Astrobiology resources

SETI Astrobiology curriculum There are multiple curriculum with various age groups

Astrobiology education links and graphic novels here

New Focus

I've decided to resurrect this mostly dead blog. I'm changing the focus to more of a personal clearinghouse for all things related to our homeschool.

Tweetup Agenda STS-133

Sunday, October 31/L-1: Day 1

8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. – Registration at the Kennedy Space Center Press Accreditation Badging Building on State Road 3

12:00 - 12:45 p.m. – Travel to the press site, set up, meet fellow participants

12:45 p.m. – Welcome and introductions by @NASA team member John Yembrick

1:00 p.m. – Demonstrations (Group 1* - Robonaut 2 in Press Site auditorium; Group 2 - ACES suit demo with media in the Tweetup tent)

1:45 p.m. – Demonstrations (Group 1 - ACES suit demo in the Tweetup tent; Group 2 - Robonaut 2 in Press Site auditorium)

2:20 p.m. – Welcome video from Nicole Stott (@Astro_Nicole) followed by Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters

2:40 p.m. – Astronaut Ron Garan (@Astro_Ron)

3:00 p.m. – Stephanie Stilson, NASA Discovery flow director, Launch Vehicle Processing Directorate, Kennedy Space Center

3:20 p.m. – Head to buses for tours

3:30 p.m. – Tour of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, including visits to the International Space Station Center and Apollo Saturn V Center and a drive by the Shuttle Landing Facility and the Mate-Demate Device.

6:00 p.m. – Arrive at cafeteria for dinner break

6:40 p.m. – Drive by Orbiter Processing Facility, Vehicle Assembly Building and Mobile Launcher Platforms.

7:30 p.m. – Arrive at press site for break

8:00 p.m. – Depart press site and travel to Launch Pad 39A to view space shuttle Discovery and retraction of the Rotating Service Structure, scheduled for 8:30 p.m.

*We will notify you which group you are in when you check in and get your badge

**For the tour, you must wear long pants and closed, low-heeled shoes. Tank tops are not permitted.

Monday, November 1/Launch: Day 2

11:00 a.m. – Arrive at Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 Press Site

11:30 a.m. – Astronaut Janice Voss

12:00 p.m. – Group picture beside the countdown clock

12:50 p.m. – Astronauts depart their crew quarters for Launch Pad 39A

~1:00 p.m. – Tweetup participants assemble along the road across from the Launch Control Center to wave to the crew as they drive by in the astrovan on their way to the launch pad

1:30 p.m. – Jason Goldman (@goldman), vice president of Product, Twitter

2:00 p.m. – Lt. Col. Patrick Barrett, 45^th Weather Squadron, U.S. Air Force

~3:00 p.m. – STS-133 Closeout Crew member (Discovery’s hatch is closed and latched for launch at 2:35 p.m. EDT)

4:40 p.m. – Launch of space shuttle Discovery on the STS-133 mission

~5:30 p.m. – Post-launch news conference on NASA TV

Following the launch, you are free to depart on your own schedule. If you leave immediately, be prepared to sit in traffic for quite some time.

Payload Information

This evening I will be on AstronomyFM as a guest on the 9pm show.  We will be talking about Discovery and her payload on STS-133.  Click on the "Listen Now" Link in the far upper left corner.

AstronomyFM

Please join us tonight!

I'm In!!

I have been chosen for the NASA Tweetup for the launch of STS-133.  Ideally the launch will be on November 1st at 4:40 pm.  The 2 day event will have so many amazing opportunities.  I invite everyone who comes across this blog to follow along with me on the final launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery.

PRESS RELEASE

NASA Invites Reporters To Next Space Shuttle Launch And Tweetup

WASHINGTON -- At the next space shuttle launch, NASA will host 150 people from around the world and provide them with a behind-the-scenes perspective to share with their followers via the social networking service Twitter.

Reporters are invited to cover the NASA Tweetup and the liftoff of shuttle Discovery, targeted for 4:40 p.m. EDT on Nov. 1, from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. To cover the launch on-site, U.S. reporters must request credentials from Kennedy by Wednesday, Oct. 20. Media representatives should submit requests online at:

https://media.ksc.nasa.gov  

Participants at the NASA Tweetup on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 will tour Kennedy and meet with shuttle technicians, managers, engineers and astronauts. They also will get a demonstration of Robonaut, a human-like robot similar to the one that will be delivered to the space station with this mission. The Tweetup culminates with the viewing of the shuttle launch. At 2:15 p.m. EDT on Oct. 31, NASA will use UStream to broadcast an hour of the Tweetup program at:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-television  

People are expected to attend from 38 states, the District of Columbia, Australia, Canada, Chile, England, Japan, Latvia, New Zealand and the Philippines.

Tweetup participants are coming from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. Attendees were selected randomly from more than 2,700 online registrations.

Reporters interested in interviewing Tweetup attendees should contact Stephanie Schierholz at 202-358-4997 orstephanie.schierholz@nasa.gov .

To follow the Tweetup participants on Twitter as they experience the prelaunch events and shuttle liftoff, follow the #NASATweetup hashtag and the list of attendees at:

http://twitter.com/nasatweetup/sts-133-launch  

NASA also has a website where anyone -- including those not on Twitter -- can follow along with the events:

http://buzzroom.nasa.gov  

To follow NASA on Twitter, visit:

http://www.twitter.com/NASA  

For more information about space shuttle Discovery's STS-133 mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle  

To follow STS-133 crew member Nicole Stott as she tweets during the mission, visit:

http://www.twitter.com/Astro_Nicole  

Cardinal

The birds are migrating and October is the peak here.  This pretty cardinal came for a visit and a snack.

Russell Cave National Monument

We headed over to Russell Cave Shelter and completed the Junior Ranger Program. One of the rangers took us under her wing and did her entire demo for school groups. She went through all the weapons that had been used in the shelter from 10,000 BC to 1800 AD. The kids got to try out spears, atlatls, blow guns, throwing sticks, bow and arrows. This was all before we ever even took the boardwalk over to the cave shelter! Fascinating day that was enjoyed by all.