MISSION COMPLETE: High Desert students file data on Jupiter
By EMILY BERG/Staff WriterAPPLE VALLEY — Aside from being a flaming ball of gas circling the sun with a couple of moons whirling around it, Jupiter gives off waves of energy.
Students here recorded data on the electro-magnetic impulses that will help scientists understand the flow of energy and develop aircraft for future deep space travel, said Craig Campbell, vice president for the Lewis Center for Educational Research.
Matt Cline and Laura Hiesener led their science class at the Academy for Academic Excellence monitoring Jupiter's radio energy waves.
Cline, Hiesener and 10 other students presented the data to officials at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena on Friday. About 2,300 students across the country participated in the three-year Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope project that originated from the Lewis Center, which is home to the Academy for Academic Excellence.
About 6 million miles from Jupiter, the Cassini spacecraft could only record information for a short time, although the students tracked Jupiter for six months to make sure readings were accurate.
Scientists know that Jupiter's radio emissions change but they don't know how or why, Campbell said.
The students used classroom computers to record the information via the 112-foot-tall radio telescope located at Goldstone Deep Space site aboard the U.S. Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin.
The students enjoyed working with the $12 million telescope but didn't understand how important their data collection was. Their work helped NASA prove that Jupiter's radio emissions dropped shortly after Cassini went by and will help scientists learn more about Jupiter's radiation belts, Hiesener said.
The two ninth-graders spent four days with the other students before handing over the data to scientists on Friday. The group traveled Southern California in a tour bus learning more about the research they contributed to and being interviewed for a documentary about the project.
Used with persmission by Daily Press, Freedom Communication, 2001