01x12 - Space

[bunniefuu]

This week on Dragonfly TV, we'll follow

some cuckoo coconuts in space. They're

cuckoo for coconuts. Chase out of this

world. Zoom in on some moon

craters. Wow, the moon is awesome.

And check out travel on Mars. Makes you

feel like you're in outer space.

Major funding for Dragonfly TV is

provided by Best Buy.

We're excited to see kids like you

exploring the world of science and

technology, because what you're learning

is going to change the way we live. Best

Buy. The future looks fun.

And by the National Science Foundation,

supporting education and research in

science, mathematics and technology.

The National Science Foundation,

America's investment in the future.

Additional funding is provided by the

Donald Wiesner Charitable Trust

Foundation.

This

is DFTV. I'm Michael. And I'm Mariko.

Today it's all about space. The final

frontier. From craters on the moon to

exploration on Mars. But first, we'll

check out some new space-age food. Here,

Michael, try some.

Coconuts in space?That's right. NASA is

testing coconuts as a new food for

astronauts, with the help of three girls

from Florida. T-minus ten, nine, eight,

seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

Liftoff!

Hi, I'm Takivia. Hi, I'm Erica. Hi, I'm

Sarah. And we're the Coconuts.

We're from Boyne Beach, Florida, where

there are plenty of coconuts. You are a

coconut You can say we're cooking for

coconuts One, two, one, two,

three

NASA chose our experiment to test

coconuts on the Space Shuttle. We wanted

to test if coconuts would be a good space

food. Chase out of this world!

I beg your pardon, I don't understand

this. A coconut is very nutritious. A

single coconut has as much protein as a

quarter pound of meat. Plus, a coconut

can be eaten raw or dried. But a coconut

can be used for many things besides just

food. Yeah, you can make coconut oil. Or

a shell can be used for a bowl. And the

coconut tree can be used to make

furniture or even a house. All in all, we

think they'd be a very handy plant to

have on a space station.

Dragonfly.

What do you think is going to happen to

our coconuts in space?They might

experience things like radiation. Yeah,

and probably extreme temperature changes,

'cause it's really cold in space. We have

to remember, things weigh less in space.

Let's test different kinds of coconuts to

see if there's a difference between them.

Yeah, maybe one kind's better in space

than the other. Well, there's three

types of coconuts. There's red,

yellow, and green.

Coconuts, coconuts, everybody got coconuts

Our teacher helped us apply for the NASA

experiment program called SEMS.

NASA accepted our coconut proposal and

sent us the equipment to get started. Now

that NASA sent us the experiment module,

we need to set up our experiment.

First, we have 22 vials. Maybe we should

test the coconut in pieces. Let's chop

them open. And what's the best way to get

a coconut open?

I don't like coconut. Yeah, I love

coconut. What you see is real. It's the

work of science. This

is the outer husk. And this is the

inner husk. And this is the coconut

shell. And this is the coconut meat. And

inside is the coconut milk. Yum.

Don't eat our science experiment.

Now we have to put each part of the

coconut into a vial and label what type

it is. And we have to cut them pretty

small. Put yourself

in the coconut Put

yourself in the coconut Put

yourself in the coconut We put

each part of the coconut into a vial and

then recorded its contents into our log

book. Put yourself

in the coconut

And now we're done. The vials have been

filled and labeled. Now we're ready for

lunch. We're on our

way to Kennedy's Basin.

This fantastic ride.

takes you into outer space.

We finally made it, and our vials are all

ready to go. Now we need to do what NASA

scientists call integration. That

means getting the vials measured and

prepped to go into the Space Experiment

Module, or SEM unit.

Basically, we need to measure each vial

before they go into space to tell any

differences between them when theyreturn.

Then we need to take a photograph so we

can compare them, too. Say cheese.

That was vial number three.



and it's dried out. Got it.

All the vials have been weighed,

photographed, and locked. Now the vials

get loaded into the sim and are sent out

to the space shuttle.

It's launch day!Here at Kennedy Space

Center, we get to watch the launch up

close.

Eight, seven, six,

five, four, three, two, one,

blast off!

that some coconuts can grow to be bigger

than your head and grow up to 40 pounds?

The husk is waterproof, so it lets the

coconuts, which are the tree's seeds,

grow from island to island. Besides being

edible, coconuts are extremely useful.

