Good afternoon everyone.
My name is Messod Bendayan and I'm with the communications team
here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
Welcome to Next Gen.
Stems 2024 Earth Day Briefing, a unique opportunity for students
to immerse themselves in NASA's work and spark their interest in
STEM related careers.
We have experts from NASA and the United States Fish and
Wildlife Service talking about why it's important to protect
our environment and how we work together to do just that.
They'll be answering questions from our audience in the room,
which is made-up of students from Andrew Jackson Middle
School in Titusville, FL.
We also have more students from Andrew Jackson Middle watching
from a press site here at Kennedy.
They and everyone else who's watching us online can join us
by putting their questions in the chat starting right now, and
we'll have our experts answer as many of them as we possibly can
before we sign off.
Before you give us your questions, please make sure you
let us know who the questions are meant for.
And Speaking of our experts, let's go ahead and introduce
them.
Kelly McCarthy is a program specialist with the Office of
STEM Engagement at NASA Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
She'll tell you about Earthrise, a project NASA is doing with
other federal agencies that elevate Earth and climate
science in classrooms across the United States.
Bob Klein is the acting chief of Kennedy's Environmental
Assurance Branch.
His team helps make sure that anything NASA does at Kennedy
Space Center is safe for humans, animals and the environment, and
that does include the Rockets that NASA uses to send
astronauts in the space.
Spencer Davis is part of a team that will be recognized by the
White House this coming summer for creating 56 electric vehicle
charging stations throughout Kennedy Space Center.
They help power our government vehicle fleet, which saves
taxpayers money and creates a future with 0 carbon emission
vehicles.
And at the very end, we have Kim King Wren.
She's a park Ranger at the Merritt Island National Wildlife
Refuge, which includes all of Kennedy Space Center.
Inside, it's over 140,000 acres.
It's also one of the most biologically diverse places in
the world, providing a habitat for 14 different endangered
species of plants and animals.
Thank you all for joining us today.
And Kelly, let's start with you.
Let's talk about this new Earthrise collaboration you're
working on and how it can benefit students everywhere,
including right here in this room and online.
Thanks Masad.
So my name is Kelly McCarthy.
I work with our office of STEM Engagement and I'm really
excited to be here to talk about an initiative from our next Gen.
STEM project called Earthrise.
If you all go to to the first slide, I'll I'll share the the
graphic that was put out to represent this effort.
What is exciting about this is that NASA partnered with nine
other federal agencies including Department of Education, NOAA,
the US Geological Society, Environmental Protection Agency,
Department of Defense, STEM, Smithsonian, as well as the
GLOBE program.
Some of you might be familiar with to put out a resource that
allowed us to to make sure that we were working together to
elevate Earth and climate science resources for educators
and for K12 students.
So this effort was launched in January with an inaugural
monthly connection collection of resources that was focused on
the importance of Earth observation.
The, the actual development of the activity involved our
partners and we were really coming together to think about
what was available, what data resources were out there, what
solution based resources were out there that that we have
heard that students and and educators in our communities
have been using.
And how can we locate resources that that you all might not have
heard of already or or been using already?
The name, if if you're not familiar about the, the actual
name, Earthrise.
This came from an iconic photo that was taken on Christmas Eve
in 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission.
And it was that first picture of the Earth rising in the distance
from from a a lunar mission from the perspective of the Moon.
And that launched us into this effort that that we saw across
the US that was focused on environmental stewardship,
global stewardship and really making sure that we're looking
at how we can build solutions and protect our planet and and
serve the greater good.
And so that's kind of one of the focal points of the theme of
this collaborative effort.
What it looks like is a a collection that comes in the
form of of an E newsletter to educator inboxes every single
month.
That QR code that was on the screen just a moment ago, I I
invite those folks that are online to to take a snapshot of
that and and join the community that's using it already.
We've got about 3000 educators in classrooms that are already
engaging with the resources that have been coming out since
January.
We put out a collection every single month focused around a
specific earth science and climate science topic.
February, we focused on air quality solutions, March we
focused on water resources and we're really excited.
The reason you all are here today is, is because we are
starting the celebration around Earth Day.
So our issue that comes out to educator inboxes on April 17th
is going to focus on Earth science to action and something
really cool that just came out from the agency this past well
in mid March is our Earth science to action strategy.
And that says that over the next decade we are are going to be
focusing on advancing and integrating earth science
knowledge to empower humanity and create a more resilient
world.
And that that statement it is really going to drive forward
how a lot of the scientists and engineers that are working
across the agency and with our partners are really focusing on
building solutions.
So what can you find in in this at this collection month to
month.
If you go ahead to that next slide, this is a quick snapshot
of some of the types of resources that exist.
They range from multimedia resources that are tied to data,
the snapshot in the middle of the screen.
It is a data visualization from an instrument called Jedi, which
is the Global Ecosystems Dynamic Investigation that measures a
lot of different variables on a global scope around our planet.
But what you're looking at on the screen is a visualization of
our global forest cover, and that's really important for
weather forecasting.
