25 August 2010
Science Outreach Brings Libyans, Moroccans to U.S. Space Camp
Five more nations plan U.S. training for future spacefarers, leaders
Washington — Nearly 50 future Libyan leaders have trained as astronauts at the U.S. National Space & Rocket Center’s Space Camp since 2009, and media coverage and a film of the students’ experiences have helped ease U.S.-Libya tensions and inspired other Muslim-majority nations to pursue the program.
The Libyan Space Camp program, now in its second year, was developed through a unique relationship among the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, NASA, the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, the Libyan General People’s Committee for Foreign Liaison and the Libyan General People’s Committee for Education and Scientific Research. It was launched as part of the U.S.−Libya agreement on science and technology signed in 2008 ― the first U.S. bilateral cooperation agreement signed with Libya in decades.
The chronicles of the 24 participants in the 2009 Space Camp were documented and made into the film One Small Step, One Giant Leap.
“The young participants in the film, broadcast frequently on regional television, now have nearly rock-star status in Tripoli,” said Maria Otero, under secretary of state for democracy and global affairs, at a June celebration of the anniversary of President Obama’s Cairo speech. “And hundreds of young Libyans have now applied to Space Camp.”
The 2010 Libyan Space Camp, July 16–25, was followed August 1–6 by a Space Camp adventure for a dozen Moroccan students.
The two student groups from North Africa joined other young people from around the world in Huntsville, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, to participate in simulated space shuttle missions, training simulators, rocket building and launches, scientific experiments and lectures on space exploration. They also met and received graduation certificates from four-time NASA shuttle commander Robert “Hoot” Gibson.
The Libyan students were chosen based on their knowledge of English and science, their geographic and socioeconomic diversity and their ability to represent their country.
TRIPOLI TO HUNTSVILLE
In August 2009, the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli sent the first group of 24 Libyan students, along with two teachers and a professional Libyan-American film crew that included two Libyan student interns, on their way to Huntsville.
They were the first group from North Africa to attend Space Camp and only the second group from an Arab country since 1982, when Space Camp was founded to promote the study of math, science and technology, teamwork, decisionmaking and leadership.
The film of their adventure, which premiered in December 2009, aired more than 20 times on local television in Libya, reaching millions of people, William Lawrence, adviser for science partnerships in the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, told America.gov.
“Between the program and the movie, it engendered huge excitement among students, parents, school officials, senior government officials and the population to a degree never really seen for any other program,” Lawrence said.
“Space has a very high appeal to audiences young and old around the world, and there are absolutely no hurdles to that,” he added. “We’ll have conversations about space with populations we don’t talk about much else with. Space tends to bring out that kind of response.”
2010 LIBYA SPACE CAMP
This year, 24 Libyan students aged 14–18 participated, traveling with the same Libyan-American film director, members of Al Shababiya Television, and a representative of the Libyan General People’s Committee for Education and Scientific Research.
The students wore official NASA flight suits, and for a week they worked shoulder-to-shoulder with students from the United States, Canada, Germany and other countries.
In international and technical teams, the students were presented with challenges that included what to do with a damaged fuselage, miscalibrated steering mechanisms and punctured air filtration systems. Together, they applied advanced principles of physics, chemistry and mathematics to solve some of the same problems experienced by U.S. and Russian astronauts on the International Space Station and during the historic Apollo 13 mission.
The high-impact program is relatively inexpensive, Lawrence said — a total cost of $205,000 for the first year, including the film. In 2010, four U.S. companies — Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Coca-Cola and ConocoPhillips ― funded roughly 25 percent of the costs.
The students’ training has helped expand their educational and professional interests at home and abroad. Since attending Space Camp, one 2009 Libyan student participant is seeking a career in aeronautics and flight communications by studying at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Another was recently accepted to Cornell University in New York state, and another received a full scholarship to Harvard University in Massachusetts.
Suleiman Ben Sufia said the camp “was beyond my expectations, and it was really a lifetime educational and informative journey.”
“Space Camp touched me, and I look forward to apply such knowledge I’ve learned here in my beloved country,” Ali Elseddik wrote.
Libya and Morocco plan Space Camp programs in summer 2011, Lawrence said, and U.S. officials in Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, the Palestinian Authority and Egypt are seeking to establish programs.
(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)
