ISU professor works with NASA
Sunday, February 23, 2003

By Scott Richardson Pantagraph staff

NORMAL -- Dan Holland is "Dr. Dan the Science Man."

That's what students dubbed him years ago when he began entertaining as well as teaching with programs centered around physics. Subjects range from sound and electricity to the states of matter -- gas, liquid and solid.

"I'll do it for pretty much anyone who will let me," Holland said. "I've always enjoyed doing community outreach."

Now, Holland is adding NASA's unmanned space program to his repertoire.

Holland, 44, a professor in the physics department at Illinois State University, is among the newest members of the Solar System Ambassadors program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Ambassadors are a diverse mix of people, from dentists to pastors, who organize community programs across America to teach about the solar system. They host events such as star parties, public exhibits or classroom presentations like Holland's.

They receive special training opportunities and have access to the latest pictures from JPL/NASA spacecraft. NASA spokesmen said the goal is to inspire the next generation of explorers.

Always an interest

The subject of space has been near and dear to Holland since he began space-related work at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., after graduating from college.

NASA is financing his current research at ISU, which involves an area above the Earth known as the magnetosphere.

Higher than the ionosphere and stretching beyond the moon, the magnetosphere is a region where the Earth's magnetic field is the dominant force. Among other things, understanding how it works can help predict solar storms that cause power blackouts and interrupt communications on Earth while disrupting satellites in orbit, he said.

His interest in space dates even farther back. Holland vividly remembers when he was a sixth-grader watching Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon with classmates.

"We were glued to it," he said.

NASA's manned shuttle program is not on the ambassador's program. Rather, Holland focuses on the wide range of unmanned space probes NASA has sent and will be sending to gather information on Earth's closest galactic neighbors.

For example, did you know the Voyager space probe that gave Earthlings their first close view of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune is still sending data back 25 years after it was launched?

More is on the way:

• In June, the European Space Agency is launching the Mars Express to make detailed maps of that planet's surface.
• That will be followed closely by two more probes sent to Mars by the United States in May and June. Their mission is to land and dispatch land rovers in search of water. Scientists recently announced what may be evidence of a vast supply of frozen water on Mars, perhaps enough to cover the planet's surface ankle deep. "Water is a big thing," Holland said "It improves the possibility of life."
• The world will watch in September as a probe sent to Jupiter dives into the atmosphere surrounding the largest planet. The hope is the probe will send back data until it is destroyed.
• The Deep Impact mission early next year will rendezvous with a comet, then fire an 800-pound bullet at its surface in an attempt to break through the icy, rocky crust and remove a piece the size of a football field and seven stories deep. The probe will peer inside to see what the interior of a comet looks like.

Man vs. machine

Unmanned space exploration has advantages over propelling men and women into space, said Holland. For one, it costs about $10,000 a pound to put anything in space. At that price, putting people and their life-support equipment into orbit becomes expensive fast, he said.

"Dollar for dollar, we get much more back from unmanned probes," Holland said.

The recent Columbia disaster emphasizes the major difference between man and machine -- the risk to human life.

But despite protecting lives, machines have their disadvantages, he said. "You have to do some things very, very slowly, Holland said. "There is not an artificial intelligence that can do what people can do."

And, he said, you'll always find people willing to face the danger. "I don't think you'll find a space scientist out there who wouldn't get on a space shuttle tomorrow," Holland said.

"We are in a learning experience," he continued. "We have to learn how to live in space. It's risky. But it's probably worth the risk."