March 19, 2003

BIRMINGHAM, AL — UAB’s Mars Athena Team member is giving a local science teacher and two students the opportunity of a lifetime to become real NASA scientists on a real space flight mission to Mars, which is set to launch in May.

UAB astrophysicist Thomas Wdowiak, Ph.D., is recruiting a teacher and two of his/her students, that he will mentor, to be a part of the year-long Athena Student Interns Program (ASIP).

Wdowiak will be a part of the local selection process and is looking for enthusiastic, committed teachers and students willing to learn.

“This is a scientific adventure and we’re looking for a teachers and students that can help make the mission successful,” he said. “They are going to become scientists. Think of the program like this — for the next year it’s like you’ve been selected for the high school football or basketball team, the difference is this is the Olympics.”

The program is designed to give creative, dedicated high school students the chance to join the world’s most renowned Mars scientists of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission in exploring the Red Planet. The Athena Student Interns Program includes a week-long stay at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California where scientists will use the rovers to explore the surface of Mars. Teachers and interns will be engaged in activities surrounding the actual mission and will actively participate in analyzing data gathered by the rovers.

The theme of this mission is “Follow the Water,” and will look for water on Mars or where water used to be because water is a sign that life exits or once did on Mars.

Before and after the mission, the teacher and students will be working with Wdowiak in his laboratory at UAB, analyzing meteorite samples from Mars and other materials using a Möss-Bauer Spectrometer, the same device that Wdowiak has on the rover to look for water on Mars. They also will analyze data gathered by the rovers while on the Red Planet.

“Some of the participants only will get to collaborate with their mentors online, Wdowiak said. “But, our local folks will get hands-on experience in both my UAB lab and at JPL. This is an excellent ground-floor opportunity for students interested is space exploration as a career and this, in my opinion, is great way for teachers to get fulfillment beyond the classroom, which is what you’ve got to have to keep great teachers.”

Wdowiak said detailed scientific knowledge is not required of the teacher and students. Though the mission is complex and technical, the teacher and students can learn as they go, just as scientists do when exploring a new realm.

“This is a very serous mission to NASA, it’s considered to be the crown jewel mission,” he said. “I think it ranks right up there with the Hubble space telescope, which has produced a lot of discoveries. This is the next step in NASA’s continuing space exploration of planets in our solar system.