Viewing page 29 of 170

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[image]]

Activity 2: Weather and the Shuttle

Will weather delay the shuttle launch?

Note: This activity is best done when an actual shuttle launch (prior to the KidSat mission) is about to take place. This will make the activity real, and is the assumption for this particular activity.

1) One day before the shuttle launch, distribute the current satellite image for North America (or display it on the monitor). Have your students find the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Is the area cloud covered? Are there clouds in the surrounding area? An overcast day, or threatening thunderstorms will cause a delay in the launch. Explain to your students that Florida's weather is heavily impacted by thunderstorms which commonly appear and build up in the afternoon. This makes it harder to forecast cloud cover by looking at the satellite images (except if you're an experienced meteorologist, and have other types of data as well).

2) Next, have your students use Internet to access the NASA shuttle web page to find out the current weather conditions and forecast for Kennedy Space Center. Have your students report and discuss the current weather data and the forecast. Then have them compare the data with the weather requirements for launch. Their task is to make their own recommendation on whether to postpone the launch. Finally, have them compare their own recommendation with NASA's recommendation (via the Shuttle web page), and discuss the reasons each group (students and NASA) made the recommendations.

3) If the launch was delayed because of weather conditions at one of the emergency landing sites, then look at the satellite image of the world to see what type of weather is occurring at the specified landing site. You can also use the Internet to access current weather data and forecasts from that site. 

Teachers' Guide        Page 8.35