Comets and Coding

(This short video offers an introduction to the ESA's comet exploration mission.)

   
   The news a few days back that the European Space Agency (ESA) had successfully landed a scientific probe on a comet gave me pause.  The mission seemed ridiculously audacious and challenging.  It involved a spacecraft launch a decade ago that needed propulsive boosts provided by a couple of planets to reach its rendezvous location over 300 million  miles away.  The spacecraft, Rosetta, was set on a course to meet up with a comet named Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. As Rosetta came into orbit near the comet, it launched its lander, Philae, towards the comet's surface.  All this while the comet is speeding through space at upwards of 80,000 mph.  Somehow, someway, Philae landed and began to relay scientific data back to mission control.  Pretty amazing!
   I grew up and in a very specific time of space exploration. Only two countries, the United States and the Soviet Union, were involved in exploring outer space. There was a high-stakes competition between the two countries dubbed "the space race." Who first left earth's atmosphere, who first orbited earth, who first orbited the moon and who first landed on the moon mattered immensely at that time.
   It's very different now. Other nations have successfully launched spacecraft, as have consortia of nations and even private entrepreneurs.  Goals have changed as well.  A comet rendezvous mission in deep space was unthinkable 40 or 50 years ago. Today, it's a reality.
   As regards to space exploration and education, one central theme persists. During the time of the space race, there was a keen interest in how students were educated. In particular, educational professionals scrutinized science and math curricula and recommended changes to promote higher level learning.  The reason? The space race required our best and brightest minds to fully participate at the frontiers of science.
   Today, we understand the fundamental role computer science education plays in preparing students for professional lives connected to space exploration. There is an increasing awareness that, at least in the U.S., computer science programs have grown slowly.  To that end, many interested individuals and organizations have jumped at the opportunity to find ways to promote computer science learning.
   The Hour of Code program fits into this framework.  It's a program with wide support. It's designed to introduce students to programming.  And the Hour of Code organization states in its mission that it wants to see computer science as a core course offering, taking its place besides English, history, math, science and world language. In a time of on-site comet exploration, it's a curricular idea worth considering.

Photographer Matt Wang (http://www.iflscience.com/space/graphic-shows-size-rosettas-comet) compares the size of the 3-kilomoter comet to the skyline of Los Angeles. But in deep space, the comet is still a very small object.