It's really important for understanding our changing land
cover.
And this is collected from an instrument that's based on the
International Space Station.
There are resources in these monthly collections that tie
visualizations like that to Interactive Data mapping tools
and we'll put it be putting out as each monthly collection
continues, we'll be putting out some calls to action and
challenges that we really want our students to get involved in
that are participating in the effort.
So we really hope after today's discussion to invite more of you
to join the community that's working with those resources.
Like I said, it's a collective effort from a number of federal
agencies who are all putting out resources and tools and even
those folks on our NASA team have found some really exciting
data resources from USGS focused on water and and it's a really
good way to kind of find out what's the most relevant and
useful and solutions based resources that exist right now.
Sometimes you can get lost in the ether if you're trying to to
find something in our database.
So it's a really cool way to to to get involved in learning more
about how the federal government is working to collect
information about our planet to build solutions.
And we hope that you won't get involved with the effort at at
some point in the near future, definitely before the April
collection comes out.
So, so looking forward to to inviting you all to join.
Thanks, Mesab.
Thanks, Kelly.
Appreciate it.
Bob Klein, Let's go to you, Sir.
Your team is dedicated to keeping Kennedy's environment
safe for every living creature inside its borders while NASA
explores the universe at the same time.
How do you do it?
That's correct.
Thanks, Masad.
First of all, welcome to KSEI.
Appreciate you all coming out here and participating in this
panel discussion.
I'm excited to talk about what I do.
I like what I do.
It's, I find it interesting.
Hopefully you'll find at least a little bit interesting as well.
So I'm the acting branch chief for the Environmental assurance
branch, and we're 1/3 of the people in the Environmental and
medical division here at at KSC within the Spaceport Integration
and Services Directorate, if you could flip to that first slide.
So what do we do and how do we protect the environment?
Go go on to the next slide.
I've got two groups within my branch.
The first one is remediation.
If you probably know what a remediation is, basically it's
clean up.
So the remediation group does the investigations and then the
resulting cleanups of past releases of pollutants,
chemicals, commit contaminants.
You probably are aware and you know science and stuff that
there's there's like chemicals and things we've used in the
past, you know that we didn't know at the time.
We're not good for the environment and maybe they got
dumped or disposed of and not the best way.
Well, our remediation group is the group that attacks those.
They go out and investigate sites and and clean them up and
then the other group is permitting and compliance.
So you know there's a just a ton of environmental regulations to
do with air and water and other resources and environmental
media.
Our permitting compliance group assist with all those permitting
actions.
And then they also make sure and enforce those regulations on
KSC.
So they make sure that all our organizations and contractors
are doing what they they're supposed to do correctly.
So I flip to the next slide please.
OK.
So permitting compliance is I think I just said this, we
assist with getting necessary environmental permits.
Important part is that compliance activity.
So we have people that go out and look for problems.
They also do compliance assistance with organizations.
So they they help kind of train and teach and teach the
organizations the proper way to do go about doing things on the
right side of that slide.
You probably can't see them really well.
But those are some of the there's a lot of agencies on the
state and local and federal level that we work with like the
water management districts, the Department of Health, the
Department of Environmental Protection, US Fish and Wildlife
and all.
So they all, we all have a hand in that environmental regulation
out here.
And then of course, my group acts as the primary interface
between those agencies and NASA here at here at KSC.
Next slide please.
So apologize, these slides are kind of dull, I admit, but these
are the permitting compliance areas and you can see there's a
lot of them.
There's, I think I ran through a couple of them before but
regulated waste is a big one.
Hazardous and controlled waste, things that you can't dispose of
in your garbage safely are those kind of things.
You know we use a lot of chemicals and fuels and
oxidizers and that sort of thing.
They'll have to be handled properly.
My group make sure that happens.
Air emissions, we have what's known as a Title 5 air permit to
like a medium level of complexity in the air permitting
world.
All the different water, storm water, drinking water,
wastewater is all managed very heavily.
We have a landfill on KSCA.
Lot of people don't know that, but we have a construction and
demolition debris landfill that we operate.
Things as mundane as storage tanks for petroleum products
like you have at a gas station.
We have a couple of gas stations on center.
We have a lot of other storage tanks that support our
operations and then even things all the way down to like
pesticide management.
So that's kind of us in a nutshell.
I hope you have will have some good questions for me.
Please don't hesitate to ask anything you might it that pops
in your mind.
I know a little bit about a lot of stuff, so hopefully I I can
answer whatever you have.
But I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say,
you might think best thing on that one, Bob.
I hope so.
All right.
Thanks, Bob.
Spencer, it's your turn, Sir.
Let's talk about electric vehicles.
Walk us through why Kennedy Space Center uses the 0 emission
vehicles and what it took to make it happen.
Thanks, Masad.
So my name is Spencer Davis.
I'm formerly in the NASA Transportation office here at
Kennedy Space Center.
And as Masad mentioned earlier, we were actually lucky enough
that we're going to be honored at the White House later this
summer.
