co., NASA Johnson Space Center, NASA Kennedy Space Center, OfficeMax Inc., Sigma Gamma Tau and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
More Information can be found at https://engineering.purdue.edu/FallSpaceDay or by e-mailing Sarah Dean at sdean@purdue.edu
Writer: Cynthia Sequin, (765) 494-4192, csequin@purdue.edu
Sources: Ann Broughton, (765) 494-5147, broughto@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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