<< several minutes of missing
text >>
>> Once you start the lose those miles you'll have to
make it back sometime.0It probably be more feasible to continue
the same track you did out of Hawaii towards maybe -- otherwise
excellent work
>> Okay. So our third proposal was submitted by the team
burn homeschool.
They say congratulations on doing such a thorough
job of planning your voyage.
You wisely considered the hurricane
seasons of the northern and southern hemispheres. Chose excellent
navigational stars and factored in the winds to help you complete
your journey. We particularly like how you mentioned arriving during
the day to safely avoid the reefs arriving during the full Moon
to increase your chances of seeing the island at night. The journey
will last over two months which is a long time to be at sea. How
much you shorten your travel time to carry so many supplies. All
in all, excellent work.
>> I was very pleased to see that you had a very nice
selection of bright stars and the stars appear at a variety of
times from the evening sky for you at the beginning of your journey
and to another star that shows up much later in your evening. You
have good stars that will appear at a variety of times of night.
>> I would like to echo Brian. This is an excellent plan.
Truly excellent. You know, in the planning process, as important
as navigation is, you have to understand it's the winds that
will carry you to your destination. Our canoe is powered by that.
Our source of power. The fact that you began your plan by considering
the hurricane season, which really tells you the season that's
the safest for you to sail and you broke it down into hurricane
seasons between the northern and southern hemispheres. You're
talking between two hemispheres. That's excellent planning.
The second part was you began to identify when the wind is going
to reverse in the southern hemisphere so that you would get a
wind that was behind you to blow you towards the target. Continue
research on hurricane seasons and identify the latitudes where
the hurricanes are the most active because you'll find that around
the equator there is no hurricanes at all and it's a relatively
safe time for you -- safe place for you to sail. The other part
if you know the season when the winds are going to switch to
the west which will blow you towards Rapa Nuiy you might plan
a longer stop in the islands. Excellent plan.
>> Great. Moving on we're looking now at the ALAMEDA homeschool
plan. Our team of experts say great job in planning such a well
thought out voyage. We like how you plan to use a variety of navigational
signs such as clouds, birds, ocean swell patterns and key navigational
stars and consolations. It's wise to make use of natural resources
such as rainwater and islands located around your journey. Your
zigzag approach to finding Rapa Nui is very interesting. The voyage
is scheduled to last two months or more. You might want to consider
staying at the Kaymen islands for two or three days instead of
a week to shorten your journey. The name of your vessel is sadness
of the sea is very poetic. Nicely done.
>> A very nice choice of stars. Using Polaris is a good
way to judge your latitude when you're in the northern latitudes.
Your other stars including SPIKA and ANTARIS are good to navigate
by and they'll be visible along the various latitudes you're
traveling.
>> Yes, I found this also excellent in terms of the navigation
of the stars that you are choosing to use but I would encourage
you to look at maybe stopping at someplace between -- do a little
more research on the geography of pit gurn that will be hard
to target a small island and not much safe Anchorage on that
island. You're solid for getting into the south Pacific waters.
>> Okay, our fifth plan today comes from a class at an
elementary school. They say thank you for your voyage plan. The
name of the ship is very intriguing. It is good that you plan to
use a variety of navigational signs and instruments. Rapa Nui lies
east of French Polynesia. You may want to consider how you'll sail
your vessel against the winds and currents. Nice job.
>> Sounds like a wonderful trip. I wish I could go along.
Again, you're looking at the idea of using celestial navigation.
Give some thought and look at star charts and take a look at
some of the constellations and stars that you might consider
using as guides to take you on this fascinating trip.
>> Yeah, you just need to spend a little bit more time
developing your navigational plan as well as identifying specifically
the stops you're going to make along the way in terms of what
islands you're going to be targeting. Thank you.
>> Okay. Our next proposal was submitted by Mr. Chung's
class. You aprop naturally named your crew after the Hawaii shark
guard who protected fishermen from sharks and guided lost canoes
to land and great work choosing primarily navigational stars
such as Polaris, oh Ryan and the southern cross. How might ocean
currents and trade winds affect your journey? And also what time
of year do you intend to sail? Nicely done.
