Valley youth directs Mars mission
July 31, 2008
By Laura Geggel
Nick Gaudio took off from the Valley last week and managed a mission to Mars, but he didn’t leave the stratosphere or even the state.
Gaudio joined a group of high school seniors and scrutinized the big, red planet from the Museum of Flight’s Washington Aerospace Scholars camp.
The North Bend resident has his finger – and his calculator – on the pulse of the nation’s aeronautical future.
“We’re not going to be able to stay on the planet much longer,” Gaudio said. “It will be nice to be involved in the technology that will get us off.”
Before he attended the July 20-25 program, Gaudio had to demonstrate his mathematical and problem solving dexterity. Rosie Bailer, executive director of Washington Aerospace Scholars, sent 10 problem sets and a final project assignment to all participants. Based on their work, Bailer assigned each student a position in one of four teams for the mars mission: the getting-there, living-there and working-there teams. The final team – mission integration – ensured all of the groups were communicating with one another.
Bailer assigned Gaudio to systems manager of the living-there team, putting him in charge of nine people.
“He really stood out for his ability to communicate very succinctly,” Bailer said. “It’s hard to be a leader among peers, but he handled it beautifully.”
In the morning, Gaudio and his peers worked on their respective missions – Gaudio’s team had to figure out how to sustain life on Mars amid challenges like radiation and meteorites.
“Mars is bombarded with galactic cosmic rays from space and gamma radiation from elements in the Martian soil,” Gaudio said. “It was overwhelming because there are so many numbers. We had somebody stay up until 1 a.m. designing the square footage and surface area (of the habitat).”
Bailer said she was impressed with the work Gaudio’s team produced.
“Nick’s team was interested in using the resources that were already there on Mars. Even though it’s a carbon dioxide atmosphere, they were finding processes they could use to get oxygen out of that atmosphere – and that resulted in fewer trips (for the mission).”
In the afternoon, the aerospace scholars went on fieldtrips to places like Boeing and the University of Washington.
In the evening, the students competed against each other in hands-on group projects ranging from designing robotic rovers to testing model rockets.
On the final day, the groups presented their findings to the director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston. As systems manager, Gaudio handled his group’s presentation and answered questions from family, friends, engineers and even an ex-astronaut.
The astronaut, Bonnie Dunbar, is now the president and CEO of the Museum of Flight. She started Washington Aerospace Scholars two years ago after learning about a similar student program at the Johnson Space Center.
With sponsors like Boeing and Microsoft, high school juniors can attend the program at no cost. For more information, visit www.museumofflight.org.
Bailer said the program also promotes students networking with their advisors and with each other. With the nation facing a shortage of engineers, she wants Washington Aerospace Scholars to push a few more students toward the engineering realm.
If anything, the program has helped propel Gaudio even more toward that world.
An Eagle Scout who is also involved in the jazz band at Mount Si High School, Gaudio received a junior scholarship from the Edwin R. Opstad Masonic Memorial Scholarship Foundation in May. He said he hopes to attend MIT and major in aerospace engineering and minor in astrophysics before working for NASA.
Reporter Laura Geggel can be reached at 392-6434 x221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
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