Their husks can be used to make strong

ropes. I've got a lovely bunch of

coconuts. And there's one other thing

that coconuts are good for.

Cajo Silva. Don't gallop away before we

find out what happens to our coconuts in

space at the end of our show. And now

it's time to test your know how.

For more than 30 years, NASA has sent

unmanned spacecraft to Mars. But the Red

Planet is full of volcanic mountains,

deep valleys, giant boulders, and a ton

of rocks. So here's the question. How

would you move heavy equipment around to

Mars?We'll be me a clue in a few. To

explore gravity, you'll need two rulers,

two quarters, and the edge of a table.

Slide a quarter to the edge of the table.

Move one ruler so it lines up diagonally

to the edge. Put the second quarter on

the end of that ruler. Use the other

ruler to give the diagonal ruler a good

whack, and look out. The quarter in the

back goes flying sideways, while the

quarter in the front drops straight down.

Can the quarter in the back cheat gravity

and fall down slower than the front

quarter?No way. Even quarters have to

live by the rules of gravity. No matter

how fast the quarter in the back goes,

the two quarters hit the ground at the

same time.

How fast is the Earth moving around the

sun?670 miles per

hour. 6,700 miles per

hour. 67,000 miles per

hour.



Moon up in the sky I can't believe

all those craters. The moon is awesome.

Check out my crater sketches. That looks

right. They're kind of round with stuff

that spurts out from the circle. Can you

imagine meteors and asteroids slamming

into the moon to make these?Things have

been hitting the moon for so long, I'm

surprised there's any moon left. You

know, I bet we can make our own crater

and figure out why the moon looks like it

does. Look

out! There's a meteor shower!

Well, they're just marbles. For our test,

they'll be our meteors. We asked our

teacher what would be the best moon-like

surface to drop our marbles onto. I mean,

meteors into. She said to try a vase of

flower for the moon's inner crust. Then

sprinkle a thin layer of chocolate.

Mmm, chocolate. Excuse me,

Homer. Sprinkle a thin layer of chocolate

on top of the flower for the moon's outer

crust. Let's get cooking.

Get in your mouth! That's disgusting.

There. Four different moonscapes.

We'll use each one to test a different

height for dropping our marbles. Yes, but

won't we lose our marbles?I'm afraid it's

too late for you. How are we going

to get them out without ruining our

craters?Elementary, my dear Watson.

We'll use magnets. Awesome!

We're going to drop three marbles into

each cake pan, so we have a lot of data

to compare. This is our 50-centimeter jaw

pan. Here we go!

Wow! Look at all the craters!Let's

measure each one's diameter and see how

far the flower went out. We used a magnet

to remove the marbles. Then we measured

each crater's depth... One and a half

centimeters. And diameter... One and a

half centimeters. This gave us our first

set of results. The average was





move on up. Our next cake pin is our 100

centimeter drop. Bombs away!

We measured the crater's depth again.

About two and a half centimeters. About

two. And then the diameter, or how far

the flower spread away from the point of

impact. Two centimeters.

Next up, 150 centimeters.

Look out below!

Going up. Now we're at our highest point,



From 200 centimeters up, the craters were

almost 4 centimeters in diameter and more

than 3 centimeters deep. Look at all

these craters. It really does look like

the moon. See how much bigger these ones

are compared to the 50 centimeter drop?

Yeah. If we average out the crater sizes,

it seems the higher the marble, the

bigger the crater and the farther away

the stuff flew. Plus the crater is deeper

too. It seems the higher we hold the

marble, the more. velocity it has when it

hits the surface, and the more damage it

does to our moons. Let's compare our

homemade craters with the real ones on

the moon. Great idea!

We're going to look up close at the real

craters on the moon. Yeah, and see how

they look compared to our homemade

craters back in the lab. Back in the lab?

You mean back in your backyard?Lab,

backyard, what's the difference?

Here's a map of craters on the moon.

Let's pick a crater and see what it looks

like. Here's one, Aristotle. Move the

telescope to look at it.

Wow. It has a lot of the same

features as our test ones, but it's more

oval shape than circular. Interesting.

The book says it's 3,700 meters deep.

Wow.

Look at this one, Fracastorius.

It looks bigger and flatter, not as deep.