>> Yes, again a very nice selection of stars here. Very
much appreciate how you do use the northern star Polaris when
you're in the northern latitudes but as you then cross the equator
to the southern latitudes you switch to other stars and the constellation
of oh Ryan and the southern cross, nicely done.
>> I like the way you broke your trip down into zones
between different latitudes. It shows a lot of forethought in your
planning process. I would encourage you to break your trip down
into smaller legs. You have this really long leg between the March
case yas and Rapa Nui. You could put another resupply stop. Because
of your school, I would encourage you to invite Miss CHING a
staffer at the school who sailed in a canoe. An excellent resource
for you guys to interview.
>> Sounds like they have a great local resource there.
Our next plan was submitted by miss courier's class. The name
is foot strong. Our panel of experts says most excellent job
in making your star compass. They saw the pictures of you hard
at work and they were very excited to see those. You've done
a nice job of identifying key stars along each leg of your journey
and they liked how you noted the wind patterns on your star compass
chart. Keeping an eye out for native birds is wise and for fun
you may want to read about the legendary bird man competition
of Easter islands. We noticed that you are choosing first to
sail southwest of Hawaii in route to Tahiti and westward to Rapa
Nui. It's interesting and unique compared to other plans we received.
What made you select this particular route? Great work.
>> Again, the star compass that you did here is really
very, very well done. It shows a lot of research and a lot of
thought that goes into this. You chose very good stars and you're
looking at the rising and setting of your guide stars, very nicely
done.
>> I like that you used the Penn museum website. It's
informative and found it helpful in my own work. What I liked
best of all are the pictures of your team members working together
because that's the intangible element that makes the trip successful
is the ability of many people with diverse skills to work together
on a canoe and I appreciate the teamwork that you demonstrated
in developing this plan.
>> Okay. Our next team is actually a combination of two
teams from miss Hoffman's class. We have the lions and the fire
exchange and the comments from our panel for you are that we
like the use of your math skills in projecting how far away from
Rapa Nui you'll be able to see the island using the topography
theorem to calculate the miles during your journey. One thing to
consider is why you -- there is a difference in the length of
time. You had six days versus 13 days for legs one and legs two
of your journey. It looks like the lions and fire exchange learned
a great deal.
>> Yes, your choice of the con selllation is a very good
one. It's a large constellation and will remain in the sky for
an extended time during the course of the night parts of it rise
and set but you'll have a nice trail of stars across there to
guide by. It has a lot of bright stars in it, too. And its location
in the sky means there will be good visibility of this constellation
across the various latitudes you're traveling. URSA minor has
a lot of dim stars in it except
>> I like the fact that you used is math technique for
establishing distances on this leg. I understand why your length
of time in segment two is longer, because you're considering
the slowing down of the winds in the DOLDRUMS which would naturally
lead to a slower passage from 9 degrees north past the equator.
I thought this was very excellent work by both teams.
>> Okay. Our next proposal was submitted by the QUIGLEN
homeschool. Avoiding the high tropical storm season was winds.
Other teams felt it would take two weeks and 500 miles longer
for their trips. How confident are you that you can keep your
course in a straight line? Nice work.
>> There is great planning in this in terms of using the
stars as guides but also as looking at points on the ship as
your guide. So noticing where a star rises and sets relative to
markers on the ship. That was very, very pleasant to read. You
gave some good thought to this.
>> Again, I would encourage you to identify a stop somewhere
or maybe one or two stops somewhere between Rapa Nui. I like
that you looked in your navigation plan in terms of the direction
you were choosing to hold once you left the March caseis that
you would be saying -- and ANTARIS will be rising above the bow.
You're already synthesizing where you'll be looking for stars
as they rise above the visual horizon and as they move through
your canoe. That shows me that you have some grasp of what life
on board a canoe and navigating on board a canoe would be like.
>> Our next plan is from the St. Joseph school and our
panel says congratulations on having a most outstanding Rapa
Nui voyage plan. The plan included a wide variety of considerations,
nautical facts and Polynesian history. You provided a preview
of what the weather would be like once you arrive at your destination.
