On April 12, NASA representatives, including astronaut Clay Anderson, attended the VEISHEA (Veterinary Medicine, Engineering, Industrial Science, Home Economics, Agriculture) event at Iowa State University. The event, which is the largest student-run festival in the nation, is held at Iowa State each spring. The event offered a great opportunity for NASA to talk with the students and community members about the Constellation program. Anderson, who was inducted into the Aerospace Engineering Hall of Distinguished Alumni during the event, served as the grand marshal of the kick-off parade.

NASA’s large exhibit contained information on the mission of Constellation, including details on the Orion crew exploration vehicle and the Ares crew launch vehicles. Helping out the NASA team were student volunteers and NASA co-ops from Iowa State, who helped roam around the campus during the event to get the word out. Cosmo, NASA’s 7-foot inflatable astronaut, made an appearance and was a big hit. Anderson signed autographs and took pictures with the event attendees at the booth.

“This was an opportunity to share our excitement about space exploration and to bring NASA to people who aren’t normally exposed to it,” said Cory Simon, an Iowa State senior in computer engineering. “With the help of Clay and Cosmo, we drew one of the biggest crowds of all the booths.”

Lee Graham, project integration lead for the Constellation program’s Altair lunar lander, was one of the volunteers that traveled to Iowa for VEISHEA; and was impressed with the deep interest from the people that visited the NASA booth.

“I asked a little boy ‘Do you want to walk on the moon?’ and he responded ‘No, I want to be the first to walk on Mars,’” Graham said.

Even though the temperature was below freezing and it was snowing, more than 700 people stopped by the booth to talk with NASA.

“Most of the people that braved the freezing weather and stopped by to the booth had really good questions and were sincerely interested in learning more,” said Molly White, an Iowa State senior in aerospace engineering. “Everyone came out - from kids who were looking forward to being astronauts, to college students curious about co-oping, to retirees who wondered about space exploration.”