The project's title, "The Challenge Project", captures the themes that resonate with the public as we approach Senator Glenn's return to space on STS-95 in October. Those themes are human potential and human exploration. The Challenge Project will illustrate the boundlessness of human potential at every age through messages such as 'embrace challenge,' by facing barriers or frontiers with determination and a positive attitude, and 'be the best you can be' through lifelong learning and physical fitness. The Project's components highlight diverse exploration efforts and focus on NASA Life Sciences activities in human exploration of space.

This project blends the ideas of challenges, physical fitness, lifelong learning, and space exploration in unique NASA Life Sciences experiential opportunities that reach out to the American public, inviting them to become participants. A specific focus is in the area of human aging, as STS-95 is the first of a series of collaborations between NASA Life Sciences and the National Institute on Aging of the NIH. Human physiology, aging, exercise, advanced life support technology, habitats, hands-on science investigations of plants and hydroponic systems, the role of gravity in evolution and development, exploration of remote and extreme environments; all these form the backdrop of The Challenge Project. Activities are designed to engage our audience by providing them with relevant interactive experiences and by featuring individuals whose life choices exemplify The Challenge Project's themes.

Themes!

Embrace challenge!

Include physical activity and exercise in your lifestyle.

Pursue life-long learning and stimulate your imagination.

Messages!

Aging, a natural life-process, can be a continuously successful transition when we choose to constantly progress, challenging ourselves with new skills, interests, and physical activities.

Space Life Sciences is all about supporting human exploration of our universe and learning more about biological processes by studying life in the unique environment of space.

Target Audience!

General Public - Intergenerational Emphasis

NASA Life Sciences Outreach
(The following components were created by, and are managed by, NASA Life Sciences Outreach.)

Individuals throughout the United States have been invited by NASA Life Sciences Outreach to participate in the Challenge Project as a tribute to their life choices demonstrating the Project's themes. These individuals are the personal 'faces' of the Project and will be featured on the Life Sciences Challenge Project Internet site. By arrangement, individuals will participate as Challenge Mission crew members.

The Life Sciences Challenge Project Internet site will offer interactive choices including participant biographies and journals, science background information, hands-on activities, live web-chats, photos, questions and answer posting, and more.

The Challenge Mission is a 7-day deployment of the Scott Carpenter Space Analog Station on the sea floor in Key Largo, FL. Invited individuals and representatives of our Challenge Project museum and national organization partners will be joined by Space Life Sciences experts in the Space Analog Station. Challenge Mission participants' activities will be broadcast via the Life Sciences Challenge Project Internet site. *The American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology and the Muncie Group are underwriting costs associated with the Space Analog Station deployment and logistics. (September 23-30)

A Print/Electronic Resource Packet will be distributed to all partners and to selected individuals.

NASA Life Sciences Outreach collaborations:
(The following components are made possible through collaborations with Life Sciences Outreach partners.)

Print Public Service Announcements Garfield the Cat illustrating space life sciences health facts will be distributed to Paws, Inc. newspaper clients in September.

A Wellness Seminar will be held in Muncie, Indiana on September 28. Sponsored by the Muncie Group, representatives from organizations that have a high interest in wellness and exercise will attend. A live link to an underwater habitat in Key Largo will feature Mr. Edmund F. Ball, Honorary Chairman of Ball Corporation.

Museum Events will occur throughout September and October at the direction of our Museum Crew Members, our partner museums. Museum Crew Members are developing exciting, special activities and events that will bring the Challenge Project themes and messages to their communities, states and regions. They may nominate one special crew member for the Challenge Mission, in addition to selecting community members to be featured on the Life Sciences Challenge Project Internet site.