Other teams have estimated the canoe speed of five nautical mile-per-hour
yet your team seems to be planning for half that speed and twice
as much time on the ocean. Do you have any ideas on how to double-check
your calculations?
>> It was good to read about your use of star charts and
the star compass. That will give you a good chance in succeeding
in this voyage. In the northern latitudes you talk about using
the little diper to help you determine the location of true north.
As you cross the equator, that north celestial pole is going
to dip beneath the horizon so you'll probably want to change
your emphasis from looking and determining where true north is
to where true south is. So again here I would highly encourage
you to take a look at the stars of the southern hemisphere and
see how they can guide you in finding true south.
>> I would echo what Brian says, you need to identify
the stars or the star pointers that point towards the south celestial
pole and all navigators have a series of stars that they use
that allow them to point to either the north celestial pole or
the south celestial pole. Once you cross the equator it's important
you transition to using stars in the south to identify what a
south celestial pole and complement the fact that you considered
other -- the kinds of materials you would need to bring on board
the canoe. It shows me that you are moving beyond just navigation
but you're looking seriously at how you're going to survive on
board the canoe on these long durations at sea.
>> Okay. Moving on to our next plan from miss Smith's
class at the wall dron island school our panel says it looks
like you had fun learning about non-instrument navigation. Good
job of anticipation resistance to your course below the equator
with prevailing winds and currents. One thing to consider is
with the 6,000 nautical mile voyage your plan is the longest
one we received in the challenge.Is there any way you can check
this part of your plan with those who have gone before you? And
again, nice job.
>> This trip was a great example of something that I was
really glad to see in a number of these plans, people realizing
the use of the little diper and particularly POLARIS in the northern
latitudes but how it changes when you cross the equator. It's
a concept that a lot of adults don't grasp. I'm very pleased
to see these students are very much catching on to that.
>> Yeah, I would like to echo what Brian says. They are
recognizing when they move through -- as you move across the
equator they'll lose the north star. I am interested about how
you came up with your sail plan because it shows here that you
recognize that once you get into the DOLDRUMS the current moves
you eastward, which is an excellent plan as long you stay in
the DOLDRUMS the further east you'll get. The longer you stay
there, the more food and water you're going to use up. So it's
very different plan than any of the other ones that I reviewed.
Thank you
>> Okay. Our next team is from miss Sullivan's fifth grade
class at arch way school. They were the Pacific crew of the U.S.S.
intrepid. Our team says nice job on planning your trip to Rapa
Nui. Looking for the southern cross each night is wise. We like
how you've embraced the Hawaiian directional time. One thing
to consider is to sail for Tahiti is doable. Most of our other
challenge teams decided to stop at the MARKASIS islands. What
might be the advantages or disadvantages to each of these stops?
>> Your choice of using the southern cross as a guide
is an excellent one. It is very bright. Very prominent and is
a good guide for finding that very critical entity of true south.
In the northern part of your trip, you might want to consider
that the southern cross will not be in the sky all night long.
So you might want to consider what other guide stars you would
use.
>> Yeah, I would say the -- the route you chose and, you
know, I myself as a navigator have done something similar to
that in going to Tahiti but being that you have to get to Rapa
Nui and Rapa Nui is almost quite frankly 2,000 miles upwind from
Tahiti, it would be better to consider a more easterly track
towards your target and avoid losing all that east by sailing
towards Tahiti. Thank you.
>> Okay. We're now going to our last plan which was submitted
by the SIEGERT elementary school. There were many parts of the
plan they were impressed it. Your rainwater consideration and
planning for seasonal fish migrations was good and studying when
and where the winds would be strongest would make crew scheduling
effective. One thing to consider is that you're right to be considered
about the lack of current and wind power in the DOLDRUMS. With
a little searching under the wave fighting course strategy you
might develop a more accurate estimate of 50 days.
>> Again a very exciting-sounding trip! Boy, I'm getting
the urge to travel here. I'm pleased to see that you mentioned
using celestial navigation as you continue to think about this,
again, it's probably a lot of fun to see if you can take out
some star charts and take a look at the constellations and the
stars that you would want to use as guides as you go sailing
to the south seas.
