From: NESBITT, STEPHEN A. (JSC-AP) [mailto:stephen.a.nesbitt1@jsc.nasa.gov]
Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2000 9:10 AM
To: Durkin, Thomas V. (SDSMT)
Cc: Farwell, Sherry O.; Nilson, Jeanette R.; Dan Swets - Augustana College (E-mail); DALSTED, KEVIN; 'wbyrd@iastate.edu'; KLUKSDAHL, ELIZABETH (JSC-EP5); 'Julius Dasch'; PRITCHARD, EDWARD J. (JSC-AP); PARKER, LOUIS A. (JSC-AP)
Subject: RE: Space Station Outreach

 Tom:

Thanks for asking about the NASA Days program. We are hoping to make some visits in our 8-state region, including South Dakota, this coming school year. We have been thinking about fall for your area, but might be able to modify our ideas since we don't have any firm arrangements yet.

The typical NASA Days program is a three-day event jointly arranged by NASA's Johnson Space Center Office of Public Affairs in Houston and a coordinator in the local community being visited. The idea is to bring as many NASA outreach resources as possible into small and mid-sized cities (50,000 - 200,000 population) to share the excitement of human space flight with people who don't normally get to visit the major space museums such as the Smithsonian.

NASA brings its mobile Space Station exhibit, housed in two large 48-foot-long trailers (18-wheeler type), an astronaut speaker, other exhibits on NASA's exploration programs, and education specialists to train local teachers in classroom activities and how to take advantage of NASA's educator resources throughout the year. We try to conduct activities showing visitors how to access NASA's web site and how to spot the Space Station as it passes in orbit above your community.

For cost-saving reasons, we target a single region for each tour, usually three cities within a few hundred miles of each other. Since our funds are limited, it is helpful if the local community or sponsor can offer to pay for a portion of the transportation cost, usually a few thousand dollars.

In fall, 2000, we plan to take the NASA Days program to the central U.S. region in the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma. Our spring 2001 tour region has not been selected.

When we went to our first appearance in Wilson, NC, last April the local newspaper sponsored the event and had coordinated a community-wide effort. We brought the trailers, an astronaut who signed autographs and made a speech at the community college, handout materials and a few other things. The locals put on model rocket demonstrations and had contests and other events for the school kids. We had a VIP reception the first evening before opening up and did a media event at the trailers.

The trailers can only handle about 1500 people a day throughput, so the other activities are important, too.

You can see photos of the trailer exhibit at this internet location -- http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/isstrailers/   The photos are some early ones and you have to use the scroll bars to see the whole photo. We hope to have a real web page up in late June.

The best way of putting an event together is for there to be a local organizer or sponsor who can do all the work on the host city end -- finding a location for the trailers, arranging for electrical power and security, local publicity, interaction with the local schools and local city authorities, setting up the VIP event and many other things. On our end, we would bring the trailers and staff to operate them, an astronaut, education specialists and probably some other exhibits to set up in a public location like a mall or community center. We cover most of those costs, but if the local sponsor can pay for some of the hauling charge, it's very helpful.

Let's keep in touch. We'd very much like to come to South Dakota this next year.   My phone number is 281 483-5758.

Steve Nesbitt
Office of Public Affairs
NASA Johnson Space Center
Houston, TX

 -----Original Message-----

From: Durkin, Thomas V. (SDSMT) [mailto:Thomas.Durkin@sdsmt.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2000 5:08 PM
To: NESBITT, STEPHEN A. (JSC-AP)
Cc: Farwell, Sherry O.; Nilson, Jeanette R.; Dan Swets - Augustana College (E-mail); DALSTED, KEVIN; 'wbyrd@iastate.edu'; KLUKSDAHL, ELIZABETH (JSC-EP5); 'Julius Dasch'
Subject: RE: Space Station Outreach

 Stephen,

We received the e-mail below from Bill Byrd regarding JSC's interest in setting up a series of "NASA Days" focusing on the International Space Station. Please send me the appropriate information to pursue such an event. I'm not sure when you were planning the "NASA Days", but the ISS focus might fit very nicely into our plans for "South Dakota Space Day 2001", which will occur at the end of April 2001.

Several of the institutional members of the SD Space Grant Consortium recently discussed implementing some new ideas/exhibits for our annual Space Day event to broaden its impact. Typically, several thousand students, teachers, and parents show up. Obviously, we want to keep that outreach.  By adding some new components to Space Day activities, we might broaden the impact to other adults (e.g., legislators, industry, etc.). SD Space Day locations revolve around the state. Next year, we plan to hold it in Rapid City.

I would love to focus our 2001 Space Day(s) on the ISS since it is such a current and interesting subject. Our desire to add some new components to Space Day, combined with the significance of 2001 (A Space Odyssey), would make next year a great year to implement something like this.

Funding is obviously an issue. If we could limit the price to the $10K end of the range, we might be able to handle it. I look forward to receiving more details from you and discussing the feasibility of working this into our Space Day plans.

Regards,

Tom Durkin
Deputy Director & Outreach Coordinator, SD Space Grant Consortium
South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
501 East Saint Joseph Street
Rapid City, SD 57701-3995

Phone: (605) 394-1975
E-mail: Thomas.Durkin@sdsmt.edu

-----Original Message-----

From: Bill Byrd [mailto:wbyrd@iastate.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2000 8:20 AM
To: sg-dir@hq.nasa.gov
Cc: pmccrack@hq.nasa.gov; stephen.a.nesbitt1@jsc.nasa.gov
Subject: Space Station Outreach 

NASA JSC is trying to set up a series of "NASA Days" centered on the ISS. VIPs, Press, K-12, Astronauts, etc. If you want to host such an event and think that you can come up with the money required to do it (About $10000 - $25000) then contact:

stephen.a.nesbitt1@jsc.nasa.gov

He will guide you through the process.