From Seminole Ridge to Saturn

Congratulations to Kris Hansen, a Seminole SECME Hawk. He may be a semi-finalists from Seminole Ridge Community High School in an national competition for an interplanetary mission. We received an e-mail because at least one of the Seminole Ridge students’ essays passed the first round of selection in the Cassini Scientist for a Day essay contest!

Kris Hansen, seen here working on a mousetrap vehicle for Seminole SECME, will teleconference across the country to take a picture across the solar system.

The Cassini Scientist for a Day contest challenges students to become NASA scientists studying Saturn. Participants examine three target images taken by Cassini and choose the one they think will yield the best scientific results of the Saturn system. This choice must then be supported in a 500-word essay.

The cameras on the NASA Cassini-Huygens Mission have been taking stunning images of Saturn and its rings and moons. These images have helped planetary scientists learn more about this amazing planet. Picking out just where the Cassini spacecraft points its cameras as it tours the Saturn system is one of the most challenging and exciting parts of the science team's job. For most of its tour, Cassini has a chance to point its cameras at various targets, but only one image can be taken at a time. Before each imaging opportunity, Cassini scientists have to decide which image they think would yield the best science. They make a case for specific images, and debate why one image would be better than another. Finally, they agree on which image will be taken, and the command to take the image is uplinked to the spacecraft, a billion kilometers from Earth.

In Cassini's "Scientist for a Day" contest, the students get to be the scientists. Students from the school with the winning essay participate in a Cassini mission staff meeting via teleconference or videoconference. Participating schools offered the chance to debate their choices with Cassini scientists. All semi-finalists’ essays are now being judged to determine the overall contest winners. Kris and the other semi-finalists will participate in a teleconference with Cassini scientists at calTech in the first week of June. The can ask questions live Winners will be announced in mid June, or shortly thereafter (after the end of the school year). Please visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov to see the winners list online when it becomes available.