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All eyes on a future in the skies
A rocket scientist and his computer simulations bring the moon a little closer to West St. Paul's St. Joseph's School.
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Margo Stark, 13 and in the seventh grade at St. Joseph's School in West St. Paul, has every intention of becoming an architect.
That doesn't mean she didn't find Steven Cook and his computer simulations "really cool."
See, you don't have to be a rocket scientist or even an astronaut to find Cook's work fascinating. The Minnesota native and graduate of Jefferson High School in Bloomington is director of NASA's Exploration Launch Projects office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
That means, for all you rocketry-challenged folks, Cook is leading the team developing the rockets that will return the United States to the moon. On Friday, he showed a computer simulation to hundreds of students at St. Joseph's.
"I didn't know how much work it took," Stark said after Cook's presentation at her school. "I learned a lot."
What brought Cook to St. Joseph's is pretty cool too. Bruce Becker, a teacher at the school, has spent the last three summers heading to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville. Last summer, Becker helped teach other teachers. And he met Cook.
Well, the usual invitation to come visit actually came to fruition this time, when Cook made a Minnesota trip to visit Edina-based Alliant Techsystems, which is building part of the new Ares rocket systems.
So Cook came to visit St. Joseph's too.
Plans for the future
NASA plans to launch Ares' first test flight next April, Cook said. "Our goal is to have boots on the moon by 2018, no later than 2020."
The Ares program will start sending crews to the International Space Station in 2013, three years after NASA ends the space shuttle program.
This is a great time to be a rocket scientist, Cook told his audience. It's also an awesome time to be them: students. The kids are the ones who will one day be riding Ares into the heavens -- or designing the lunar base planning a manned mission to Mars by 2030.
"We're having a blast," he said of his team.
"This is, boys and girls, where we're headed. And you have the opportunity to participate in it. Exploration is what has always set the leaders of the world apart."
Full of questions
Kids asked plenty of questions, such as:
Where will the capsule with the astronauts land on Earth?
NASA is considering ocean or desert.
How many people will go to the moon?
A crew of six will go to the space station. A crew of four will go to the moon.
Stark didn't get to ask a question. If she had, she would have asked 'How many people does it take to create a rocket to the moon?'"
And Cook would have replied, "Thousands."
James Walsh • 651-298-1541