>> Your sail plan reflects accurately on a voyage to Rapa
Nui in 1999. I like what you're looking at what the currents do
in the DOLDRUMS because it does pull you eastward. I would just
have you do a little more research on that area. Know that they
are a belt of -- a windless belt that's stationed halfway between
the southern hemisphere winds and the northern hemisphere winds
and that the DOLDRUMS get wider and more active as the zone as
the Sun moves northwards. So in July if you're sailing through
the DOLDRUMS like you noted you'd probably be stuck in a very
wide, windless belt for, you know, up to two weeks possibly.
Thank you.
>> Okay. Well, that concludes the presentation review
part of the webcast and right now we'd actually like to take
about 15 minutes or so and talk about his experience in making
this very journal. Could you tell us a little bit about your
trip? I understand you have some really good pictures and some
things to share with us about what this experience was like for
you back in 1999.
>> Okay. You know, first of all to the students, the challenge
you worked on sailing a canoe from Hawaii to Rapa Nui is the
most difficult challenge that myself and any of my voyaging companions
have faced. We began sailing our canoe back in the mid 70s and
it took us from the mid 70s until 1999, you know, 25 years before
we could even consider -- consider a trip to Rapa Nui just because
the challenge is so great. So I appreciate all the hard work you
did knowing what a difficult task that is.
If we look at the map of Polynesia, next slide, we know that
historically the Polynesians moved from southeast Asia into Polynesia
and this map is flipped around so they moved from southeast Asia.
The arrows point in the direction that the people moved in but
the winds move in the opposite direction so the big question
is, how can -- how could these canoes who had limited ability
make a passage there was in the direction of the prevailing trade
winds?
Rapa Nui lies right in the direction the wind blows from. So
a trip such as the one that you worked on where you would have
been sailing towards -- right into the direction of the -- where
the winds come from would pose a tremendous challenge to any
navigator whether it was navigating a canoe 2000 years ago or
one modern yachtsman navigating today. The question is how can
you get your canoe to sail upwind.
I'm a big Star Trek fan and there is a movie where there is
a new recruit that comes aboard the enterprise and she questions
captain Kirk about he was the only one in the space academy that
solved the problem. This space challenge. And the way he went
about doing it was he reprogrammed the computer so that he changed
the conditions which allowed him to succeed.
In navigation it's much the same way. You have to look at or
change the conditions to allow you to get your canoe upwind. I
think it was team burn looked at the wind going in the westerly
reversal to blow you to the target. The key with our voyage is
to know the winds going through the wind reversals and we needed
to identify the times of years when the winds would go into reversals
and position ourselves on an island that was close enough to
Rapa Nui so that we could take advantage once the winds went
into reversal we got in our canoe and we started sailing.
So the way navigation works here from the time you leave land
you begin navigating. If you look in the back of the crew members
on this -- in this slide you can see the peaks of mountains.
MONGAREVA was the second stop on the trip. Next slide. And once
you start leaving your destination you're already navigating,
right, so you know each and every second where you're going based
upon solid clues.
In our departure we had the island in the back of us as a bearing
and then as we sailed, the navigator looks out at the Sun and
he's using the Sun as a bearing in the morning. The Sun is our
daytime star that we're going to use. Once you see the Sun he
looks at where the waves are coming from, he lines the swells
up to where the Sun rose and then he feels where is the wind
blowing from in relationship to the swells and Sun?
The wind won't switch radically throughout the day. Switching
the wind is a gradual process. The wind is a very consistent bearing
that you can use. Then we look at the long low clouds that are
way off on the horizon. They don't move very quickly.
That's the third or fourth bearing and the fifth thing is the
motion the canoe makes as it climbs over the swells in a certain
rhythm, a pitch and yaw that you as a sailor will start to internalize
based upon the direction you want to hold, the direction the
wind is blowing from and causing it to blow over the swells and
you learn to use your body, next slide.
And the heights of stars, the heights of stars are really --
and your ability to measure the altitude as these stars move
across the celestial Meridian, this imaginary line that runs
from the north celestial pole to the south celestial pole will
be able to help you determine latitude, yeah, your position north
or south of the equator.