Pretty much like ours, except it doesn't

have a ridge all the way around. Take a

look at Clavius. It has smaller craters

inside the bigger one. They must have hit

later. Wow. First, a big meteor

crashed into the moon. Then small ones

hit right inside the crater. Cool. Yeah.

The big one is 225 kilometers wide, a

lot bigger than Aristotle's. Maybe it was

a bigger meteor. Yeah, and it didn't have

as much velocity, so the crater isn't as

deep. That sounds great. Can we test it

in our lab?You mean backyard. Whatever.

Let's come back later and we'll look at

more craters. See you later!

That's so cool. All right, my turn.

Bullseye, now that's a crater. Since

there's no atmosphere on the moon. Those

prayers will last well almost forever.

But nothing lasts that long on Earth.

Rain-winding glaciers wear away any

evidence of meteor strikes on our planet.

Of course, if something the size of this

coconut were to fall on the surface. Oh,

no, you don't. And I

thought he cared about science. But how

about you?Have you been getting messy for

science?If you have, let DFTD know about

it, and we might put you on our show.

Surf on over to the Dragonfly TV website.

It's at PBS Online at pbskids.org.

Once you get there, tell us what

questions you're investigating and what

you find out. Or you can write us at

Dragonfly TV, 172 E 4th St. St.

Paul, MN 55101. We want to hear from

you. So, have you figured on how to move

equipment around on Mars?Let's hook up

Zia and Rachel, who are working on a

solution.

This is a pretty good model of what Mars

looks like. We looked at topographical

maps with our French window. That's how

we designed our Mars landscape.

The rover has trouble going up.

Let's try putting bigger wheels on a

rover. Yeah!

Instead of stalling now, the robot flips

over.

Silly robot.

Maybe we need even bigger wheels.

As big as the rover itself, or

bigger than the rover. Bigger?Bigger.

But how could you have wheels bigger than

the rover?Good question. Let's

figure it out.

Rachel and Zia gave it a pretty good try.

But it seems that even really big wheels

don't work that well. Just keep your mind

rolling and try to come up with another

guess. The answer is on its way.

What planet has the largest known volcano

in our solar system?Earth,

Jupiter, Mars, Mars?

Let's go. A bioengineer is somebody who

studies the human body and how it works.

That can be anything from muscle and

bones. My knees or what I'm interested in

studying is up here, the human brain and

how it controls everything. One of the

first things to happen to astronauts in

space is that they get this feeling of

being upside down all the time because

there's no gravity to pull the fluids

down to their feet. Unfortunately, it

only lasts for about a day or so. To

combat that, some of the research we're

doing is looking at what are the things

that make these astronauts feel upside

down. And are there things that we can do

to make them feel upright?But mainly we

don't want the astronauts to get lost. If

there's an emergency and they're in the

space station, they need to be able to

get to the life raft without getting

lost. Our research, once it goes up into

space, will be a chance to see why people

get disoriented and lost in space. If

their perception of what up and down the

vertical is flips really fast, then that

can lead to motion sickness.

Maybe there's a good way to design the

interior of the spacecraft so that. don't

get lost as easily all the time. You can

float around, but it's hard to do a good

experiment without controlling what

people see. What we're using is

virtual reality equipment to do the same

thing. So So we can use some computer

graphics to generate a scene, what looked

like the inside of a space station. And

we have these different devices that you

can use to look around a space station.

Yeah, man.

Parabolic flights are a way of simulating

being in space. And the airplane

basically flies like a roller coaster, up

and down and up and down. The plane is

basically throwing you up into the air

and then falling with you at the same

rate. And

next thing you know, the guy's saying,

all right, we're done with the parabola.

Better get your feet down in a hurry. And

so you've got to make sure that your

head's not pointing at the floor.

Float. As a

kid, I was always into building models,

airplanes, engineering kind of stuff, so

I always knew I wanted to be a scientist

of some sort. Space has been great

because you get to meet some astronauts.

And it's a way to to help them out at

some point down the road, and also to do

some interesting science for us. Just go

out there, get your hands messy, explore,

try different things until you find

something that really turns you on. So

Andrew's designing video games for

astronauts. Oh, Michael, you space cadet.

It's called virtual reality. An engineer

can climb into a virtual engine and look

for thoughts, and a surgeon can tour her

heart before surgery. Well, let's leave

Virtual behind and catch up with the

coconuts.

