HARPER@CSC.FI ("Robert Harper Finland", CSC) (04/08/91)
This is the right message: the ending times for the mission are _one_ _hour_ earlier than I said before. These times are definite as far as we know right now. No other change. Other articles coming as soon as I have rechecked all the details (doing that right now). ! OBS ! that all followup articles are now directed to comp.edu, please change your Newsgroups: line if you want to respond in another group. In Finnish: Suomenkieliset jutut sfnet.keskusteluun, kiitos. A series of long to very long articles will follow. Watch your news! This is the first of them and there will be eight alltogether. All will have KIDS IN SPACE and a number (#/8) in their Subject line. PLEASE DON'T MAIL ME IF YOU LACK AN ARTICLE! POST IN COMP.EDU AND I WILL REPOST THERE. I won't be able to answer my mail too soon otherwise either (things are getting _very_ hectick already): I'll give mailadresses for more info later in this article. I'm sorry for the extensive cross posting, but I'm fearly sure these are the USENET (and AltNet) groups that are interested in this. If I've forgotten someone, please forgive me and forward this message to those who still need to know. Please don't forward all the articles if you can avoid it: they generate a whole lotta net.traffic already. I'm even more sorry that this message comes to you so late: both the American and the Finnish partners in this project were taken by surprise when NASA announced the now-in-progress real shuttle launch, and we had to get things happening three weeks earlier than we had thought (personally, I heard on March 28th that we fly on April 8th!!). However, there will be another simulated space mission this spring, so if you see this too late to join the shuttle, please, read more about the Interplanetary Mission on (most likely) May 17th in my last message, Subject: KIDS IN SPACE: What the future holds (8/8). And a final disclaimer: this has been written in a hurry, so please have patience with my typos & such. WHAT IS "KIDS IN SPACE"? KIDS IN SPACE is a joint project between American and Finnish schoolkids (helped by their teachers and other adults, of cource), simulating a space shuttle mission that is continuously monitored from the Earth. The "shuttle" launches from Cleveland, Ohio and the other schools (Ohio, California and Finland) act as weather report stations, alternative landing sites and solar disturbance observation stations. The communications of the project happen through email and bulletin boards and even online chat and ham radio have a role. It is, in fact, the first time (that I've heard of, that is) when the Internet is used for international on-line education. (Details of how exactly the commu- nication is organized in the next few articles, numbers 3/8 to 5/8. WHEN DOES IT HAPPEN? KIDS IN SPACE happens on Monday, April 8th 1991 8.30 - 15.30 EST DST (Ohio area), that is 15.30 - 22.30 EET DST (Finland). This is 13.30 - 20.30 GMT. WHERE DOES IT HAPPEN? KIDS IN SPACE happens partly in the real world and partly in cyberspace, with a few "more traditional" medias used for added connections. The commentary and information to the media happens partly in traditional ways, at least in Finland, but the media and other interested people are also welcome to monitor the shuttle flight in cyberspace. We have done all we can to grab enough Internet connections with telnet capasity for this (they are a problem outside universities in Finland). Where precisely in cyberspace? Cleveland Freenet, Academy One. Use the telnet command to connect to Internet site 129.22.8.82 and explore the system as a guest (don't worry, it is extremely easy to use if only you can read English and type with more than 0 fingers). Use the command 'go academy' to get to the Academy One area directly. Schuttle mission is number 12 on the list. (more info on Academy One in article number 3/8) There is also an extension of this mission in IRC (Internet Relay Chat), mainly for discussion and commentary. We will try to have a well structuder discussion (sort of a formal meeting) on one invite only channel (+SPACE) (the first time anyone has tried to use IRC in a formal manner, I believe) and a free one on another (+SPACE.d) with no participation restrictions. See article number 4 for details. There is also something in this for the Ham Radio Community. As I know practically nothing about that area of communications, I will only forward what I have read, but I hope it will be useful. See article number 5/8 for the details. Even phones and telefaxes will be used mainly to coordinate things, in case of network emergency and maybe even to give the media a chance to interview the astronaut and other participating kids. Faxes can transport pictures and collective greeting cards and drawings (at Helsinki University of Technology it is very likely that over one hundred people will look in at some time or another and want to send greetings). WHO ARE THE PARTICIPANTS? The team of KIDS IN SPACE consists of three American and two Finnish schools, with the technical and human support from Cleveland Freenet and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio and Helsinki University of Technology and Turku University in Finland. The complete report about these schools is in the end of this article. It's taken directly from Cleveland Freenet, unedited from: 8 The Schoolhouse (Academy One) ... 12 << SIMULATED SHUTTLE LAUNCH - APRIL 8TH >> ... 2 Participating Schools WHO CAN "WATCH" THE MISSION? Anyone on Internet who has the telnet program on their computer can connect to Cleveland Freenet as a guest. See details in article 3/8. Anyone on Internet with real-time connections and the irc program can go into irc and visit the channel +SPACE.d. Anyone, who the Channel Access Operator (the nick CAO.nick) of channel +SPACE has invited may enter and listen to the conversation as a PAS.nick (a Passive Participant) or participate in it as an ACT.nick (an Active Participant). We wish to keep the number of ACT:s down, 10 is the absolute maximum, so if you are just curious, choose a PAS.nick. The exact details are to be found in article number 4. --- facts from Cleveland Freenet --- The following schools will be a part of the April 9th Simulated Space Shuttle Launch: UNIVERSITY SCHOOL, SHAKER HEIGHTS, OHIO - Shuttle Site/Mission Control University School is a K-12 independent boy's school (non-sectar- ian) located on two campuses in Cleveland's Eastern suburbs. The K-8 campus is located on 32 acres in Shaker Heights, Ohio and the high school is located on 175 acres in Hunting Valley, Ohio. The school is highly rated, college preparatory school founded in 1890. 