The Killer Asteroid Project (KAP) is an innovative opportunity, engaging students and teachers with real hands-on research in NASA’s Near Earth Object Observation (NEOO) program.High school and college students will participate in their own classrooms making actual measures of near earth objects (NEOs) that support NASA’s mission to “understand and protect our home planet.”Within the framework of our research, we will “inspire the next generation of explorers ...as only NASA can.”

Prototyping the KAP began with a successful 2 year pilot program using an affordable concept linked to practical technology.This NEO observation program was originally called the “NEO Follow-up Project”, and during the first year 13 Cape Fear High School students measured 126 NEOs and one NEO confirmation was made by students K. Mills and N. Stewart.To date, over 720 NEOs have been measured by students for NASA’s NEOO program.

The KAP is cutting-edge science serving as a realistic and appropriate project to the parent NASA proposal.Our education and public outreach (E/PO) program will provide direct research experience to students and teachers using actual NEO images.The KAP exhibits a “high probability for success” with 33 high schools and universities already implementing it in their curriculum in the past year.

Sixteen schools have signed up for the October/November 2007 KAP campaign.Two additional NEO campaigns are scheduled for February/March and April/May 2008.Teachers and students may conduct NEO observations on their own when there are no formal campaigns operating.In fact, many schools have just started classes in this past week and already student NEO observations have begun to arrive from classes for submission to the MPC!

The KAP project will be managed by Robert Holmes Jr., the science mission directorate on the parent proposal and president of the Astronomical Research Institute (ARI). www.astro-research.orgHe has been authorized by ARI to work on this project and will be solely responsible for the success of this NASA E/PO.Unofficial student research opportunities involving the KAP will commence September 1, 2007.

Customer Needs:

The number of schools that have participated in the former NEO Follow-up Project is an excellent indication of the enthusiasm for the KAP.In the past school year the NEO Follow-up Project served 33 schools, including 20 high schools from 13 states, 6 community colleges from 3 states and 3 universities from 2 states.We are proud to announce that ten of these schools are volunteering their expertise to confirm newly discovered NEOs from October 1st through the end of December 2007.Since the KAP has been embraced by the educational community, it solidly demonstrates a high “Customer Needs Focus”.

Concise records were used to evaluate the outcome during the 2006-2007 school year.Our evaluation results found teachers and students made 594 Near Earth Object observations that were confirmed by the Minor Planet Center (MPC).In addition, 1 student and 2 teachers confirmed 3 different comets for the large NEO sky surveys.

Our E/PO program exhibits excellent alignment between NASA and the educational community.NEO data from NASA/JPL http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/ has proven to be extremely valuable to our program.In addition, the KAP depends on research images of NEOs which are provided by the parent NASA proposal.The Astronomical Research Observatory (ARO) will provide students with over 2,200 hours of telescope time and over 50,000 NEO images in the upcoming school year.Significant scientific results will emerge from our research as we anticipate students to make over 2,000 NEO observations with this NASA data.Together we will provide participants with exciting research, challenging students by using advanced technology to measure near earth objects for NASA’s NEOO Program.

A motivating factor expressed by students nationwide has been the opportunity to find undiscovered asteroids in these NEO images.In this project, students may request follow-up observations of these undiscovered objects so they may secure provisional designations from the Minor Planet Center for their new discovery.

Program Content:

The KAP will make extensive use of the NASA/JPL HORIZONS on-line solar system data and ephemeris computation service.This NASA website provides key solar system data (377,342 asteroids) and flexible production of highly accurate ephemerides for solar system objects.Student researchers also use the NASA/JPL Small-Body Database Browser to obtain data for all known asteroids and comets. NASA/JPL data includes:

•orbital elements

•orbit diagrams

•physical parameters

•discovery circumstances

The KAP website will include student lessons developed by teachers relevant to NEO research and will link educational concepts to the NASA/JPL website. http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/Other important NASA NEO programs include “Keeping an Eye on Space Rocks” http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/neo/index.cfm and “Awesome Asteroids!” http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/images/awesome.html .Each of these NASA programs is an important educational tool that will help students learn about NASA’s NEOO program.

