[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 0 - 08:43:24 ]
Hello! Today's Space Scientists Online chat with Astronomer Sten Odenwald will begin at 11 am, Pacific. Have your questions ready :-) Please be sure to read Sten's bio BEFORE the chat begins: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/sso/team/odenwald.html

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 1 - 11:02:05 ]
Welcome! Sten Odenwald will be in the chat room in just a few more minutes. He's on the East Coast where there is a raging snowstorm right now and he's having a bit of difficulty getting to our chat room. However, I just spoke with him and expect him here momentarily...

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 2 - 11:04:15 ]
It looks like no matter what we try, Sten is unable to get into the chat room today. So instead of Sten typing in the answers to your questions directly, he and I are going to remain on the phone together. I will read your questions to Sten, and then I will type the answers as he responds over the phone. I'm now going to log in as Sten and my colleague Oran Cox will be the chat moderator. Wish us luck, and thank you for being so patient today :-)

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 3 - 11:06:00 ]
RE: [Clair] How did you get involved in the NASA industry?
Sandy for Sten: By joining the Cosmic Background Explorer team at the Goddard Space Flight Center in 1993. This is after I had already been working as an astronomer for 12 years.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 12 - 11:07:33 ]
RE: [Terence/Kathy/Roger/Aaron/Danielle-MissSharpe/Adams5thGrade] Have we ever sent a robot to Pluto? We will send a robot to Jupiter? We will ever send a robot to Saturn? Why is PLuto such a cold planet.. I know that it is far away from the sun.?
There is a spacecraft called the Pluto Express that NASA hopes to launch in the next few years. But that won't arrive until the end of this decade and it won't land on the surface. It will make measurements from space. The Cassini spacecraft is enroute to Saturn and will arrive in 2004, and like the Galileo probe it will orbit and take measurements and tell us about the mysterious satellite Titan.

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 14 - 11:22:45 v]
RE: [Clair] Do you have any advice for an aspiring astronomer/astrophysicist?
Sandy for Sten: Make sure you really like the field and be sure to study math and physics as hard as you can so that you are proficient in them. You will need both of these disciplines to really understand how things work.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 18 - 11:29:33 ]
RE: [Elizabeth/Meagan/Leigh/Rachael/Jessica-MissSharpe/Adams5thGrade] Do you think NASA will ever know what happened to it? Will we ever find it? How long has it been missing? What do you think happened to it? Will NASA ever send another robot to any other planets?
I don't think we're ever going to know what happened to it. But we most certainly will send more landers down to the surface, but unfortunately none are currently schedule for that exciting region of the Mars pole.

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 19 - 11:30:20 ]
RE: [Clair-ClairAnderson/MinnetonkaHighSchool] Sandy, If Mr. Odenwald is nt able to attend this meeting, or is very fashionably late, will the time be extended, or is the chat still until noon?
Clair, we're coordinating with Mr. Odenwald as we speak, and hope he will be able to stay with us at least until noon to answer questions. If he is able to stay online longer, we'll certainly let you and everyone know. Thank you very much for your patience today.

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 23 - 11:32:29 ]
RE: [MissSharpe/Adams5thGrade] We have to go . We would appreciate a response to these questions. Please email Miss Sharpe at rsharpe@ops.org Thanks.
Miss Sharpe, answers to your questions will most likely appear in archive of this chat. In that case, be sure to check the Space Scientists Online chat archives at http://quest.nasa.gov/sso/chats/archive later. Any questions Sten is unable to answer may be saved and used within future chats with Sten. Thank you for joining us today, and have a good day.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 25 - 11:33:16 ]
RE: [MissSharpe/Adams5thGrade] We have to go . We would appreciate a response to these questions. Please email Miss Sharpe at rsharpe@ops.org Thanks.
Sorry about the technical problems Miss Sharpe. We appreciate you coming today. See my chat archive for answers to all of your questions.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 26 - 11:35:35 ]
RE: [Katie-Katie/KentridgeSeniorHigh] Many people question the importance of NASA, citing its high costs. What are the benefits? In your opinion, why is it worth the costs?
The amount of money we spend on NASA every year is about the same amount we spend on cosmetics every year. I don't think for what we get from exploring the universe, that's a lot to ask.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 27 - 11:38:41 ]
RE: [Elizabeth-MissSharpe/Adams5thGrade] How small is the moon compared to the earth? Why do the planets have symbols? How did people come up with the different symbols for the planets? If the sun turns into a red giant will we live?
The moon is about 1/4 the diameter of Earth. And the reason we use symbols is so that we can keep track of what we're talking about.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 30 - 11:41:56 ]
RE: [Clair-ClairAnderson/MinnetonkaHighSchool] Is there any particular college that i should be thinking about attending which will give me a greater chance of becoming a member of NASA?
Very few people actually work for NASA in the field of astronomy. They work at home institutions that are usually colleges and private companies. They get grants from NASA to support their research during the year. So it does matter what school you go to, to get your degree in astronomy. You should consider graduate schools in the top 20 colleges to give yourself a good chance.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 31 - 11:45:28 ]
RE: [Katie-Katie/KentridgeSeniorHigh] What is your opinion of the Mars missions so far? And I know that you’ve said your goal is to climb Olympus Mons – do you support colonizing Mars?
I support anything that causes us to look outward as humans rather than inward. But that's my personal view. I think we need to get into the habit of dreaming and thinking big and that's how we got to North America and how we got to be the human species we are. I think spending $50 billion/year on space research is about the right level of committment considering what the return has been for our economy in the past, (investing in space activities). I do think humans are going to go to Mars, it might take us 20-30 years because of the technical problems, but meanwhile we're going to have a lot of fun watching robots probe, scampering around the surface and relaying images back to us on the web.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 32 - 11:46:57 ]
RE: [Clair-ClairAnderson/MinnetonkaHighSchool] I live in Minnesota, and there's a lunar eclipse tonight. Is there anything interesting that i should be looking for during the eclipse?
It's going to be extremely red and if you have clear skies it actually will be difficult to find becasue it will be so dark. But you should watch it carefully and notice how the colors change over time as the sunlight is passing through Earth's atmosphere.

