Live from Antarctica 2

Image Credits: Adelie penguin -- International Centre for Antarctic Information and Research, New Zealand. Palmer Station and R/V Polar Duke -- Antarctic Support Associates.

Want to explore Antarctica during that southernmost continent's brief summer, when you can watch baby seals and penguins still in their birth colonies and rookeries? Or learn about krill and other creatures that make up the base of the food chain in the cold waters down south?

You can. Starting in January 1997, Live from Antarctica 2 will take you on live, interactive field trips to Antarctica via free broadcast television (PBS and NASA-TV), print, and online networks. Supported in part by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Office of Polar Programs, the project will use NASA's Advanced Technology Communications Satellite to link you to Palmer Station, a research facility near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The peninsula is that part of Antarctica that juts north toward Chile, some 600 miles across the stormy Drake Passage. The satellite link will be the first live video broadcast from this part of Antarctica to the outside world!

In addition to visiting the coast near Palmer Station, one of the live telecasts will take you to sea aboard the 219-foot ice-strengthened research vessel Polar Duke and allow you to participate in real time in ongoing marine research under way at sea. The Polar Duke has been chartered by the NSF as part of its Antarctic Program.

The Live from Antarctica 2 broadcasts are called Oceans, Ice, and Life, The Secrets of Survival, and Seeing the Future. You'll experience what it takes to prepare for a research trip to Antarctica. You'll take a close-up view of the first weeks of life of a new generation of Adelie penguins and see what makes some of them thrive and others not survive. You'll also learn what biological and climate studies tell us about the long-term changes in the Earth's environment.

Live from Antarctica 2 is brought to you by the Passport to Knowledge project, which is supported by NASA, NSF, and Public Television. The live television programs are especially designed for students, who will become virtual co-investigators with the field researchers. Schools anywhere in the US can participate. All that is required is a television set, a regular computer, a modem, and a phone line.

More Cool Stuff

For more information on Live from Antarctica 2 (LFA2), contact Geoff Haines-Stiles Productions, PO Box 1502, Summit, NJ 07902-1502; call the Passport to Knowledge information hotline at 800-626-5483 and select mailbox number 7; or, on the Internet, go to the program's homepage at:

http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/antarctica/

For instructions about mail list participation, send e-mail to Ms. Jan Wee, Education Outreach Coordinator of Passport to Knowledge:

jwee@mail.arc.nasa.gov.

To order the Teacher's Guide, send $10.00 (checks made out to Passport to Knowledge), or to order the Teacher's Kit, send $99.00 (checks made out to Passport to Knowledge) to Passport to Knowledge/LFA2, PO Box 1502, Summit, NJ 07902-1502.

The satellite coordinates for the Passport to Knowledge programs are:

C-Band: NASA-TV: Spacenet 2 satellite, 69 degrees west, transponder 5, channel 9, horizontal, frequency 3880 MHz, audio on 6.8.

Ku-Band: PBS K-12 Teacher Resource Service: Telstar 401, 97 degrees west, transponder 8, horizontal, 11915 MHz, audio on 6.2 and 6.8.

For additional information -- pictures, summaries of past Passport to Knowledge videos, an archive of Q & As, links to other sites, and more -- go to the Internet in the Classroom Web site, home of NASA's K-12 Internet Initiative:

http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/antarctica/index.html

To access other NASA-supported educational Web sites, go to the following Observatorium page:

http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/education/edu/edu.html

For more information on Antarctica, go to the Web pages of NSF's Office of Polar Programs, the Antarctic Support Associates (which provide support to the NSF for conducting scientific research in Antarctica), and the International Centre for Antarctic Information and Research, New Zealand:

http://www.nsf.gov:80/od/opp/start.htm

http://www.asa.org/

http://www.icair.iac.org.nz/icair/

Check out other observations in the Observation of the Week Archive.