Woman curious about space
When the mobile laboratory Curiosity touched down on the Martian surface in the early morning hours Monday, Jackie Pfeiffer of Cabot stayed up to watch its journey's progress.
After all, she was there at the start of its voyage, when it blasted off Nov. 26, 2011, from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Pfeiffer, a retired grade school teacher and a current member of the South Butler County School Board, is a avid space flight fan.
Curiosity's launch was the third such event she's attended. She's been present for five scheduled space launches, but two were delayed. She even attended a space camp in Russia in 1994.
“It was like 1:39 a.m. Eastern time. It was a few minutes late. I don't get up for just anything,” said Pfeiffer, who watched the landing via NASA TV on her cable system.
The channel showed the control room with about 30 anxious scientists, she said.
“The Mars Odyssey satellite sent back data as the lander was landing,” Pfeiffer said.
Mission scientists were informed when the spacecraft carrying Curiosity entered the atmosphere, deployed its parachute, and separated from its heat shield and when the rover was lowered on its tether from a hovering platform.
“They didn't expect to get a picture of the lander itself,” Pfeiffer said. “But it's rear hazmat camera showed the Martian horizon and a wheel, which meant it was in the right orientation and it was on Mars.”
Pfeiffer said in the days following the landing Curiosity will extend its arms and antennas and check itself out before it begins its planned two-year mission
It was Pfeiffer's former job that sparked her interest in spacecraft and Mars missions, she said.“I taught third grade, and third graders love space and anything to do with it,” Pfeiffer said. “So I sought to improve my knowledge so I could share it with them and make it more real.”As in the past, Pfeiffer traveled to Florida before Curiosity's launch to attend a three-day workshop for educators put on by Arizona State University.ASU along with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is in charge of the Mars missions.Pfeiffer flew from Pittsburgh to Orlando to attend the classes Nov. 25, 26 and 27 at a Cocoa Beach hotel near the launch area.Unfortunately, she said, airline guidance systems aren't as precise as NASA's, and her luggage traveled to Minneapolis instead.Once in Orlando, Pfeiffer rented a car and drove the hour to Cocoa Beach for the classes.Along the way, she came across I Dream of Jeanne Road named for the NBC situation comedy that was broadcast from 1965 to 1970 and which was supposedly set in Cocoa Beach.“I had to explore that, although it wasn't that impressive,” Pfeiffer said. “It was just a road; I thought they would have a little bit more, but I had to see because I remember 'I Dream of Jeanne.'”The ASU classes were attended by about 75 educators and museum curators.The classes, which cost the participants $150, lasted from 7:45 a.m. to 5 or 5:30 p.m.“They were long days jam-packed with information,” Pfeiffer said. “We met with scientists who designed the equipment and an astronaut came and spoke with us. Finding out how they chose the landing site was very interesting.”Pfeiffer said the men who designed the equipment that went to Mars aboard Curiosity were “so down-to-earth.”“They appreciate that there are people still out there interested in space,” she said.Pfeiffer said younger people today are jaded about space flight.“For them, there have always been rockets. They don't realize how amazing it was when the first ones went up,” she said.From NASA, she has borrowed moon rocks, which are a couple of ounces of small rocks and dirt are from Earth's natural satellite encased in Lucite, to take to schools to use in talks on the history of the Apollo program.“They tell me that was their grandparents' time. I feel old,” Pfeiffer said.
After the classes, Pfeiffer's group was taken to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Kennedy about four miles from the launch pad to view the blastoff, which because of a delay took place on Nov. 26.She said watchers were kept at a distance from the launch because the Curiosity carried radioactive material in the form of plutonium-238 used to power the laboratory's reactor.“They didn't invite as many people or advertise it as much,” she said. “If something happened on launch, they wanted the watchers to be able to get to shelters or a building.”Unlike the earlier Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which touched down on the Red Planet swathed in airbags in 2004, the Curiosity descended from space in an aeroshell. After a parachute slowed its fall, the rover and a descent stage dropped out of the aeroshell.Retrorockets on the descent stage fired, and the Curiosity, the size of a MiniCooper car, was lowered to its landing by a sky crane system.Once down, the Curiosity separated itself from the descent stage, which was programmed to crash land elsewhere.Pfeiffer said the Curiosity will have greater mobility and range than the earlier rovers and is designed to last two years in the harsh Martian environment.Spirit and Opportunity were designed to operate for up to 90 days, but both far exceeded expectations.Spirit became inactive in March 2010, but Opportunity was still signaling back to Earth as late as May.Pfeiffer said Curiosity landed in the Gale Crater, a deep canyon similar the Grand Canyon on Earth“Exposed rocks we hope will tell the history of Mars,” she said. “Is there water? They've found things that indicate water — channels that could have been made by water — but there has been no definite conclusion.”Pfeiffer said if the Curiosity finds sedimentary rock — the kind of rock that would had to have been laid down by water — that would show that at one time there was water on Mars.Pfeiffer said Curiosity carries equipment to gather samples of rocks and soil and deliver them to onboard test chambers for analysis.Now that Curiosity has safely landed, Pfeiffer is ready for her next launch.After all, she was present in 2005 when the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter lifted off on its mission to map the surface of Mars and present again in 2007 for the Mars Phoenix orbiter launch.Missions to Mars take place in odd-numbered years because of the relative orbits of Mars and Earth, Pfeiffer said.Curiosity was originally scheduled to launch in 2009, but the mission was delayed because of NASA budget cutbacks.“They are glad they did because in the extra two years they improved the technology,” Pfeiffer said.“I've been taking vacations around space shots. In 2013, I can hope there's going to be another one,” she said.
Sharing her snapshots is Jackie Pfeiffer of Cabot, a retired grade school teacher and current member of the South Butler County school board.Very interested in space exploration, she has made several trips to view space launches.
