Discoveries

Behind-the-scenes peek: How to build a deep-space instrument for NASA mission

Tempe campus Washington, D.C.

February 22, 2017

PBS to air documentary Friday about 1st space instrument to be built entirely at ASU, now on its way to asteroid Bennu

On Sept. 8, 2016, NASA and Arizona State University embarked on a new space mission, OSIRIS-REx. Now on its way to a rendezvous with the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, the spacecraft carries a number of important scientific instruments, including OTES, the OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer.

“Project Asteroid: Mapping Bennu” is a 30-minute program that documents the construction of OTES, the first space instrument to be built entirely on the ASU campus. It airs on Arizona PBS (channel 8.1) on Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m.

The program, in the making since 2012, takes viewers behind the scenes as it follows the efforts of a team of engineers and scientists led by the School of Earth and Space Exploration's Philip Christensen.

A Regents' Professor of geological sciences, Christensen is the designer and principal investigator for OTES, which was "born" in the laboratories, workshops, and cleanroom of SESE's home, Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 4 on the Tempe campus.

Christensen and his colleagues are no strangers to space exploration, having played a critical role in mapping the surface of Mars. To build OTES, he reassembled key members of his Mars team and added new members as well, including several outstanding ASU students.

“Project Asteroid: Mapping Bennu” follows the OTES team as they count down to the mission launch date. The program also profiles selected team members, who give their personal perspectives of the challenges and rewards of this high-stakes undertaking.

View a preview here.

Top photo: Engineers William O'Donnell (left) and Greg Mehall prepare the completed OTES instrument for shipment to NASA. When OTES arrives in 2018 at target asteroid Bennu on NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, it will map Bennu's mineralogy and surface temperature. This data will help mission scientists choose a site to collect a surface sample to be returned to Earth in 2023. Photo by Philip Christensen/ASU

Robert Burnham

Science writer , School of Earth and Space Exploration

480-458-8207 Robert.Burnham@asu.edu

Internationalizing curriculum development: 2017 American Experience Initiative spring workshop

Arizona State University welcomed a new cohort of Chinese faculty to the 2017 American Experience Initiative (AEI) workshop in Phoenix. AEI is a uniquely hands-on approach to transforming global academic partnerships.Faculty participants from top universities across China arrived on Sunday to take part in a series of collaborative learning activities and cultural experiences. As with past AEI prog...

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Internationalizing curriculum development: 2017 American Experience Initiative spring workshop

February 22, 2017

Faculty participants from top universities across China arrived on Sunday to take part in a series of collaborative learning activities and cultural experiences. As with past AEI programs in 2014-16, participants were paired with faculty consultants and experts from ASU, the Smithsonian Institution, Lewis & Clark College, Brown University and ASU’s Online EdPlus. The teams worked collaboratively to design curricula across the disciplines, using American Studies as an intellectual touchstone. AEI workshop participants (Back row, from left): Chen Wei, Guo Liandong, Eric Wertheimer, Jane Hunter, Zhai Zheng, Yang Bin and Irma Sandercock. (Front row, from left): Ying Hui, Zeng Yi, Zhang Zhaoyang, Zhao Wen, Pan Xiaohui, Li Cuiyun, William Brashears and Huang Lei. Download Full Image

“AEI is unique, and maybe even historic, in that it is the first systematic collaboration between Chinese and U.S. scholars on curriculum that can be taught in Chinese universities,” said Eric Wertheimer, professor of English at ASU. “By reimagining how American culture gets taught transculturally, it opens up the possibility for rethinking what American culture is.”

“Programs like AEI allowed us to obtain more resources (not accessible to many Chinese faculty) to enhance the learning experiences in our classrooms in China and bring new perspectives to students,” said Dr. Zhai Zheng, Beijing Foreign Studies University, “and provides a network environment for in-depth academic exchange.”

“The workshop encourages us to think outside of the box in terms of interdisciplinary course development,” says Dr. Huang Lei, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. “Now I can leverage the resources from different universities and disciplinary to create a more comprehensive curriculum.”

As an important part of the overall move to further global engagement, ASU is looking to build more transformational partnerships by cultivating effective academic exchange and providing resources to forge impactful networks of international educators. AEI has offered four distinctive workshops, held in China; Phoenix/Tempe, Arizona; and Washington, D.C., and attracted faculty members from many top Chinese institutions. In addition to fostering traditional academic exchanges between American and Chinese faculty, AEI connects faculty and students around digital spaces.

Written by Angela Zhao, senior project manager