It was all in part with a big project that we put together.
We partnered with FPL.
They brought in a bunch of electric chargers.
They installed them at 0 cost of government.
It was roughly about a $1 million project.
They installed 56 different chargers on center.
So we kind of been building up this big infrastructure and this
big push towards E VS on center.
If you could go to the first slide, please.
So these are just three different types of EV chargers
that you might find on center.
Level one is kind of like your basic outlet.
You know the outlet you have at home, you plug your Xbox into
right Level 2, that's a little bit more power, that's 40 amps,
that's kind of like what your dryer uses for electricity.
And then Level 3 is ADC power.
We actually don't have any level threes right now, but it is in
the plans we're looking at a couple years from now we'll
probably be installing our first one.
They're very cost prohibitive.
So we kind of we stick with those level twos, they keep the
the fleet going and they keep everyone charged and happy.
So next slide, please.
So this is going electric.
So the federal government as a whole, there are 35 agencies
that have EVs.
NASA is one of them.
And there's like this big push from within the federal
government and we'll see that on the next slide.
And we have an executive order that basically says we have to
have 100% acquisition of light duty vehicles by 2027.
Next slide, please.
And all other vehicles, it's by 2035, they have all acquisitions
have to be electric vehicles.
So we're making this big push towards 0 emission vehicles,
battery electric, that's E VS, that's the big push.
We can get there with plug in hybrid electric vehicles as
well.
You may have seen those before.
That's when you have a gas vehicle that you can also plug
in and charge the battery up on.
But those are kind of our two big things that we're pushing
towards.
Next slide please.
So this is just kind of a historical timeline of E VS in
the federal government, right, 2010, that was the first time
that we saw E VS in the federal government.
That's when GSA who provides us with our vehicles, that's when
they first started offering them.
And then through the years, we've had different executive
orders that have kind of pushed us along towards a net zero
vehicle fleet.
And the most important thing I want to point out here is in
2019, the fleet cards were finally being accepted at EV
charging station.
So that kind of unlocked those vehicles.
You could grab a vehicle from Kennedy Space Center, drive to
Orlando, charge up in Orlando and make it back to Kennedy
Space Center if you had a meeting or something.
So that's kind of our first step towards, you know, a big
electric fleet on center.
Next slide please.
So these four different types of vehicles, if you could kind of
guess the federal government's entire fleet of roughly half of
it is light duty pickup trucks.
So the big push is get towards those electric pickup trucks,
right.
So the Ford Lightning will probably be the most prevalent
pickup truck that you'll see on Centre.
The Hummer H1 is also available through GSA right now.
We haven't procured any of those.
They're a little bit too expensive for us.
And then the Rivian and the Cyber Truck are actually
starting to pop up as well.
The Cyber Truck, you can actually see one on Centre.
I believe they work over in SpaceX, but you'll see it
driving around on Centre occasionally.
Next slide.
And so that brings me to the Chevy Bolt.
So that's the most common electric vehicle that you will
see on center relatively cheap.
You can get them for under $40,000.
They've got a pretty good range for an economy car.
It's about 259 miles.
But the big thing to take away from here is in order to charge
up to drive 100 miles, it only costs you $2.80.
So it's basically the price of a Coca-Cola, right?
You could grab a Coke or you could charge up 100 miles and
drive wherever you want to go.
That would get you to Tampa if you wanted to.
So that's just kind of the different things that are going
on, on center right now for EV charging and kind of where the
future is taking us.
Thanks.
Thanks, Spencer.
Appreciate it.
Now let's bring in Kim here.
We talked a little bit earlier about the Merritt Island
National Wildlife Refuge, It being one of the most
biologically diverse places in the world.
And that's something you know all about, Kim.
So tell us about these endangered plants and animals
and why so many of them call the refuge and Kennedy Space Center
home.
Thanks, Mossad.
Well, the reason why there's so many different kinds of plants
and animals on the refuge is because right here in Central
Florida is where the northern zone, called temperate were all
like the pine trees and such are.
And the southern zone, the subtropical zone come together
right here in Central Florida.
And so there's a tremendous amount of habitat diversity.
And the more different kinds of habitats there are, then that
means more different kinds of homes for more different kinds
of animals.
Let's take a look at the first slide.
This map shows you all the different habitats that are here
on the refuge.
There's eight different kinds of upland habitats and seven
different kinds of wetland habitats.
And a lot of the animals that live here are actually
endangered because of the lack of habitat outside the Wildlife
Refuge and the Space Center.
When you look at this map, you can see a lot of bright green,
right?
That bright green is called the oak scrub, and it's a really
important habitat for a bird called the Florida scrub Jay.
And you can see that there's a lot of it here on the Space
Center.
Next slide This is the Florida Scrub Jay.
It's a really rare bird and it's listed as threatened on the
endangered species list.
It loves this oak scrub habitat because it likes the wide open
sandy spaces.
Those sandy patches let it see its predators, one of which is
the rat snake.