NASA selected our experiment to test

coconuts as a space food. We prepared our

experiment, measured and recorded all the

data, and then loaded our coconut files

into the Space Experiment Module. Our

coconuts then blasted into space aboard

the shuttle.

The SEM unit was mounted in the bay of

the shuttle, where there's no protection

like the astronauts have.

So our coconuts got to float in

microgravity, experience extreme

cold, and absorb lots of radiation.

They spent 10 days in space. Finally, the

shuttle returned to Earth, and a few

weeks later, we got to see how our

experiment turned out. We're

back at Kennedy Space Center where we're

going to do the deintegration process.

This time, we'll look for changes in our

coconuts after their time in space. We'll

measure our vials and compare them to the

data that we got before. Put them

together like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

All in all, we had only a few minor

differences. Most vials stayed the

same. But we did see three types of

changes.

Two vials change color from light to

dark. Those were the milky ones. We need

a control coconut here on Earth, one that

didn't go into space to compare it to.

Then we can tell if the change in color

only happened on Earth or in space.

Turn! We also had three vials that

weighed less after returning. These were

the yellow coconut milk and the outside

husk. Maybe there were chemical changes

for them in space. Or they weigh less

because they leaked.

Two vials had a static charge. The

coconut parts were stuck to the wall of

the vial. We don't know why that

happened. Was it a chemical change?Or

maybe it was a change in gravity. But the

majority of the vials didn't change, so

maybe our coconuts are a good space fit

after all. Probably next time we can

check their pH balance. Or we could test

how plants grow without gravity. Cool.

What to do, James?We had a ton

of fun flying coconuts into space. You

and your class can get an experiment on

the shuttle, too. Just ask your teacher

how. I wish I could go. Next time,

we'll propose an experiment on how

Shakiba will do in space.

Coconuts are blasting off!

You and your class could design your own

space experiment. Yup. Things like, do

seeds grow better in zero gravity?Does

cheese spoil in a vacuum?Is it easier to

do homework while weightless?No. If

it's a well-designed experiment, NASA

might send it up for the next space

shuttle launch. And then who knows?So

talk to your teacher about the shuttle

project. Nowturn to the question of the

day. How could you move around heavy

equipment on Mars?For the answer, we're

heading back to NASA's Jet Propulsion

Lab, where scientists are on a roll with

a great idea.

Wow. Wow

One way to transfer equipment across the

Martian surface is to use a giant

inflatable ball. Get ready to bounce.

We lovingly refer to it as the

tumbleweed. Why?Because it can carry

equipment inside while it tumbles along

with the wind on the planet's surface.

Ohh It can do other things, too. It can

act like a parachute. Bringing equipment

to the surface and cushioning the

landing. Get ready to bounce. This ball

is 8 feet in diameter. The full-size

tumbleweed ball would be 20 feet in

diameter, and it would carry its

instruments in the middle of the ball.

Play ball. When you're done, you

can maybe even play a game of Martian

volleyball.

These days, a flight to Mars takes about



kid, just take a look through a

telescope. You'll find out that Mars

really is ready. If space has got you

hooked, stick with it, because you may be

the first person on the Red Planet.

Ohh It's time to blast off. But don't

forget, we want to hear about your

exploration. And observations. Because

you're the stars of DFTV. To find out

more about Dragonfly TV, head to PBS

online at pbskids.org. More experiments,

Dragonfly Magazine, teachers guides, and

a place for you to send us your

investigations. Or write us at Dragonfly

TV, 172 East 4th Street, St. Paul,

Minnesota, 55101. Join us in orbit

again for more friendly kids. And

kid-friendly science on DFTV.

Major funding for Dragonfly TV is

provided by Best Buy.

We're excited to see kids like you

exploring the world of science and

technology, because what you're learning

is going to change the way we live. Best

Buy. The future looks fun.

And by the National Science Foundation,

supporting education and research in

science, mathematics and technology.

The National Science Foundation.

America's investment in the future.

Additional funding is provided by the

Donald Wiesner Charitable Trust

Foundation. It's Rocket Ricky and

the Space Boys!

We're outta here!

PBS Kids!

If you're a parent or teacher and you

want more ideas for great science

investigations, check out our teacher's

guide and other publications. Write to us

for more info at Dragonfly TV, 172

E 4th St. St. Paul, MN