An important NASA tool teachers and students can use in the KAP is “Sky Morph,” a NASA Applied Information Systems Research program.Students can search for pre-discovery images of NEOs using ephemerides generated dynamically using NASA's Horizons Project.This amazing page will allow students to search NEAT and Digitized Sky Survey (DSS and DSS2) catalogs for moving objects in a selected region of the sky.It’s an extremely effective tool allowing students to make a contribution to science and conduct real research using NASA data which can significantly extend the orbital arc of an otherwise poorly observed or newly discovered NEO!Sky Morph is located at http://skys.gsfc.nasa.gov/skymorph/skymorph.html

Other important NASA pages we plan to create lessons around include “Current Impact Risks” http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/ , “NEO Close Approach Tables” http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/ and “News on Near Earth Objects” http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/ .

The KAP will align its research activities with the NASA/JPL “International Year of Astronomy 2009”. http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov/tips/index.cfm?teachingID=47 Specifically, we are planning high impact educational opportunities in NEO research that will enhance NASA’s education goals in 2009 and beyond.

The KAP has plans to make use of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey through M. Jordan Raddick of Johns Hopkins University and Dr. Richard Kron from the University of Chicago.Team member Harlan Devore has experience using Sloan data and will work on pre-covery opportunities of poorly observed NEOs where Sloan data is available.He will instruct other team members and teachers on procedures needed to find NEOs in Sloan images.

Robert Holmes, SMD scientist, and members of the education team working on the KAP will be responsible for the technical accuracy of this E/PO program.

The KAP will align with educational reform efforts, principally those involving National Science Education Standards.Many of these “Content Standards” will be found in lessons at the KAP website.

For grades 9-12, the applicable Content Standards we will align with are:

Content Standard A: “Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry including design and conduct scientific investigations and understand scientific inquiry.”

Content Standard B:  “Motion and forces and conservation of energy.”

Content Standard D: We will help students understand the “Origin and evolution of the earth in the solar system.”

Content Standard E: Students will develop “understandings about science and technology.”

It is our mission to develop quality research programs enabling students to become scientifically literate. Vivian Hoette, our education and public outreach partner, is experienced and knowledgeable in aligning E/PO activities with education standards.These Standards will apply to every student, regardless of age, gender, cultural or ethnic background, disabilities, aspirations, or interest and motivation in science.Our objectives will meet the National Science Education Standards as outlined by the National Academy of Science’s, National Research Council.

The KAP website will become a source of NEO lessons that will fulfill these “Content Standards”.Our team has proposed to design Internet lessons on light curves of brighter NEOs so students can estimate a rotational rate which is valuable information to NASA NEOO programs.Students can also measure the brightness of NEOs using multiple filters to estimate what color the NEO is.Students can learn from lessons on orbital mechanics which will allow students to estimate distances to NEOs.Students may study momentum, potential energy, and kinetic energy by using LANSAT images to measure the size of craters on the Earth and estimate the size of the NEO that created it.Students will use the NASA/JPL Java based 3–D orbit diagram generator to determine future dates and close approach distances of NEOs, asteroids and comets they have measured for the KAP.A lesson relating iridium ratios in clay from past NEO strikes will teach lessons on radioactive decay curves.We have the education team and the desire to create these lessons on NEO research that will help our project meet “Content Standards”.

Pipeline:

Our use of innovative technology with hands-on research will peak student interest, creating mentoring relationships between teachers and students.This type of interaction will help foster future careers in STEM.In the past year, evaluation results have shown two Cape Fear High School students who participated in the NEO Follow-up Project made commitments to universities in the field of astro-physics.

Our Scholastic Recognition Director will strengthen family support of STEM education by providing awards to students for their scientific achievements in NEO observations.Our unique design will create important linkages with the Math and Science Partnership Program and will involve planetariums, corporations, educational and professional organizations in our research activities.

Diversity:

The KAP will reach many underserved groups such as minorities and women to strengthen undergraduate education through research. This project will be accessible to persons with disabilities and shall serve those attending minority institutions.As an example, Meredith College, at Raleigh, North Carolina, is the largest private women's college in the Southeast.Meredith College had students who participated and made measures of NEOs in our spring 2007 campaign and have signed up for the October/November session in the upcoming school year.Meredith College has been in the media this past spring for their discovery of several new asteroids in our NEO Follow-up Project, reinforcing our commitment to underserved educational institutions.