Lyfta storyworld: Space Mission Lucy - USA

Trailer to storyworld Space Mission Lucy

What is the Lucy Mission?

The Lucy Spacecraft

Over a 12-year period the space probe Lucy will study the Trojan asteroids. Scientists believe that these asteroids are fossils from the development of our solar system, 4.5 billion years ago. Gathering information about the creation of our solar system means we might discover more about our origins than ever before. It could "... potentially rewrite what we know about science and our universe". The mission is named after a fossilised skeleton that was found in Ethiopia, called "Lucy" by those who discovered her.

"A mission of exploration first and foremost."

A career in STEM

Lucy Mission Rocket at NASA -from Lyfta storyworld Space Misson Lucy

In one film children meet Donja, a Project Manager for the Lucy mission, with over 1000 people working under her. I've always wanted to work at NASA since the age of 10" she tells us. She started her career at NASA as an Engineer, at the age of 21 and says, "There are so many things that working for NASA and having an Engineering degree has afforded me".

"I pinch myself every day, because I still get to do this and it's still amazing."

DONJA

PROJECT MANAGER AT NASA

In the second film we meet Cathy, astronomer and Deputy Principal Investigator at NASA. Cathy says that as a child she was always interested in science and considered many different careers until she saw that she could major in AeroSpace Engineering,

"... and I say, well, who doesn't want to build a spacecraft?"

CATHY

ASTRONOMER AND DEPUTY PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR AT NASA

Students will be able to watch both women at work at NASA and see how passionately they care about and enjoy their work. "It's really exciting to be at the beginning of a new mission".

Students will also see the film coverage of the Lucy launch. "The power, the excitement" Donya says "it's indescribable".

Exploring

Launching the rocket from storyworld Space Mission Lucy

Exploring is a theme of the storyworld. Cathy mentors high school robotics students in her free time and loves to discover their interests and passions. She encourages them, whatever their interest, to "explore it more and make contributions to it".

Donya, an 'amateur genealogist' in her spare time, has been exploring her own past. She has spent the past 8 years researching her ancestry and has discovered an ancestor from Ethiopia, where the Lucy fossil and mission name came from, something that links her even more closely to her work.

This storyworld is about an exploration into Space. As Donya says,"The further we go out and the more we study. It also influences where we go next and what we do next".

"I think humans have this innate desire to explore"

CATHY

ASTRONOMER AND DEPUTY PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR AT NASA

Space Mission Lucy at a Glance

Two powerful short documentary films 'Cathy' and 'Donya'.
Three interactive 360° spaces including the Rocket Garden at Kennedy Space Center, behind the scenes at NASA and of the Milky Way.
Six animation videos covering:
- Lucy's launch
- Where Lucy is off to in space
- The Trojan asteroids
- Instruments on-board
- The first Trojan asteroid
- Information about the other 4 Trojan asteroids
Lesson and assembly plans to be included with this storyworld:
- Lesson Plan: Describing space (KS2)
- Lesson Plan: Space Newspaper Report: Part 1
- Lesson Plan: Space Newspaper Report: Part 2
- Lesson Plan: Careers in space science
- Lesson Plan: Astronomy and people skills
- Lesson Plan: Astronomy and STEM skills
- Lyfta Time: Donya in the USA
- Lyfta Time: Cathy in the USA
- Lesson Assembly: Careers in space

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