HHS Astronomy Teacher Becomes Ambassador for NASA Program

The United States was at the forefront of the ‘space race’ in the 1960s, becoming the first nation to put a man on the moon.

Now more than 40 years later, NASA is making a push to promote science in the classroom, introducing teachers as ambassadors for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) program. Through this endeavor, NASA hopes students will gain interest in science and eventually become the astronomers, engineers, and astronauts who lead America back to the top of space exploration.

Herndon High Astronomy teacher Mary Blessing was recently chosen as one of only six teachers in America to act as an ambassador for SOFIA. In May, she took her first flight aboard the Boeing 747SP, which carries the infrared telescope, to document and share the experience with her students once she returned.

“This [effort] is done to push forward the stem initiative to keep us technologically advanced. It’s kind of an honor, but we are also ambassadors and tell other teachers about [SOFIA] to get them to go out and apply for future flights,” Blessing said. “There were different factions we found out information about in the hopes we can bring this back to our students and get them excited to stay in science and technology.”

The 747 Special Performance aircraft’s fuselage, which would normally carry between 500-600 passengers, was gutted and converted into an airborne observatory by NASA for the two-dozen or so members of the SOFIA team. Ambassador Blessing and Cris DeWolf, a teacher from Chippewa Hills High School in Remus, Michigan, joined the crew of researchers and scientists for the nine-hour adventure. The jet is necessary to take the 16-ton, eight-foot in diameter, reflecting telescope in the back third of the aircraft high enough into the atmosphere to allow scientists to conduct their respective research via the infrared telescope. 

“This telescope is mostly in the mid-infrared range of objects. You can do infrared astronomy if you get above the water vapor in the atmosphere,” Blessing said.  “If you get up to about 43,000 feet, you are above about 99.9 percent of the Earth’s water vapor.”

Each astronomer with SOFIA had presented a proposal to NASA, informing the board of his or her observation plans. Certain proposals were chosen for the first flight and others will be conducted on future missions, which Blessing will be participating in as well. She said one of the most interesting projects was from a scientist researching an extreme anomaly occurring in the universe.

“One [astronomer] was looking in the center of what is called an “active galaxy” that has a super massive black hole in it,” she said. “He’s trying to figure out how you can have star-forming going on while there is a black hole nearby, which takes in material (all matter, including light cannot escape) also. It didn’t tend to make sense.”

Exciting observation and technological research such as this is exactly why SOFIA was formed. NASA needs this generation of students to become our nation’s future leaders in science and that is why Blessing’s role is of such crucial importance. Her assignment on the pilot mission was to observe the astronomers in action, while recording her experience in order to present the results to her class at Herndon. She returned with Powerpoint presentations of her entire experience from SOFIA to share with her students and hopes to eventually show her class the scientific results as soon as they are complete and declassified.

“The astronomers that collected data are going to be analyzing that,” Blessing said. “They did not come back with any pronouncements because they are going to be looking at that for months and eventually turn that into a picture.”

So, what does the ambassador hope her students will gain from this study?

“That they’re excited, they see how real science is being done, it peeks their curiosity and they stay in science, technology and mathematical careers,” she says. “Hopefully it’s enthusiasm and cool information the kids can take with them and hopefully keep in he back of their heads when they’re trying to figure out what to do after high school.”

Blessing is no stranger to NASA, however. She flew on a mission similar to this 16 years ago on the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAP) just three flights before the funding was cancelled and used for SOFIA. She and a teacher whom she had met while working at Herndon’s planetarium, applied for the predecessor program in 1995. Though the KAP flight was amazing, Blessing said she had her eye on SOFIA for quite a long time.

“I had been waiting for all of these long years to hear about SOFIA and her first flight was last spring and we knew they were going to have a teacher component,” she said. “We found out about mid-March and had to get our stuff in quickly because they were going to announce by April 1st, who was going to get on there.”

Blessing has taught astronomy for 18 years and transferred from Lake Braddock to Herndon is 1993, when initially hired as the head of the planetarium but would soon found the Astronomy department in the same year. Though countries such as China have advanced to the top of the scientific community in recent years, Blessing says on a local level Herndon has not seen any decline in technological study.

“We have a really good science department. We’ve had a steady amount of kids taking all those extra classes and have not seen it wane too much,” Blessing said. “On our level, we seem to have an interested population that’s continuing to take elective science classes.”

Blessing grew up in New York and received her undergraduate degree in Earth Science Education from State University of New York (SUNY) on the Oneonta campus and earned a Masters in Biology from Long Island University. Her two oldest children graduated from James Madison University and also work in the science community. Her son is a geologist and her oldest daughter teaches science at Tuscarora high in Loudoun County. Her youngest daughter is plays Division I softball for Binghamton University in New York.

NASA and SOFIA Public Affairs Officer Nicholas Veronico was also on board the flight with Blessing and says by mid to late 2012, up to 60 teachers will pair up for flights and actually become part of the science team, working hands on in the experiments.

“The high school teachers will pair themselves with a junior high school teacher, a museum docent and a reporter from their hometown,” Veronico said. “SOFIA will be used, among other things, to verify other discoveries and we can take higher resolution infrared images. So, we’re going to build upon existing science and open up the doors of things to come.”

NASA has funded SOFIA for the next 20 years and the 747SP will be taking an average of two flights per week. So, how long does Blessing plan on sticking around with the NASA program?

“As far as I’m concerned, since they kind of dubbed us the “Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors,” however long it takes, I’d love to be associated with it.”

Blessing reached her dream working with NASA and they gave her a special gift of an official NASA flight jacket with the SOFIA logo. She will soon receive the rarely awarded patch for the ‘12K club’ for flying higher than 12 kilometers. Overall, she said the experience was euphoric and she cannot wait to take off again.

“When you’re on it, you just kind of feel exhilarated that you’re really up there and doing this,” she said. “After you land, the more you think about it the more you say ‘Oh my gosh that was just incredible.’ It was just so cool, so much fun and it was so interesting and educational.”

For information on SOFIA, visit: www.sofia.usra.edu