1990 is the school's centennial year and in honor of this event the shuttle simulator has been named the "Centennial." University School runs a variety of space science programs for both students (co-educational Summer programs and co-eductional programs for other schools during the school year) and teachers. See the "About the" file for more information about University School's operational role. The coordinator for University School's Shuttle launch is Bob Morgan (Free-Net ID: ac343). EVIJARVI SCHOOL, EVIJARVI FINLAND - Alternate Landing Site Evijarvi is a commune in the west of Finland with a population of about 3500. This is mainly flat country dominated by a lake and its 130 islands and the main source of livelihood is agriculture. Evijarvi School Center has been built in three parts. The oldest part was completed in 1954, the secondary school building in 1963 and both the dining hall and the primary school 1977. There are 117 pupils in the secondary school, 138 in the high school and 93 in the primary school. Besides this primary school there are five more village schools. Both high school and secondary school have been experimental schools in computer aided education from year 1985. Primary schools have been experimental schools from year 1988. We use ready-made programs in many subjects but computers are also widely used as tools: word processing, spreadsheets, database, desktop publications, measurements in physics, MIDI-music, etc. In School Center we have 29 IBM-compatibles (XT, AT and 386) and one Amiga 500. We have two computer classrooms with 8 and 9 computers, the rest are in various classrooms. Evijari will be filing weather reports as an alternate landing site. They will be coming into the Cleveland Free-Net via computers at the Helsinki University of Technology. Contact person is: Heikki Korpinen (hkorpine@vipunen.hut.fi) or via Evijari School (sa110@cleveland.freenet.edu) TURKU NORMAL SCHOOL - TURKU, FINLAND - Alternate Landing site Turku Normal School is a laboratory school associated with the University of Turku in southern Finland. At the University of Turku there are over 10,000 students in six faculties. Turku school is a part of the faculty of education, which has two departments: a department of teacher training and a department of educational science. Our school is a practice school of the department of teacher training. At Turku Normal School there are three parts: Lower Stage of Comprehensive School, 340 pupils, age 7 - 12 years Upper Stage of Comprehensive School, 300 pupils, age 13 - 15 years Senior Secondary School, 200 pupils, age 16 - 18 years. There are over 200 students per year practice teaching in our school. Of them 22 students are practicing mathematical subjects this year. Turku Normal School will be filing hourly weather reports as an alternate landing site. The will be accessing the Cleveland Free- Net via computers at the University of Turku. The coordinating person is: Taisto Valkonen (TVALKO@kontu.utu.fi) or via Turku Normal School (sa111@cleveland.freenet.edu) SAN MARINO SCHOOL, BUENA PARK, CALIFORNIA - Alternate Landing Site San Marino is a public K-6 school located in Buena Park, California. It is part the Centralia School District which has long been known for one of the more advanced scholastic technology programs in the Los Angeles area. San Marino will be an "alternate landing site" for the shuttle. Accordingly, it will be electronically sending weather reports and other data to University School's "Mission Control" on a hourly basis on the half hour. These reports will be generated and sent primarily by a class of fourth-grade students at the school, and posted on the Cleveland Free-Net Community Computer system. Among the activities in preparation for the "launch" has been the building of their own weather instruments, and the construction of a school-wide hallway bulletin board where mission progress reports will be displayed to the rest of the school. In addition, the entire week's math, spelling, and English activities will revolve around the space mission. San Marino will be coming into the Cleveland Free-Net via the Internet connection at the California State University, Fullerton. The coordinator for San Marino School's involvement is Linda Delzeit (Free-Net ID: aa621). WILLOUGHBY MIDDLE SCHOOL, WILLOUGHBY, OHIO - Solar Activity Monitoring Station Willoughby Middle is a 4th through 8th grade public school located in Willoughby, Ohio, about 10 miles northeast of Cleveland, and is a part of the Willoughby School District. Activities surrounding the launch will be conducted by advanced 8th grade students in their computing program--known as one of the best such programs in Ohio. The key to ANY shuttle launch is communications--communications between the shuttle and mission control, and between mission control and its various tracking stations and landing sites. But communications can be disrupted or even brought to a halt by solar activity such as flares. It is VERY important that mission control be constantly aware of the Sun's influence on their communications at all times. Willoughby Middle School will be the Solar Activity Monitoring Station for the launch. Students equipped with short-wave radios will be monitoring WWV, a radio station operated by the National Bureau of Standards, which provides constant information on solar activity and other magnetic disturbances. Every hour on the half-hour, Willoughby will be posting solar flare reports, geo-magnetic values, and other information to mission control. The coordinator for Willoughby School's Solar Monitoring team is Jud Elliott (Free-Net ID: ab884). --- end of included text from Cleveland Freenet --- CU IN (cyber)SPACE - and please wish us luck! Paivi @ Paivi Hyvarinen @ Net: Paivi.Hyvarinen@hut.fi @ @ Comp. Sci. Major, Occup. Psych. minor @ @ @ Data Guild, Helsinki Univ. of Technology @ Also on Cleveland Freenet: @ @ Otakaari 1 M, SF-02150 Espoo, Finland @ an614, mail forward -> HUT @