It can see the rat snake if it's coming to attack its nest, and
it has one bird in its family that is the Sentinel.
It watches out for predators and it sounds the alarm.
It has a different call for the rat snake and also for the red
shouldered hawk, which is one of its other predators.
The other thing about this scrub is that it has small trees and
the trees are widely scattered apart.
Scrub Jays aren't going to fly through the forest because they
know there's Hawks in there and Hawks are danger, so they like
this habitat with little short trees that are only about as
tall as probably a middle schooler.
And it has lots of wide open spaces between the trees.
Unfortunately for the scrub Jay, people also like the scrub
because there's not many trees and they're scattered wide
apart.
It's real easy to clear them out when you want to build a new
neighborhood.
And also the scrub is an upland habitat, so it's high and dry
and it's safe from flooding.
So we love to build on the scrub habitat, and the more we build
and the more humans use the scrub, the less habitat that
there is for the scrub J.
But if you remember the map, there's a lot of scrub habitat
that's protected here inside the Kennedy Space Center.
That's one of the things the Space Center did when it was
created.
It has a lot of extra land that's used as buffer zones
around the launch pads and the work areas, and that extra land
is managed for wildlife.
So it actually has the largest population of Florida scrub Jays
in the whole world living here on the Kennedy Space Center.
Next slide please.
Another habitat that we all love in Florida are is the beach.
A lot of us live close to the beach and people who don't live
close to the beach like to come to the beach.
In fact, people come from all over the United States to come
to the beach.
And here at Kennedy Space Center, there's a lot of beach.
There's 6 miles of beach inside the secure area, but it's closed
to the public and that's great news for sea turtles.
This is a green sea turtle in this slide and sea turtles,
including the green sea turtles.
They like wild beaches.
They want the beach to be dark and quiet.
They come ashore at night to lay their eggs under the cover of
darkness.
The females need the darkness to protect them from predators who
might dig up their nests and eat all their eggs.
So when people come and live at the beach and we build our homes
and our towns, we put hotels, restaurants, fishing Piers,
everything as close to the beach as we can get it.
That means a lot of noise pollution, a lot of light
pollution, and those beaches aren't any good for sea turtle
nests.
Luckily, with the Kennedy Space Center being here, the beach is
dark and quiet.
If it wasn't for the Kennedy Space Center, it'd be just like
Cocoa Beach or Daytona Beach here.
But because of the Space Center, there's a lot of space for sea
turtles.
When the refuge was established and biologists went out and
started surveying the beach for turtle nests, there were only
about 30 green turtle nests each summer on the beach, and the
green sea turtle was put on the endangered species list pretty
much as soon as the Endangered Species Act was passed.
So it's been on there a good 45 years.
And now, because of the Endangered Species Act, when we
go out and survey for turtles, which will start in May, we're
finding 600 green sea turtle nests on these Kennedy Space
Center beaches.
And that's all because they're wild and dark and quiet.
Because it's the Space Center and it's not Cocoa Beach.
Next slide, please.
Another animal that loves the beach is the Southeastern Beach
Mouse.
Now, the green sea turtles like the fact that the beaches are
wild, but actually the Southeastern Beach mouse is
thriving on a part of the beach that's been altered by people.
Normally when people move to the beach, the dunes get flattened.
And that's bad for beach mice because that's where they live.
They live in the dunes and the dunes are flattened.
People trample on them.
You've probably seen signs stay off the dunes.
The beach mice dig their Burrows in the dunes and they eat the
seeds from the grasses that grow on the dunes.
So when you trample over the dunes, you're ruining their
habitat.
And that's why all the different kinds of beach mice in Florida
are endangered.
The Southeast beach mouse lives here on the Kennedy Space
Center.
And it is actually thriving because NASA built this
ginormous dune.
That's a scientific term, you know, Ginormous, right?
It is, yeah.
And the dune is like 2 stories tall.
And they built it to protect the launch pads from flooding from
oceans.
But the beach mice love it.
NASA hauled in truckload after truckload, after truckload.
So if you're wondering why there's potholes in the road,
that's why.
From the endless stream of dump trucks bringing sand in, and
they built this huge dune.
And then they had to shape it.
And then they planted it with native grasses and plants.
And as soon as the construction crews moved out, the beach mice
moved in.
And now this dune, it's like beach Mouse City.
I mean, they love it there.
They dig their little Burrows in the dune.
They eat the grass seeds, and we don't know a lot about the beach
mice.
We're still studying them.
But here on the Kennedy Space Center is one of the most
important study years for this southeastern beach mouse.
Next slide, please.
So those were three endangered species that I could highlight,
but actually there's about a dozen more of them that make
their homes here on the National Wildlife Refuge and the Kennedy
Space Center.
And they're here because of the space that was set aside when
the Space Center was created.
In other parts of their range, they're suffering from loss of
habitat, and that's why they're all on the endangered species
list, listed as threatened or endangered.
