Terri Sindelar-Hudkins Headquarters, Washington, DC December 9, 1994 (Phone: 202/358-1977) RELEASE: 94-207 LIVE EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTS FROM ANTARCTICA Students in the U.S. will be able to see and talk to scientists in Antarctica without leaving their desks during unique educational broadcasts from the South Pole beginning Dec. 13. This ground-breaking educational project, Live From Antarctica, will virtually transport students to Antarctica via live televised broadcasts and on-line services. During one episode, a student from Chicago will "reposition" the official South Pole geographic marker. NASA is a co-sponsor of the "Passport To Knowledge" series that uses the unique power of television and on-line computer networks to educate students about science through live, interactive expeditionary learning adventures. Live From Antarctica, the first in a series of topics in the "Passport To Knowledge" educational program, is produced by Maryland Public Television (MPT), Geoff Haines- Stiles Productions (GHSP) and WTTW/Chicago. Live From Antarctica is a series of four, 40-minute electronic field trips to Antarctica and will feature the first-ever live telecast from the geographic South Pole. The episodes will be distributed by PBS over Telstar 401 on Dec. 13 and 15, 1994 at 2 p.m. EST; Jan. 10 at 5:30 p.m. EST; and Jan. 19 at 1 p.m. EST. NASA Television, the agency's distribution system, will transmit the programs live on Spacenet 2, transponder 5, at 69 degrees West longitude with horizontal polarization, frequency 3880.0 MHz, audio on 6.8 MHz. The episodes will show Antarctica's unique status as a research site governed by international agreements and how polar research permits scientists to see clues to the future of the entire planet. Telecasts will allow students to examine Antarctica's geology, weather, biology and animal life, and to view astronomical, climatic and environmental research currently under way on the Earth's most remote continent. -more- -2- The students' guides will be young scientists who have made scientific achievement their passport to a lifetime of discovery. Students will question scientists in Antarctica during each episode. Pre-produced video reports will introduce and explain the key concepts of each episode and introduce the participating researchers. A major highlight of the project will take place Jan. 10 with the first-ever live telecast from the South Pole. Elizabeth Felton, a seventeen-year-old recent graduate of the Chicago Public Schools, will use U.S. Geological Survey data to reposition the copper marker designating Earth's geographic South Pole. A videotape of the live telecast will be rebroadcast on Jan. 12 at 2 p.m. EST. Should there be weather problems with the Jan. 10 live broadcast, the contingency date is Jan. 12 at 5:30 p.m. EST. To augment the telecasts, students can participate in electronic correspondence with Antarctic researchers and receive updated scientific and weather data. On-line services will be available through three sources accessible on Internet: PBS ONLINE's Learning Link; NASA Spacelink (spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov); and via a server of NASA's K-12 Internet Project by sending an E-mail message to listmanager@quest.arc.nasa.gov, leave the subject line blank and in the body write: subscribe updates-lfa. NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA, is the video gateway for the four broadcasts. Two NASA science Internet technicians are in Antarctica providing technical support for the live broadcasts. The Passport to Knowledge project recently received a cooperative agreement grant under the NASA Information Infrastructure Technology and Applications (IITA) program, which is part of the federal initiative to stimulate a U.S. National Information Infrastructure, commonly called the "Information Superhighway." Antarctica was first connected live to the rest of the world using satellite, video, voice and network communications through the ground-breaking efforts of the NASA Science Internet (NSI) project. NSI is a key element of NASA's science information systems infrastructure, providing the research community with reliable electronic communications access to colleagues, data archives and computational resources around the world. -more- -3- Offices within NASA participating in the project are the Education Division, Office of Human Resources and Education; IITA, Office of Aeronautics; NASA Science Internet, Office of Space Science; Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences; NASA's Ames Research Center; NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL; and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. - end - NASA press releases and other information are available automatically by sending an Internet electronic mail message to domo@hq.nasa.gov. In the body of the message (not the subject line) users should type the words "subscribe press-release" (no quotes). The system will reply with a confirmation via E-mail of each subscription. A second automatic message will include additional information on the service. Questions should be directed to (202) 358-4043.