Meet Richard, A NASA Solar System Ambassador
Transcript
Title: NASA's Solar System Ambassador program brings NASA missions and science to the public.
Richard Stember: My name is Richard Stember. I am a Solar System Ambassador.. NASA currently has 730 Ambassadors across all 50 states, and in US territories, consulates and military bases overseas.
We have set up our mobile observatory at a school in Mission Viejo. And we have set up our solar telescopes for the kids to learn about the sun.
Kid: Ah, cool!
Stember: Yeah!
Kid: Wow! It's so cool!
Stember: Isn't that cool? There is no experience greater than a student walking up to the telescope and seeing the moon, or Jupiter, or Saturn for the first time through a telescope.
Kid: It's actually seeing the sun really for the first time. I felt like it was a great experience.
Channon Craycraft: It's a huge opportunity for our school and for the students to experience something like this on a scale where they get to actually see and interact with what's going on up in space. And it's really exciting for them.
Stember: Those are areas of the sun that are cooler than the rest of the sun.
Title: NASA provides volunteer ambassadors with year-around training opportunities and ambassadors commit to holding 4 public events a year.
Stember: So much of science is funded by the federal government. NASA is a big part of that. So it's really important to us Solar System Ambassadors that the public at large understand what science is being done because they're funding it.
Title: Richard's mobile observatory was provided by Science Heads, a non-profit committed to science literacy.
Craycraft: I would not be surprised. We could have a future astronomer in our midst. [ laughs ]
Stember: I think we can inspire students to study a little bit harder to take that science class that maybe they wouldn't have taken otherwise. But also adults--to learn more about what is being done by NASA and other research organizations.
Kid 1: I would do it again.
Kid 2: I would do it again.
Stember: If it was just one student who became a scientist I would be so honored to think that I played a very small role.
Title: For more information on the Solar System Ambassador program:
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/ssa/