If you look at the -- this drawing of the person measuring the
southern cross as it arcs through the Meridian. It's a pear star.
If you draw a line through that top star through the bottom star
it points almost due south. So this is a clue that you could
use for finding the direction south as opposed to using the polaris
and URSA minor. It's another navigational clue.
Knowing the position of your canoe in latitudes will give you
clues as to, next slide, as to your close to land. The stars
will give you the clue when you're approaching land but once
you get to where you think land lies, then you need to start
to look for the land clues, seaweed and then the next slide is
really the best clue for finding the direction for land is these
white turns. They don't fly very far out from land. If you see
more than one of them, two or three you are probably within 24
hours of finding land. And especially when you're sailing in
the south Pacific around there, your ability, next slide, to
find land is real important to be able to predict when you're
going to arrive at land.
The tallest things on these islands are the trees and you can
maybe see these islands on a good, clear day maybe four miles
off the coast before you actually see them. And lastly since
we did do a column about getting to Rapa Nui I would like to
talk about the trip, Rapa Nui. Next slide.
The Rapa Nui, it's a very, very small target and it is an isolated
target and that's why it took us almost 30 years to figure out
-- or at least to be brave enough to attempt to find it. There
is no screen of islands that surround it that would increase
the target. I believe the dimensions of the island is probably
like six miles wide by 12, 14 miles long so it's a very small,
isolated target. Next slide.
On our trip to targeting Rapa Nui the strategy we applied was
to break the long trip between Hawaii and Rapa Nui down into
a series of smaller trips. Our first target from Hawaii was to
stop at the MARKASIS. The navigator on this trip before we got
there saw the white birds and decided to follow the white birds
and he actually turned the canoe too soon and he actually started
to sail away from the islands. He ended up 200, 300 miles away
from the islands and then he no longer saw the white birds. We
were watching him do that in Hawaii because we had a tracking
device on him and we were getting worried. The navigator was
smart enough that once he didn't see the birds he surmiseed he
must have turned too soon. Eventually found them in three days.
We asked him about the fact being lost. He said how can you
be lost if you know where your home is? Metaphorically for the
Polynesian navigators these islands are home so we can never
be lost. He's not only memorizing the direction he's sailing
towards but the direction he came from so he could always turn
his canoe and round and sail back where he came from if he ever
got disoriented.
A lot of you put PITKERN. It is a hard target to find. It's
a mile wide by a mile long and it is solitary there. There are
no islands around it. Next slide and if you know the story of
that island. It was an island that was the bounty MUTINEERS and
they ended up settling it. It is a very small target. 42 people
live on the islands that are descendants of the original bounty
MUTINEERS.
That trip to Rapa Nui is going to take a lot of teamwork. I
have mentioned that before. It will take, as you can see, a serious
demeanor because you're targeting a very small target. The whole
time we were out at sea the navigators are constantly at work
with the steersman issuing instructions and that you as a crew
member would be given the task of making sure the canoe sails
are trimmed properly. Now, when we sailed to Rapa Nui, we expected
a trip of 40 days given we had winds that were blowing from the
direction of Rapa Nui but we chose to -- next slide -- we chose
to sail at the time we knew the winds were going to go into reversal
so we're able to get to Rapa Nui in about half the amount of
time.
Also while you're on the canoe, besides steering you'll be assigned
tasks like fishing. There is a question about how much food you
should take on board the canoe. Don't suppose that you're going
to be catching fish every day. A fish this size will probably
feed crew members for three days. Now next slide.
On your approach to -- into a small island you have to -- there
was one sail plan that showed this zigzaging sailing maneuver
which is called tacking. And we did the exact same thing where
we predicted where we thought the island would be and then at
sunset we started to sail in a zigzaging motion. Next slide.
Then in the morning we will position crew members on the corners
of the canoe to look both ahead of the canoe and behind to make
sure we didn't pass the canoe at night and then at sunrise sunset
you start sailing in one direction and sunrise you must sail
back in the opposite direction so you make the zigzag.
