From: THall1234@aol.com
Subject: RED ROVER, RED ROVER, SEND YOUR CLASSROOM RIGHT OVER
Date: Fri, 3 Jan 1997 21:22:39 -0500
Happy New Year! I don't know about anyone else, but I felt like I was in hybernation for the last 3 weeks. Now that school is about to start next week, I feel like I am waking up and ready for Round 2. I was thinking about everyone out there who would like to get involved in Red Rover, but was not able to receive funds, equipment or whatever to become a Mars Site. Here is another alternative so you can get involved with minimal cost and pain! The Plantetary Society has a program which enables you to become an "Earth Site". What this allows you to do is access all of the Mars Sites and "drive" their rovers. When you log in to a particular Mars Site, you will see through your computer the image of that Marscape through that Rover's camera. You will also have directionals that will allow you to command and actually move the Rover through tele-operation. Some lessons could be to have students break into teams who would then each choose a different Mars site and periodically log in to explore that site. They could map the site, communicate with the "Martians" there (the site's software has this capability), and present and compare their Maps after their exploration. When we did Red Rover last year as a Mars Site, before we had ours up and running, we had a lot of fun just driving the rovers on existing Mars sites and comparing sites. As far as computers are concerned, the only thing you need to participate is your own internet access. The cost is $59 which gets you educational material, a Planetary Society membership, a one-year membership into the Red Rover team and, most importantly, those all-important Mars Site internet addresses (which are only available with your membership pass code). If you are interested, you can email the Planetary Society at: tps.cj@mars.planetary.org The Red Rover project is a lot of fun and this is a great alternative if you can't do the Mars Site. Check it out! Theresa Hall Paradise Canyon Elementary School La Canada