But with the help of the US Fish and Wildlife Service that runs
the refuge and all the space that's set aside here by the
Space Center, a lot of this wildlife is thriving here on
this Kennedy Space Center.
Appreciate it.
And now that we've heard from all of our experts, it's time
for all of you to join in on the conversation.
If you're in the room, we've got Serena over there in the white
shirt, and we've got Laura standing right over here.
They'll be the ones with the microphones.
If you have a question for our panelists, Please wait for one
of them to come to you before you ask your question or
otherwise, nobody online is going to be able to hear you and
we want them to hear you.
So Please wait for them.
And for those of you who are online or joining us from the
press site here at Kennedy, you can put your questions in the
chat.
I'll read them out to our panel as we have time here.
So let's go ahead and start in the room.
Do we have anybody in the room with a question?
This gentleman right here in the green, Serena, if you could, All
right.
And if you could, my man.
What's your name, what grade?
I am Connor Hershey.
I am an eighth grader.
And I have a question for Miss McCarthy.
How was Earthwise started?
Good question.
So Earthrise was started out of kind of a question that was
posed to our team last fall or around you know as the agency is
moving toward releasing the now released Earth Science to Action
strategy, what can we do to to make sure that we we are, we
have a regular set of resources that go out to educators.
So how can we make sure that Earth and climate resources are
included in what we share with our communities that we work
with every day?
We started talking with some of our our existing partners in the
government, including, like I said earlier, Department of Ed,
Smithsonian, and that collaboration grew.
Now we have 9 federal partners and but I don't know if Y'all
are familiar with the Globe program, but they're also a
critical collaborator on it and they do do a lot of work in
terms of community science, citizen science and earth
observation activities for students.
And so it really came out out of a question that we received in
terms of what is a way that we could get resources that we know
about that are current and relevant into the hands of
educators.
And so the idea around the monthly collection going out as
the first piece of that felt felt like the right first step
where we could focus efforts around a specific monthly theme.
Another layer that I didn't mention is NASA is working with
a number of federal partners on something called the Earth
Information Center.
And so you can actually find the digital version of this at
earth.gov So, so folks can kind of look at all of the
development that's happened so far.
But we we came in on the education side behind that
effort, recognizing that as a federal enterprise we're doing a
lot of work in true solutions based science and applied
science, using satellite data, using airborne science data and
ground based data and that there's a lot of resources for
students to get involved.
So what we're hoping to add on to this monthly collection is
some calls to actions for students to really help us
contribute to to the world of data that exists already.
But it you'll find out more about those if if you and your
teachers can get connected to the project.
So I hope that helped answer your question.
Thanks for the question.
Do we have any others here in the room?
All right, there we go.
It's about to say don't be shy.
Y'all this is for you.
What's your name?
My name is Jakari Davis and I have a question for Miss Kim.
What is the hardest thing you have to do for your job and why?
Oh, that's a good question.
I think the hardest thing that we have to do is rescue wildlife
that is injured.
We actually don't have veterinarians on staff, so we
have to catch the injured wildlife and bring it to the
near by wildlife hospital.
A lot of times birds get tangled in fishing line and it's really
sad.
They get terrible injuries.
And if they live, they're probably not going to be able to
be released in the wild.
So that's probably the worst part of the job.
All right, Thanks.
Kim.
Do we have any other questions in the room?
Let's go with that man in the back.
We'll get to you since you already asked one.
So just go ahead and wait for Laura there.
And what's your name?
My name is Robert Alonzo.
I'm in the eighth grade.
And I was wondering how do you guys exactly remove the toxins
from the soil after the launches?
Bob, I believe that's for you.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Excuse me.
So actually there aren't a lot of toxins in the soil after
launches.
If you know and this is speaking mostly of our vehicle, but you
know Artemis is our next generation, it's a you know, but
all the Rockets are pretty much the same.
They have a fuel and an oxidizer.
Ours is a liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen.
When those combust the main byproduct is water vapor.
So you know you see the contrail going up and it's and it's it's
basically just water.
Now they do have some effects on the the very immediate
environment and it's usually pH.
So you have a a exhaust cloud it becomes it's acidic.
So that kind of deposits in the immediate area around the the
launch complex very temporarily changes.
It's not the soil as much as you know the the little the ponds
and things around there it makes them slightly acidic for a very
short period of time.
Fortunately the soil types in Florida is, you know it's
limestone dependent.
So it's a great buffer.
So those things return to a neutral pH really quickly.
But the also kind of answer your question, aside from the
launches, we do have sometimes soil contamination.
That's usually historical stuff from things like PCBS.
Most of these have been cleaned up, but it's it's pretty Monday
and when we have that kind of stuff, we dig it.
It's excavated just, you know, by a mechanical or even
sometimes as much as just gas with shovels and it's sent off
to permitted landfills to be disposed of safely.
So we do have some toxics not really associated with the
launches.
It's usually associated with things past practices that
occurred wherever you are, whether you're the at KSC or
not, just because some of those chemicals that were in general
use that we didn't, we didn't find out about like PCBS until
much later.
