The development of the Challenger e-Mission: Space Station Alpha was funded by a grant from Verizon of West Virginia.

Verizon is a pioneer in finding ways to improve the quality of life, education, economy, and technology in the state of West Virginia.

Today people depend upon telecommunications to link them to the rest of the world. How big a role does communications technology play in your life? Do any of the following apply to you?

• I use a telephone.
• I have a cell phone.
• My doctor has a beeper or pager.
• I have an email address.
• I surf the Web.
• I watch television.
• I use weather reports to plan my life.
• I have flown on a plane or have a friend who has flown.

Each of these activities now depends upon space-age telecommunications technologies such as fiber-optic cables, digital systems, and satellites. Ten years ago, some of these activities were simply ideas in someone’s imagination.

Verizon is a leading telecommunications company full of fresh ideas. Verizon wants to help everyone benefit from a future enriched by telecommunications. With this goal in mind, Verizon funds creative programs like e-Mission: Space Station Alpha, programs that make education exciting.

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Imagination Gets The Ball Rolling

Who was the first person to imagine today's telecommunications universe? It may have been a man named, John R. Pierce. In 1954, Pierce, an engineer at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, imagined a tomorrow that included a communications "mirror" in space. 

At that time, telephone calls traveled through wires strung on poles or through cables beneath the oceans. Pierce envisioned satellites handling 1,000 telephone calls at the same time. The first trans-Atlantic telephone cable handled a mere 36 telephone calls and cost $50 million. Pierce calculated that if a satellite were to handle 28 times more calls than this cable, it could cost more than a billion dollars and still make a profit!
Half a century later, Dr. Pierce’s questions have been answered.

• In 1995 the entire U.S. telecommunications industry earned $638 billion.
• In 1998, only three years later, the industry earned $858.7 billion, growing at a rate of almost 34% in 3 years!

You, your family, and your classmates helped make this growth possible. The $858.7 billion includes:

• Services: Telephone connections (both cellular and wired), beepers and pagers, Web/Internet connections, and long distance telephone services generated $234 billion in annual sales. 
• Equipment: Companies and homes purchased more than $304 billion in communications equipment, including phones, telecommunications satellites, Internet nodes, and computers that make it possible for all of us to "talk" at the same time.
• Information services and software: People who gather information, including information about the tests students take to get into college, purchased more than $410 billion in information, information management software, and information "know-how" in 1998.
• Mass media: The television and radio industry generated more than $143 billion.The Higher We Go the More Dangerous It Becomes 

The sun, although a driving force for life on Earth, is a threat to our heavenly telecommunications networks. As our telecommunications systems grow, solar weather affects life on Earth in new ways. Brief, yet frequent, episodes of extreme solar weather can interfere with the electronics of high-frequency communications and navigation systems, television and radio transmissions, and scientific research satellites. Magnetic field disturbances caused by solar weather can damage power systems and blackout electrical grids in cities and towns. Solar storms can disrupt communications and high-tech navigation systems on ships and airplanes and can damage oil and gas pipeline operations. Solar coronal mass ejections bombard everything with ionizing radiation, creating the beautiful aurora borealis. Solar protons and intense solar electromagnetic radiation are a very real hazard to the astronauts in the space shuttle and the space station.

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Space Weather Forecasting: A Young Science

Satellites help solar weather forecasters predict and measure solar activity and solar storms. With satellite-mounted instruments, we can measure the sun's activity without interference from the earth's atmosphere. Solar weather forecasting, however, remains an unpredictable business due to the sun's mysterious nature. 

Early warning of solar storms would permit us to take action to prevent disaster. Astronauts could be shielded, power grids could be protected, and planes could be temporarily grounded. Solar weather forecasters try to provide three-day forecasts similar to local weather forecasts on the morning news. Solar scientists constantly study how the sun works and try to understand why it behaves the way it does. 

Verizon has helped us become more aware of these solar dangers and has provided us with some suggestions on how we may prevent future problems. In partnership with Verizon, we at the Challenger Learning Center wish you luck with e-Mission: Space Station Alpha!