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 35 - 11:50:43 ]
RE: [/Aaron/Greg/Kerri/Rachael-MissSharpe/Adams5thGrade] Whay does Mars have the male sign? Why does Venus have the female sign? How big is the sun? Do you think there are other living life forms out there?
The reason for the symbols being what they are has to do with the selection by ancient Greeks and Romans. Blood red meant war, and Mars being the Roman god of warfare, it seemed like a good combination. And yes I do think there is life out there in the universe. I have always been impressed by how hardy bacteria are and I suspect bacteria and viruses are the most common forms of life because of how long they have survived on this planet. Earth's bacteria emerged only a few hundred million years after the formation of Earth.

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 37 - 11:50:47 ]
We would once again like to thank all of you for your patience, as we continue to troubleshoot our technical difficulties. Sten is working hard to catch up with your questions, and will answer as many as he can before he must sign off today. We appreciate you staying online with us!

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 40 - 11:54:17 ]
RE: [Katie-Katie/KentridgeSeniorHigh] What is your greatest interest in science – what specific aspect of astronomy do you enjoy the most?
My interests in astronomy have really changed in the last 10 years. I'm still fascinated by the origin of the universe, but with the detections of over 20 planets orbiting nearby stars for the first time I'm finding planetary astronomy extremely exciting and a new frontier in astronomy. The aspect that I enjoy the most is how phenominally successful we've been in the last 100 years in figuring out how so many things work in the universe without having visiting them first hand. And only if you really understand physics, will it all make sense.

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 41 - 11:54:23 ]
We would like to remind all of you to comment on today's chat with Sten, at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/qchats. Please select "Surveys/Feedback" on this page. Your comments are very important to us, so we look forward to hearing from you!

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 43 - 11:57:45 ]
RE: [Clair-ClairAnderson/MinnetonkaHighSchool] What is the average amount of hours you work every week? Do you think you have enough time to spen with your family?
I work an solid 40 hours a week and I spend the rest of my time with my family. That puts me on the slow track as an astronomer but I have a far more satisfying personal life because of that! And I think it's important to strike a balance between your profession and your children. If I had my drothers, I would spend all of my time with my two young daughters... and they would probably tell me "Please Papa, go to work!!"

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 45 - 12:01:50 ]
RE: [Matthew-MattMerridith/JTMS] What do you think of "invading" the Mars Planet?
I think invading Mars is something we need to think about very carefully because right now if there is any life on Mars, it could still be uncontaminated by Earth organisms. But the more things we send there, the higher the risk that we will inadvertantly bring Earth organisms there and then discover them and claim they are Mars organisms! The Apollo astronauts brought back to Earth the samples of the Surveyor spacecraft which had been on the Moon for nearly 8 years. When the sample was examined, scientists discovered Earth's bacteria that had gone into hybernation deep inside the insulation of the spacecraft and these bacteria could then be rejuvenated and cultured despite living 8 years in the vacuum of space. My big worry is that Earth organisms will find Mars a lovely place to live!

[ StenOdenwald/Astronomer - 47 - 12:03:50 ]
It looks like my time is up, so I'm going to say goodbye for now. Thank you for your excellent and interesting questions! I look forward to chatting with you again. Please sign up for my next chat on Feb. 3!!! Hopefully it'll be a nice sunny day then! Thanks for putting up with the technical problems today!!!Goodbye for now and "see you" soon!

[ Katie-Katie/KentridgeSeniorHigh - 49 - 12:04:35 ]
Thank you, Mr. Odenwald

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 50 - 12:07:51 ]
Thank you to everyone for joining us for today's chat with Sten's chat. Be sure to fill out the short survey at http://quest.nasa.gov/qchats today. Join us for our next Mars Millennium chat with Mary Urquhart from NASA JPL. Please read her bio at http://quest.nasa.gov/sso/team/urquhart.html.

[ Clair - 51 - 12:08:00 ]
Thank you for answering all of my questions Mr. Odenwald.

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 53 - 12:08:54 ]
Today's chat will be archived later, and available at http://quest.nasa.gov/sso/chats/archive. Thank you again for joining us and have a good day!