Johnson Space Center

Sorry there wasn't much activity on the site this week. I was away at Johnson Space Center in Houton. I'm working with two math teachers and another science teacher on lessons for students to use astronaut images from the International Space Station (ISS) in their proposals. The idea is that the student studies some feature or happening on the surface of the Earth, writes a proposal, and then asks Houston to have an astronaut take a particular image for them! While we were there, we got a tour of a lab that is designing a laser for the next Mars rover mission. The laser will be aimed at a rock outcrop and reduce a section of it to a plasma! The rover will then do a spectral analysis of the plasma. The lab was filled with samples. They had a section of a table filled with sand samples from Antarctica. I was envious! They allowed me to photograph the vials! That is my new international sample this week!