Thanks, Bob.
And I know we have some other questions in the room.
If you could just kind of raise your hand and we'll get our mic
handlers out to you.
But for right now, I want to jump ahead to a question that we
got in the chat from Deb that is for Spencer.
And the question is about the electric vehicle chargers, what
type of fuel generates the electricity for the charges on
site?
So it's actually a great question.
I'm not an expert in solar panels, but I do know that
recently KSC partnered with FPL and they installed, I believe
it's a 74 1/2 MW solar panel farm.
And if I'm not mistaken, that provides about 75% of the power
for the center.
I know that we also have additional solar farms on
center, but for the most part, it is mostly solar.
OK, Thanks, Spencer.
We have any other questions in the room right now?
All right, let's go to you over here.
We'll get to you in a SEC.
What's your name?
My name is Sophia.
I'm in 8th grade.
All right.
Sophia, who's your question?
For how long do the batteries and electric cars last?
So that's also a great question.
The average lifespan that we're seeing right now, typically 10
to 15 years, and that's on a normal vehicle, right?
So that would be one that you have at home.
Vehicles that are used on center drive much less than the typical
vehicle does.
Most of the time they're just idling.
So we expect to see a lot longer battery life come out of those
vehicles.
And just for instance, when we replace our vehicles, usually
after about 10 years, they only have about 40,000 miles on them.
So they're still relatively, I mean age wise, they're older,
but they haven't been used very much.
So we expect to get much longer lifespan out of them than what's
typical.
All right.
And I believe we had you wanna you had a question as well.
All right, what's your name?
Sophia Garcia.
And I had another Sophia, yeah.
And I had a question for Mr.
Spencer.
What is your background name?
So my background, I actually was in the Air Force when I got out
of high school and went into the Air Force.
When I got out, I used my GI Bill to go to UCF and I got
bachelor's degree in economics.
So it doesn't quite fit with transportation.
But really you can do anything you want to do out here.
If you really apply yourself, you can get into pretty much any
field.
I'm actually not in the transportation office anymore.
I've moved over into EGS, which is the Artemis program.
I'm a program analyst now, so I monitor the budget for
propellants, things like that.
OK.
And as we do, we have another question here in the room right
here.
What's your name?
My name is Avis Spurt.
And my question is for Mr.
Spencer is that was the idea of electric vehicles brought up
before 2010.
So it was my previous mentor and my previous predecessor.
He started implementing E VS on center a long time ago.
He was partnering with folks who were just putting electric
vehicle engines into standard gas cars and they would take the
gas engine out and just just to prove that it can be done, I
want to say that the first electric vehicle at Kennedy
Space Center was back in 2002.
So we've been pioneering that for years and really for the
agency, we've kind of pioneered EVs, OK.
And we have a question here in the chat real quick for Kim.
This is from AJ, who I believe is out in the in the press side
area.
What's the hardest part about being a wildlife manager?
Well, at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, one of our
challenges is that we have a lot of visitors.
We have over 2,000,000 visitors a year, which makes us about the
fifth most visited refuge in the whole country.
And so we're trying to balance how can all these people come
and go fishing and look at the birds and look for alligators
without doing anything that damages the habitat that's so
important for the wildlife?
So we're always trying to balance the use by people with
the needs of the wildlife.
And so that's that's a pretty big challenge for us.
OK Do we have any other questions in the room?
You want to take one?
Yeah.
Come on, Let's get the adults involved.
What's your name?
My name is Mr.
Morgan.
I'm an educator at Jackson Middle School.
But we noticed the controlled burn going on outside.
And so we're curious what measures are taken to protect
the animals or relocate the animals in the area that's being
burned.
I think Kim, that you might be the best one to answer that
question.
Cause a lot of times with our controlled burns, we have to
coordinate that with the refuge.
Thanks Masad.
So the fire managers would correct my answer and say that
the most difficult part about working on the Wildlife Refuge
is actually trying to find a time to have a burn.
So we actually use the term prescribed fire because there's
a prescription.
So the fire managers have to look at what's the weather, what
is the air temperature, what is the humidity, what is the wind
speed, what is the wind direction and what is the fuel
moisture.
So how dry or wet are the plants in the environment?
And if everything is in prescription, they can start a
prescribed fire, except not here, because after we check all
of those things, then we have to call the Kennedy Space Center
and say NASA, can we start our fire?
Because rockets don't like fire.
OK.
And we already heard that all that exhaust that you see coming
out of the bottom of the rocket at a launch, it's really, you
know, water vapor.
It's not smoke.
And so if there's a rocket on the launchpad, we have to make
sure the smoke is not going to go anywhere near that rocket and
that makes it really challenging.
The, the refuge and Space Center are divided into different burn
units and we try to burn those every three to five years.
But we have to schedule that around rocket launches and
seeing as you guys are local, you know those are happening
more and more often all the time.
So we have to have all the factors of weather line up with
the launch schedule and resources.
Like today we had to get a helicopter on site to start that
fire.
