Ground Crew Educational Program
Experience Science Up Close and Personal
Working with science in the classroom is one thing, but science in the field is something more. Experience science first had by becoming a member of the Teachers in Space Ground Crew. Working with the Perlan team, you will handle science payloads created by students from across the country.
The Ground Crew will work in shifts of four, spending two weeks learning and working on science in El Calafate, Argentina. Each day the glider flies, you and your fellow team members will prepare the experiments for flight, verify their operation and retrieve data for posting to the internet. Additionally your team will capture video and images to share with students around the world.
Educator Ground Crew Program – “It’s Like Gliding on Mars…”
The Perlan II glider is designed to fly up to altitudes of 90,000 feet by soaring on mountain vortices – strong currents of air formed along mountain ranges. At that height, the glider is flying in air as thin as the atmosphere of Mars: a perfect analog to experimental methods of exploring the red planet.
Mission Schedule
Week 1 | |
Sunday | Travel Buenos Aires to El Calafate, Argentina |
Monday | Meet the Perlan Glider crew; learn payload management |
Tuesday | Data management and upload procedures |
Wednesday | Building Lesson Plans from the Perlan Mission experiments |
Thursday | Stratospheric Mountain Waves and Earth’s Atmosphere |
Friday | Visit local schools and museums |
Saturday | Weather Balloon Launch and data analysis |
Week 2 | |
Sunday | Individual projects: blogging, photography, video etc |
Monday | Build / test lessons on payload management |
Tuesday | Build / test lessons on data management |
Wednesday | Build / test lessons from Perlan Mission experiments |
Thursday | Further exploration of Mountain Waves and Atmosphere |
Friday | Buenos Aires schools and museums |
Saturday | Depart Buenos Aires |
Register
The cost for this two week science excursion is $8,000 per teacher. You can also sponsor a teacher and send the both of you to this once in a lifetime experience. The $16,000 sponsor package allows you and the teacher of your choice to work together as part of the flight team. You also get acknowledgement of your sponsorship on the web, in our promotional materials and press releases.
If you would like to learn more about the Ground Crew Opportunity, please fill out this form and submit. We will get more information to you promptly.