[ Watch on YouTube ]

Attendees were introduced by Mike Toillion to the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), created in 1998 to develop the field of astrobiology and provide a scientific framework for flight missions. The NAI is a virtual institute that integrates astrobiology research and training programs in concert with the national and international science communities, and includes organizations spread throughout the US -- both NASA and other research centers and institutes and research universities.

For a virtual institute such as the NAI, web-based and other collaborative tools are vital, and include videoconferencing, desktop sharing, and hyperwalls. The community model used by the NAI is one of a web structure rather than a spoke structure, using these tools to join participants not only to a central hub but also to one another. Teams work together and build community via seminars, focus groups, and what Toillion called "workshops without walls" that seek to prompt discussion more than presentation. These teams require the use of various virtual communication tools, such as videoconferencing, Livestream, WebEx and Adobe Connect, in order to work together effectively. With the advancement of cellular and satellite network technology, these communication tools now have the potential to be used as a means to broadcast audio/visual and scientific data from, and to, almost anywhere in the world. Remote field sites can be linked to NASA agency centers and labs. NASA researchers and scientists can be delivered to classrooms and lecture halls. Live, robust interactions can take place amongst colleagues that couldn't otherwise be connected.

Figure 1: Red Bluff High School Students and NASA NAI member on site in Lassen Volcanic National Park

And the natural question prompted by these tools become smaller and more mobile, personal, and portable, as Toillion stated was, "Where couldn't you participate from?" A proposal was submitted for a pilot program to address this very question -- can these NAI team interactions include field sites via satellite? If so, this could make expeditions both simpler and more effectives as fewer people could be brought to a field site, and collaboration could take place more widely among others. Not only that, but the potential of such interaction as a tool for education and outreach would be substantial.

In response to this proposal, a pilot program was initiated involving California students from Red Bluff High School. NASA researchers have taken teams of students into Lassen Volcanic National Park to study biology in extreme environments. For this pilot project, a team of students, in Toillion's words the "rover team," would be sent to the park on March 19th after other team members had snowsledded in the required satellite equipment to provide the team with the necessary uplink. Students at other schools would function as a "mission control team," directing the rover team in response to findings. Further underscoring the "rover/control" paradigm, the rover team would have with them a CheMin instrument identical to that currently in use aboard the celebrated Curiosity rover, which landed in Gale Crater in August 2012 and has been examining the surface of Mars since.

The pilot took place on March 19, and NASA is still digesting the lessons learned. The CENIC community will be kept up-to-date on the final decisions made regarding new instantiations of the program.

About CENIC and How to Change Your Subscription:

California's education and research communities leverage their networking resources under CENIC, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, in order to obtain cost-effective, high-bandwidth networking to support their missions and answer the needs of their faculty, staff, and students. CENIC designs, implements, and operates CalREN, the California Research and Education Network, a high-bandwidth, high-capacity Internet network specially designed to meet the unique requirements of these communities, and to which the vast majority of the state's K-20 educational institutions are connected. In order to facilitate collaboration in education and research, CENIC also provides connectivity to non-California institutions and industry research organizations with which CENIC's Associate researchers and educators are engaged.

CENIC is governed by its member institutions. Representatives from these institutions also donate expertise through their participation in various committees designed to ensure that CENIC is managed effectively and efficiently, and to support the continued evolution of the network as technology advances.

For more information, visit www.cenic.org.

Subscription Information: You can subscribe and unsubscribe to CENIC Updates at http://lists.cenic.org/mailman/listinfo/cenic-announce.