Former NASA astronaut Ken Reightler posed with fans and answered hundreds of questions about the past, present and future of space travel. Jerry Battiste/Flyer photo/
Nathan Shirley pauses at the NASA display table loaded with astronaut equipment, food, and actual pieces of the shuttle heat shield. Jerry Battiste/Flyer photo/
Brad Roberson and his daughter, Amanda, 7, use a step-ladder to test experimental aircraft during Saturday’s Open House. Jerry Battiste/Flyer photo/
Volunteer members of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. provided children with hands-on instruction in practical science. Jerry Battiste/Flyer photo/
By Jerry Battiste
First Published: The Flyer, November 15, 2006 05:43 pm
BROWNSBURG — Ken Reightler, former U.S. Navy test pilot and NASA astronaut, has been around the world more than 200 times, literally, but last weekend was his first visit to Brownsburg.
Reightler, currently the president of Lockheed Martin Space Operations in Greenbelt, Md., was in town for an open house at the Brownsburg Challenger Learning Center. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Challenger Shuttle disaster which inspired the creation of the center.
Hoosiers drove from near and far to shake hands with the astronaut, learn about space exploration, and have some fun with science. The open house began at 10 a.m. and lasted until 4 p.m., and throughout the day children and adults learned about space science from a variety of resources.
Brad Roberson brought his daughter Amanda, 7, and his son, Travis, 10, from Cloverdale for the day-long event. As Amanda built and tested experimental aircraft, Travis was getting a lesson in practical science from local members of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
Roberson said they knew in advance the event would be well worth the trip.
“The kids came up here once on a field trip and ever since then they’ve been wanting to come back,” he said.
IEEE member Blake Buescher was among the half dozen or so members volunteering their time to instruct children in how to build a flashlight, a rubberband racer, or a mission sample bag. Buescher said the group hoped to inspire future engineers by creating hands-on experiments that demonstrated practical scientific principles: Wind up a rubber band and store energy that can be controlled and channeled to a wheel for motion.
It all seemed like fun and games to the children, but the engineers hope it will leave a lasting impression.
“We are trying to give the kids a better idea of what engineering is and what it is an engineer does,” Buescher said.
Dave and Renee Shirley brought their son, Nathan, 10, from Whitelick to experience the hands-on space science. Mingling with Reightler and getting a close-up look at some actual NASA equipment was an added bonus.
Nathan, who said he wants to be a video game designer when he grows up, also harbors a secret desire to travel to space one day, but only if he knows he can come back home when he’s done.
“It’s pretty interesting, but I don’t want to go if there’s a chance it might explode,” he said.
In his two talks at the open house Reightler addressed some of those very concerns. As part of Lockheed Martin, the company responsible for designing and building the new Crew Exploration Vehicle, he is intimately aware of the pressure to make space travel as safe as possible and the importance of inspiring future generations of space explorers.
The new CEV, he said, will not even need a pilot. In the future, he said, working in space will be more about having a skill that can be used out there, rather than simply having the skills to get there.
“The vision is, when we go back to the moon, we go to stay,” Reightler said. “So it’s more important to think about it in terms of what you want to do rather than what you want to be. New navigation systems, new communication systems, new propulsion systems ... there are a lot of pieces to this thing.”
Allyson Santner, or Commander Santner as she is known at the center, spent a good portion of Saturday afternoon helping children make space-themed buttons. She said it was “standing room only” during Reightler’s first talk, with children seated on every inch of available floor space.
“The kids have been pretty enthusiastic,” Santner said. “But that’s what we wanted. We’d have been so disappointed if they weren’t.”
Emily Kniffin, 11, and Jamie Thompson, 10, colored their own space-themed buttons. Despite their common interest in coloring, they had decidedly different opinions when it came to space exploration.
Kniffin said she would be interested in giving zero-gravity a try, but Thompson said of space travel, “It’d be cool, but I still don’t want to go.”
Published: November 15, 2006 05:43 pm
This story originally appeared in The Hendricks County Flyer, 2006.
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