We were fortunate that on our first night in the early morning
when we were getting ready to turn the canoe around on our second
tack we were ready for Rapa Nui. Which part of that, you know,
is the next slide, is a skill of the -- not just the navigators
but the crew and their great fortunes of being able to plan well
enough to predict when the winds would go into the reversals
which allowed us to make the 1600 mile passage a lot faster.
And then once we arrived on Rapa Nui, you know, there was a
great celebration there between the crew members. Next. And the
inhabitants of the island. Rapa Nui has a very storied culture
there. You know that the natives of the land there are noted
for building these huge stone statues. All these statues come
from -- next -- one single quarry on the island where -- you
see in the foreground there are the stone statues, up right.
What they would do is carve away the rock from the quarry and
then they would slide it down the slope into these pits and stand
it up there and then they would finish these stone statues and
then after they finished the stone statues, next, they would
transport it to a different locations throughout the islands,
different tribal lands and they would stand it up.
Then the last phase of the stone construction is they would
place these on top of the stone statues. Now these -- the last
step is to place the white coral eyes into them. Once these eyes
were placed into the stone statues the natives believed that
they became the embodiment of your -- it would be an embodiment
of the ancestors. They sit above a burial ground. When a member
of the tribe passed away the members would be buried in the vicinity
of the stone statues and why they believed these stone statues
had great spiritual force.
There was a period of upheaval on the island. They began fighting
as the supplies and resources became very diminished and what
emerged next with this call. Different members from the different
tribes would go to these stone enclosures where they would wait
there for the bird call to happen. Surrounding these stone sites
are a number of thousands of bird petroglyphs that they would
carve into the rocks. On the bird call at the certain time of the
year it would happen on this small island which is about a half
mile away from the main Rapa Nui island.
All the competitors would come out and they were skilled on
this 2,000 foot cliff and they'd have to swim to this island
and once they got there, they would wait for the bird, the first
bird to lay an egg and then they would attempt to retrieve that
egg and they would swim back to the island and present the egg
to the reigning chief and that would allow that competitor that
brought the first egg back to the island to be named the bird
man for the year and what that allowed him was that he would
be able to control all the food resources, be able to take care
of his family and his tribe before he took -- before the rest
of the island got to be able to tap into those resources.
Lastly, I would just like to congratulate all of you. I thought
you did excellent work in preparing your proposals for this project
and I hope this allows you a good base to launch you into your
next navigational challenge and I hope we get the opportunity
to work together again in the future. Thank you.
>> You've done a really nice job highlighting the parts
of your journey. Some amazing photographs there. Now I would like
to invite the students to use that chatroom and this is your
opportunity to ask any questions you have of him. If you have questions
about the LCROSS mission or the upcoming challenge, so please
go ahead and post those questions on the chatroom and we will
answer them right away.
>> Apparently our students have been enthralled by the
presentation and not responding in the chatroom with questions
yet but perhaps he could fill us in on some of the things he's
brought that are surrounding him in the background. I don't know.
>> You know, maybe we'll just -- can you see that? (indicating
the Polynesian star compass) This is probably too hard for you
to see, huh? I've basically -- this basically points toward the
fact that the canoe doesn't have really great performance and
it could probably only sail 67 degrees into the wind, which is
about -- if you were sailing and the wind was coming straight
towards the canoe that makes a 90 degree angle to the wind, you
can only probably sail because the hull of the canoe is rounded
is about one hand span into the wind.
So if you're sailing towards Rapa Nui just 1600 miles from MOGARAVA
where we left, and if you could only sail a hand span it would
take 40 days to get there. That's what we planned and that's
where you need to evaluate or think outside the box because if
wind is going to allow you to get to your destination, what you've
got to do is wait for an opportunity when the winds change and
when we went to Rapa Nui, we were very fortunate in that we did
our research and we understood -- we understood the times when
the wind would break down and were patient enough -- were patient
enough to allow the winds to switch to change.
When I read a lot of the proposals, a lot of the students were
saying we'd spend maybe two days most at these stops. Realistically
on our trip we spent waiting for the winds up to four weeks.
That's how long it took us to get the favorable winds. So if
you're going to attempt to do in real life a trip like this,
you have to bring a lot of patience with you because again, it's
about the winds that allow you to get there.