We don't own a helicopter, we have to schedule a helicopter
and we only have a few firefighters that work on the
refuge all the time.
So we have to get extra helpers to come in and make sure
everything goes smoothly.
There's a lot of coordination that happens and it's a big
challenge, but it's important because those scrub JS, they
live in the scrub which is a fire dependent habitat, which
means it needs to be burned to keep the trees small, to keep
them widely scattered, to keep those open sandy spots.
So we've got to have those fires in order to keep quality habitat
for that endangered species.
Thanks, Kim, and let's go quickly here to the chat.
We've got a question here for Bob.
And this has to do with launches and animals.
Specifically, what does NASA do to prevent animals from getting
hurt when we have launches?
Yeah, yeah, good question.
So actually the animals are pretty smart all by themselves.
They within the launch complex where you know most of the
impacts are pretty much confined into that fence perimeter.
There aren't really animals in there for the most part because
it's an operational area and they they wouldn't want to be
there.
So mainly you'd only get birds that come in and you've probably
seen this on TV on the launches, the the rot, you know you you
start the igniters and stuff and everything clears out
immediately.
So I don't really think from that standpoint really it's not
a very high risk scenario to have.
It doesn't really actually happen that the animals are
really impacted that much by the launch aside to from leaving you
know the area.
It's important to know we do have because we are a Wildlife
Refuge, we do have a lot of times we have not from the
launches exactly, but we have buildings that might get
impacted by stuff trying to live on it.
Bats are really common out here.
We sometimes during renovations we've had to do special things
because bats live in roofs and under bridges.
We have a ton of vultures out here.
For whatever reason, they love living on KFC.
Sometimes we have to do special things associated with with with
the vultures, but everything we do is really try.
We do be very, very mindful of the animals, whether they're
endangered or not.
And we've got a bunch of dedicated people who are really
care about them deeply, no matter what they are, how small
or great or well known or not.
And and those people really keep a real eye on them for sure.
And you know, should be noted the Refuge people also do a
really good job in working with us to help make that kind of
thing happen.
Do we have any other questions in the room?
Let's go all the way in the back there.
Jetavier Davis.
My question is for Mr.
Spencer.
Do you think in the future we will be able to incorporate
solar or electric fueling into future launches?
So that's a good question.
I would not be an expert on electric propulsion for a launch
vehicle.
I know that, you know, there's a big push right now.
We're doing everything with Artemis.
It's LH2 and LO2.
And you know, obviously we talked about it's water that
comes out of that.
There's another piece though, I would like to talk about with
that.
And that's LH2, right.
So that's hydrogen.
LH two is Spencer for them.
Yeah.
So LH two is hydrogen and there's a big push for in the
future hydrogen vehicles, you may have heard that before.
What they do is they use a hydrogen fuel cell.
So they would fuel them up with hydrogen and then they use a
process like kind of like electrolysis where they turn it
into fuel, it can power like a battery electric vehicle and you
would be able to top your EV off with hydrogen and then it
produces water out the tailpipe much like the launchers do.
I've actually been in a couple meetings where we had discussed
putting an LH two generation site out here and what that
would do is, you know, we could produce our own for maybe for
the Rockets, but we could also do it for vehicles.
So you know that's something that's definitely in the future.
I know there's a lot of work that we're doing with
photovoltaic cells for like EVs and stuff and they use them like
the Mars Rover, right, that has EV cells on it.
So I hope that answers your question.
Thanks, Spencer.
Do we have any others?
I know I saw a few more hands coming up.
Let's.
I don't think we've heard from you yet.
Right now let's go to her.
I know we've already heard from yourself.
We'll get to you if we can.
What's your name?
My name is Anderson Gistel.
I'm in 8th grade.
And I have a question for Miss Kim.
What species or plant or animal are you most worried about in,
like, your refuge?
That's a good question.
So the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is actually in a
a complex with two other refuges.
There's the Lake Woodruff Refuge and there's the St.
John's Refuge.
And St.
John's is on the West side of Titusville.
Like after you go past I-95 and you're headed to Orlando and out
there there's a little bird called the black rail.
And the black rail was recently listed on the endangered species
list.
And the ornithologists surveyed all the places they thought the
black rail might live all over the southeastern United States.
And they decided that the St.
John's refuge was a really important place for this bird,
for this endangered bird.
So we have a critically endangered bird living out there
on that refuge, which experiences a lot of trespass.
People love to go in there and like ride their AT VS and set up
shooting ranges and just all kinds of things because they
think that it's just nobody's land and they don't realize how
important it is to this bird.
So I would say that that worries us a lot is taking care of the
black rail out on the St.
John's Refuge.
OK, we've got another question on the chat here.
This is actually for all of you.
So we'll just kind of start down the line here with Kelly
Giovanni, an eighth grader over at Andrew Jackson Middle.
How dedicated do you have to be to do your jobs, Giovanni, I
love that question.
I think it's a combination of dedication and love and drive
for your job.
