 |
In
1997, I signed up to be a NASA-JPL Ambassador to Jupiter,
and I proudly informed a coworker, a research meteorologist
at the National Severe Storms Laboratory. A rascal,
he raised an eyebrow and said, "Oh? When
do you leave?" and everyone laughed. Those
Terran meteorologists joked about my ambassadorship
for a long time, knowing that if it were possible I
would indeed go to Jupiter, but many became intrigued
by the ambassador events that explored Jupiter's atmosphere,
Europa's ocean, and Io's volcanoes, in spite of their
Earth-centric views. "You just won't find
interesting storms on other planets!" one honked,
an unbeliever. So I pulled out my overhead that
compared dust devils on Mars, an Oklahoma F5 tornado,
Hurricane Andrew, and the Great Red Spot on Jupiter,
titled "Cyclonic Storms Around the Solar System,"
and pointed out the interesting features, talked about
the formation of each, compared wind speeds, the life
cycle and time span of each storm, and talked about
atmospheric compositions. Soon these naysayers
were bringing their kids to my events, and asking me
where they could find more information. "My
kids don't learn much about planetary science or astronomy
in school," they said, "so we're glad you
go and talk to their classes." And the adults liked
knowing more about other planets, too, and comparing
the other worlds to the beautiful planet we live on.
I have been a Solar System Ambassador since the program
began, which grew out of the Ambassador to Jupiter (Galileo)
volunteer program. Since 1971 I have enjoyed teaching
children and adults about space exploration, and have
done so through teaching at hands-on science museums,
science fairs, organizing SpaceWeek and other pro-space
events, and teaching model rocketry and space exploration.The
Solar System Ambassador Program has been a joy to participate
in, and it is fun to organize educational space-related
events. Up until May, 2003, I served as Oklahoma's
sole ambassador.
As a scientific programmer and computer systems administrator
by trade, I have worked with a diverse set of scientists
over the past twenty-plus years, including physicists,
astrophysicists, planetary geologists, Terran geologists,
and meteorologists. I have been fortunate to do a wide
variety of interesting projects, including research
on Earth's severe weather (mostly tornadoes and severe
tornadic thunderstorms), the Martian polar caps, and
my present job working with Mars 2001 Odyssey data from
the Gamma Ray Spectrometer instruments.
Oklahoma
Ambassadors' Web Page
|
|
