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| Get-Away Special Canister 783 |
| Overview |
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The GAS (Get-Away Special) canister G-783, also known as Aria-2, is an educational project that encourages K-12 St. Louis area students to use hands-on science experimentation in an exciting environment. Students for the Aria-2 project design, build, and fly experiments in space. The Aria-2 project introduces students to science, engineering, technology, and fosters their involvement in hands-on space science before they make long-term career decisions. Aria-2 carries 124 passive science experiments from more than 1,700 Kindergarten through12th-grade students from 19 St. Louis area schools, one school in Washington, D.C., and one school in Palo Alto, Calif. Individual teachers provided instruction in the following areas: preparing hypotheses, designing experiments, collecting materials, creating flight articles, and analyzing the results after flight. All of the Aria-2 experiments are "fly and compare" experiments that contain two samples. Both samples are packaged identically. One sample is flown on board STS-102 and the other is kept on the ground. After the mission samples will be compared and the differences are noted. Students will look at effects of micro gravity, radiation, magnetism, and other possible circumstances experienced in a low-Earth-orbit environment. Each school is responsible for its own student organization and participation. Some organized clubs and others integrated the experiments into their curriculum. |
| History/Background |
| The Washington University St. Louis School of Engineering and Applied Science sponsored the Aria-2 project. Twenty undergraduate Washington University students designed, built, and tested the primary GAS structure and packaging systems. Keith Bennett, Department of Computer Science, and Dr. Michael Swartwout, Department of Mechanical Engineering provided instruction to the undergraduate students. The project is co-sponsored by the St. Louis Area Junior Achievement who aided in contacting area schools, communicating the project opportunity, and linking interested schools with Washington University and the Aria-2 project. |
Editorial/Technical Comments: ShuttlePresskit