Once you understand that the winds are going to blow you there,
then it's just a matter of executing a navigational sail plan
and as Brian pointed out, you really only need about half a dozen
stars to get you through the night sky because once you get into
the routine throughout the night, that routine is going to repeat
itself day after day after day and it becomes very slow, chronic
cycle of getting the -- of navigating your canoe.
>> Okay. We just have an input here from -- let's see
-- is it CRINER class and MELINA schools. What causes the winds
to change direction?
>> I'm not a meteorologist but the winds blow in a certain
direction based upon the turning of the Earth which creates these.
In the northern hemisphere the winds turn in a clockwise motion
and they come through Hawaii out of the northeastern direction.
In the southern hemisphere you have these winds that turn in
a counter clockwise motion, which would mean that they come out
of the southeast. Now, in between these cycles of wind, you have
these normal patterns of winds blowing in the opposite direction
which are low pressures or what brings on the stormy weather.
In the northern hemisphere our trade winds are fairly constant
out of the northeast and that's because of the North American
continent joins very closely with the Asian continent that creates
this pocket that captures the northeast trade winds. In the southern
hemisphere if you know the geography there is a wide expanse
of ocean and nothing contains those jiers between New Zealand
and the JIRES of the trade winds move very quickly. In between
them you'll find you have breakdowns or opportunities for these
winds that blow in the opposite direction to develop and blow.
And they are just seasonal tendencies when these winds are more
prevalent than not and this usually occurs in the southern hemisphere,
late summer, which is around October or -- excuse me, in the
southern hemisphere spring which is October or November.
>> One of the things to consider also is that the winds
here on the Earth are to a very large degree driven by the Sun.
They are heat driven so as the Sun shines on the Earth, the surface
of the Earth, it causes the Earth to warm the air above it and
that causes motion of the air along with the spinning of the
Earth. Now, think of the Earth going through its seasons. And
as the Earth goes through its seasons, those heating conditions
change and therefore the winds that are generated by those heating
conditions will change and so you'll see different patterns of
winds in different seasons.
>> Thank you, Brian.
>> Well, it doesn't look like we have any additional questions
from the chatroom. If you have them now would be the time to post
them.
I want to go ahead and extend a special thank you to our
host today and the institute of astronomy at the University of
Hawaii and Gary at the helm there.
Teachers, we're interested in the feedback of the content of
this challenge. We'll be sending you an email with a link to
a feedback form. Once we receive that your class will receive
a certificate of participation.
Do we have any questions before I ask Brian to update us on
the LCROSS part two challenge that's coming next?
>> Thank you, I want to thank all of the students for
their participating in this challenge. This was a lot of fun and
very, very interesting for all of us who were involved. I think
that one of the things that you probably have learned as you
did your research and as you listened to the wonderful stories,
you see what a huge adventure and challenge these seafaring people
going across the Pacific faced.
In many ways for them back in these times long ago exploring
across the Pacific was every bit as big a challenge as we face
today in exploring across space. One of the things that you have
also gained an appreciation for is how critically important the
science and the art of navigation is.
And it's really amazing to think of these brave people going
across these vast distances without using magnetic compasses,
without using GPSs. And we talked earlier about how there are
parallels between that adventure and the adventures that we face
now as we explore space. And once again, as we head out into
space the navigation tools that you were familiar with, compass
and GPS, once you leave the Earth behind those don't work anymore.
So as you start thinking about the next challenge and how you
would navigate across space, think what kinds of tools you might
use. How would you get from here to the Moon without being able
to use a magnetic compass, without being able to use GPS? What
would you use?
Again, I want to extend a great deal of thanks to Alicia, Linda
and to our intrepid captain and navigator from Hawaii.
>> Yeah, I also like to say thank you to Alicia, Brian
it was great. Linda, thanks for all the work and the students did
a great job. They really inspired me and I'm glad that they --
I had this opportunity to participate with them, and I look forward
and I wish them much success in navigating to the Moon. Take me
along.
>> Thank you. So students, your challenge is set before
you. We hope that you'll be able to participate in part two of
our challenge and we look forward to seeing you in February. |
