Today we celebrate a really great day for both high-resolution satellite imagery and kids in schools. That might seem like a strange combo so let me explain.
Yesterday DigitalGlobe launched their new WorldView-2 satellite into space – you can read more about it here. Yours truly, along with Betsy Aoki, were on hand for the launch to watch a couple of pounds of rocket fuel go whoosh.
We’re excited about the level of imagery that WorldView-2 will provide to Bing maps in the future. But today, we’re also very excited about something different.
http://worldview2.digitalglobe.com/
When I heard about the rocket and satellite going up, I reverted back to my youth when I spent literally hundreds of hours building model rockets that I would then launch at the school playground on the weekends. Oh sure occasionally the rocket would get caught in an air current and float away into some neighbor’s backyard on descent but that wasn’t really the point. The joy for me was learning about propulsion, airflow over the monocoque shell, calculating the projected height to which it would ascend given the weight and engine specs. Yes, I was a nerd and I hid my lunch – a lot.
Stefan as a kid
The exposure to rocketry at an early age drove me into a fascination of science in general. Being able to learn and explore science in school engendered in me a love of logic. Logic drove me into computers and programming. And here I am and I think I landed in a pretty cool place. The problem? It seems like every day there are more stories about the pressures schools are under to meet a growing funding gap. Students in the United States, while showing gains in some geographies and schools, are suffering from flattening or declining science test scores. And often science isn’t seen as ‘cool’ by young students to whom I speak.
What to do? Well, the President is getting in on the action telling 150 middle school students at the Whitehouse on Oct 7, “’ Don’t let anybody tell you that there is knowledge that is beyond your reach”. We wanted to do a little something as well to get students talking about rocketry and science. We want to show them that even something as complex as putting a satellite into high earth orbit all starts with an idea…and something as simple as a drawing.
Today we’re launching Mission: 10000 Rockets. The mission? To get young people across the country to learn about rockets, rocketry, and more general scientific principles. We’re asking 10000 students to submit the rocket design of the future and send it to us. We’re assembling a pretty cool panel of scientists from across the nation to help us judge which of these designs best exemplifies how space travel might evolve. The rocket designs selected by the judges will actually be built – not to full scale and we’re not talking about hopping a ride in it – by some wicked cool artists. Finally, at the end of the program, we’ll assemble all the drawings into a book that people across the nation can buy through booksellers with all proceeds going back to local schools. A nice benefit: 8 schools will randomly be chosen to receive $5000 to help fund projects across their school.
So go forth. Check out http://10000rockets.com. Draw the rocket that will go further and will help us unravel some of the mysteries of the universe.
And I’ll see you on the playground – or maybe even in space.
Stefan Weitz – Bing, Avid Rocket Launcher since 1975
Other posts you might find interesting:
Yeah, We Launched a Bing Rocket