Whether you're in a field that's heavier on the technical side or
more on some of what I shared on the STEM engagement or education
side.
I I think you have to show up everyday 100% and that helps if
you really like what you're doing.
But showing up asking questions, offering support, I I think
that's standard advice that I I would want to share with you for
anything that you get involved in and that will help you
uncover kind of those pieces that you you really like in
different jobs to to to find your career path.
But but showing up every day coupled with with finding some
things that you enjoy I think is really important.
Bob.
Yeah dedication to your job.
Well, I I think it's important to, you know, dedication and and
well, you know, liking your job kind of go hand in hand.
And so it does help in the long run if you do something that you
enjoy and have some interest in.
But I would say like everybody I know out here is very dedicated
to their job no matter what it might be.
And I kind of want to take this opportunity to give up like a
little plug for working for NASA.
You know, a lot of people assume that, you know, it's just high
tech.
You know, it's just electrical engineers, Mechanical Engineers,
aerospace engineers.
But like, I'm an environmental engineer and I grew up in this
area and I didn't.
I never really thought NASA would be a place I'd work.
You know what?
Who needs an environmental engineer out here?
Well, we do because we're a small city and basically we have
everything, you know it.
We have accountants, we have groundskeepers, you know, so
like there's, you know, you should never, if you're
interested in working out here, there is a place for you.
And it is a very good place to work with a lot of really good
people.
So I just want to throw that in there because you're in that
stage where you're probably trying to decide what to do
later in life and all.
And if you like this area and and want to stay, this is a
great place to do it.
Spencer Yeah.
So I think it's a great question.
You definitely have to be all in, right?
You have to be dedicated.
You know, when I was younger, I didn't know what I wanted to do.
I didn't know where I wanted to end up.
But I did want to work for NASA.
I always thought it was so cool.
You know all the launches that I used to watch in the shuttle and
all that stuff.
And then I all I did was I kept thinking I got to find a way to
get out there.
So when I was in college, I went through the Pathways internship
program.
I dedicated myself.
The big thing I think I want to leave with all of you is don't
be afraid to step outside of the box, right?
Don't be afraid to do something completely different, even if
it's scary.
I've done so many things that were completely scary and I
thought, I can never do this.
I never want to do it.
And you know, one of those things now is going to end up
leading me to the White House later this year.
So definitely, you know, take every opportunity, seize the
moment.
That's the big thing I would give you.
I think that the people who work for the US Fish and Wildlife
Service are really very dedicated to their job.
There's a lot of passionate people there who really enjoy
and are committed to helping wildlife, helping the wildlife
itself and also teaching people about the wildlife.
So that's a really great part of the job, working with a lot of
passionate people.
But it is challenging because we are a federal agency, which
means politics can play a role and budgets can go up and down
and you can get new directives by depending on who's in charge.
And that can kind of get kind of frustrating.
And you have to be able to stick with it and focus on your
specific area of responsibility and doing the good work that you
can do despite what all the other craziness that might be
going on.
So you definitely do have to be dedicated enough to stick with
it, but you'll be working with a lot of other people who are
dedicated to.
Thanks, Kim.
And I just could go back to something Bob said earlier.
I definitely second him about NASA.
You're looking at somebody right now who was not great at science
in school and even worse in math when I was y'all's ages.
So you can work here even if you're not good in those areas.
That's really not a joke.
You really can.
We're going to have time for one more question here in the room.
Anybody want to be the final one?
All right, my man, you started us off.
What's end with you?
Go ahead.
So you already know my name.
My name is Connor Hershey.
I'm an eighth grader.
And for Miss Ren, how do you ensure that the animals you
protect don't go extinct?
Oh, that's a really good question.
You know, we we can't ensure it, but mostly what we do is protect
habitat.
So we just dedicated 3 new National Wildlife refuges.
So we're up to 571 now.
So we're protecting habitat all across the country.
So the populations won't just be protected here at Merritt
Island, but also up and down the coast down, you know South of
here, there's Hobe Sound, Pelican Island, Loxahatchee,
other places where other wildlife can be protected as
well.
And another branch of the service works with wildlife
rules and regulations and that helps to protect the migratory
animals like migratory birds.
So we have kind of a regulatory branch as well.
So we don't just have scientists and we don't just have land.
We're working in a lot of different ways, a variety of
ways to try and help them in every way that we can.
Well, unfortunately, we have a lot more questions, but we've
run out of time.
So Kelly McCarthy, Bob Klein, Spencer Davis, Kim, King, Rank,
Thank you all so much for dedicating your time.
And we hope that Y'all took something out of the Next Gen.
STEM 2024 Earth Day briefing.
We hope all of you watching this both online and in the room are
now inspired to become the next generation of STEM
professionals, continuing America's legacy of exploration
and discovery.
If you're interested in more about NASA's Next Gen.
STEM project or the Earthrise project that Kelly was talking
about earlier, you can log on to nasa.gov/stem.
That's nasa.gov/stem.
Have a great day everyone.