What’s Up - Page 1 of 4

Ask Me What’s Up Cart

Brief Summary

This cart exhibit is designed to help the visitors truly discover the overhead exhibits (MMU, Titan IV Rocket, Event Horizon Rocket, Mars Plane, Sputnik, and Explorer) and to spark their interest in those exhibits. This is done through capturing the visitors attention and curiosity by using the various paraphernalia in the exhibit box, by showing the power points on the portal under What’s Up, using the laminated sheets and using laser pointers to locate the parts of the overhead that you are specifically talking about.

Main Teaching Points
  • To direct the visitor’s attention to the hanging exhibits.
  • To move under the exhibit and explain what the exhibit is and why it is significant and/or how the exhibit works.
  • To stimulate questions about the exhibit and to answer those questions and/or find the answer on the net, through other volunteers and staff.
Set Up
  • Any one of the computer carts is the physical cart for the exhibit. The battery needs to be fully charged or the computer will have to be plugged in at each overhead exhibit. This is possible but cumbersome. You may want to use a microphone.
  • Pick an “advertising mode:”
  • large buttons to attach to your uniform
  • hat with logo
  • drop-down screen image
  • 8.5x11 sign in holder
  • Sandwich board with signs on each side
  • There are seven laminated pages, one for an overview and one each of the six overhead exhibits. The cards provide a quick and easyway of educating the MGG so that he or she may educate the visitors. You will need a laser pointer. You might want speakers attached to the computer for any separate CDs or DVDs you might want to show parts of to the visitor. You might want to have the MGG portal up with the What’s Up section activated.

Suggested ways of presenting touch cart /Operating Tips

How you do this demo is totally up to you and what you are most comfortable doing. Your style and ideas are welcome!The following are different suggested ways to get started:

  • Announce a tour of the objects overhead and take a computer cart and bring up the power points for each exhibit as one comes to each exhibit or take the laminated pages (one laminated page front and back per exhibit and start the tour at any of the overhead exhibits. OR
  • Just find a group of people and ask them if they noticed the hanging exhibit closest to them and if they would like to know more and/or take a tour of them all. OR
  • You might spot a visitor or visitors looking up at an exhibit or missing an overhead exhibit and wander over to the visitor(s) and simply explain some things about that overhead exhibit and point out that there are 5 more such exhibits.

Object Descriptions

  • Event Horizon rocket hanging over the entrance to the Information Lounge (actual rocket)
  • Model of the Titan IVA rockethanging at the side of the Information Lounge (replica)
  • Manned Maneuvering Unit hanging near the Astrotot section (replica)
  • Sputnik and Explorer satellites hanging next to each other beside the shuttle docking area (replicas)
  • Mars Plane hanging down in the Mars Station over the Mars visitor station (model – there is no original)

Questions and Answers

Every MGG will have his or her own style. We are very interested in your success stories and the questions asked and answered. There is a tablet in the exhibit box. Please write down your thoughts on how to use the cart and on questions for the exhibits that interest you most or for all of them. Any complaint is welcomed IF you also present a suggested solution.

  • Event Horizon: Is this rocket real or a model?

This is a real rocket that has flown several times. A 16 (at the time) year old student, Art Hoag from Windsor Colorado, built Event Horizon.

  • Titan IVA rocket: How long is the real Titan IVA?

Different payload fairings were available for different satellite payloads; the maximum height of the titan IV was 61.9 meters or 204 feet. This model was provided by Lockheed Martin, the corporation that built the real Titan series.

  • MMU: Who used the first MMU?

This “rocket backpack” allowed an astronaut to become a self-contained spacecraft, capable of maneuvering hundreds of feet away from the shuttle orbiter. The MMU was developed for NASA by Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin) here in Denver. Astronaut Bruce McCandless first flew the MMU from the Space Shuttle in February1984on STS-41-B mission.

  • Sputnik: Why was Sputnik important?

Sputnik was the first artificial Earth Satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in October 1957. It began the “space race” that led the United States to land humans on the moon starting in 1969.

  • Explorer I: What did Explorer I discover?

Explorer I discovered the Van Allen radiation belts, composed of charged particles (a plasma) held in place by the Earth’s magnetic field.

  • Mars Plane: Mars has less than 1% of the atmosphere of Earth and 1/3 of the Earth’s gravity. How could this plane “fly” on Mars?

Making an aircraft from very light materials, with a large wing-span and a powerful but light engine, would allow flight on Mars.

Other Cool Stuff to Try/Fast Facts

  • Relate the six exhibits together in time and technology. Sputnik, Explorer, Titan series, MMU, Event Horizon and the Mars Plane.
  • They all have flying in common and were all built to be separate autonomous flying machines except the two satellites.
  • What makes them different from each other is how they fly, where they flew, what they carried, if anything, on those flights, and if they were carrying any living Earth creatures.
  • The MMU weights 255 pounds and is propelled by nitrogen gas fed to 24 thruster jets.
  • The rocket Event Horizon weighs 365 pounds, is 21 feet long and in May of 2006 flew to a height of 10, 161 feet.
  • The last (and final) Titan launch happened on October 27, 2005.

Background materials (websites, videos, articles, etc.)

  • There is the standard touch cart notebook that contains sections on each hanging exhibit. Int that notebook in the back are similarly tabbed sections with more detailed information on each exhibit.
  • The MGG portal has good information and links to other web sites on the net.
  • There are CD’s on the Titan and the MMU. You might want to preview them so that you can show the more interesting and dynamic sections to the visitors. They are educational for the MGG as well.
  • Take advantage of the MGGs on your team that may have been directly involved with any of these exhibits directly or tangentially.

Self assessment suggestions

After working with the CART OR SHOW NAME GOES HERE several times, complete the checklist and rubric below by highlighting the box that best describes your performance. Have your team leader observe your demo then complete an identical rubric. Discuss your presentation technique with your team leader along the lines of the rubric.

A. Checklist of Requisite Skills

Can get out the box for the cart and on a computer cart from its storage place and return both to their proper places later.
Can engage the visitors and stimulate curiosity in and about any or all of the overhead exhibits.
Can use computer, other RV equipment and/or the laminated sheets to enhance the visitors' interactions with objects
Is OK with most of the overhead exhibits but is exceptionally good with one or more.
Can be flexible using the cart depending on the age group of the visitors and/or the lack of many visitors.
  1. Rubric for WHAT’S UP

QUALITY LEVELS
 / OK / EXCELLENT
TRAITS 
Approachability / Open, smiling and friendly in manner. Makes eye contact with visitor and greets them. / Invites visitors to cart; suggests how cool the objects are.
Warms up the visitors with individualized questions such as where they are from and are they enjoying themselves today.
Enthusiasm and fun / Conveys enjoyment of working with objects and visitors. / Can relate the information about the objects in story format or other personalized way.
Responsiveness to visitors / Courteous and aware of visitor wishes / A good reader of visitor body language, knowing for example, when visitor is confused or rushed, or has another question. Asks visitor comfort questions, not just content questions.
Knowledge of subject / Explains the objects clearly without being a "know it all"; asks visitors to guess or speculate. / Works the objects into a conversation with visitor. Though knowledgeable, may postpone giving answer to give visitor opportunity to discover. Brings in enrichment material collected by browsing the NASA web resources provided.