SPACE LESSONS FIFTH-GRADERS FIND JPL OUT OF THIS WORLD.

Byline: Sue Doyle Staff Writer

PASADENA - The scene was duplicated from Mars as a stunned group of fifth-graders from Newhall stood by.

From an observatory room, 10-year-old Erin Cholakian was among those who watched Monday as Jet Propulsion Laboratory employees re-created the problem on an Earth model of space rover Spirit, which last week lost momentum in a wheel.

Others on the field trip from Wiley Canyon Elementary School stood with mouths agape as the replica hobbled over chocolate-color gravel while scientists gathered data to later program in the rover, possibly repairing the wheel from millions of miles away.

``It's completely awesome,'' Erin said.

Erin and her fifth-grade class got a crash course in deep space exploration during a three-hour tour of JPL, a trip that kicked off the next six weeks of their studies on outer space. At the end of April, the fifth-graders will present space-related projects at the school's science fair.

The tour Monday focused largely on one of JPL's most successful space missions - Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. The pair landed on the Red Planet about two years ago and have shown the world that standing water once existed there. From mock-ups to mission control, students saw rover duplicates up close and personal and then learned how they're monitored 24 hours a day.

``What I'm thinking about is how the rover got to the planet without burning up in the atmosphere,'' said Carlos Hidalgo, looking closely at a rover replica.

The 10-year-old posed the question to Charles Wang, JPL telecommunications engineer, who said rovers have heat shields to protect them. Seconds later Wang found himself surrounded by a handful of Hidalgo's classmates, all armed with questions.

Are you going to the sun? What happens if a rover gets hit by a meteor? How big are the solar panels on the rovers? Experts such as Wang stood close by to answer students' questions and shared stories about the missions they've worked on.

Looking at the spacecraft assembly facility, David Hills recalled his days there 15 years ago doing atmospheric research.

``It was a real pain to work in it,'' Hills said, because it took so long to get into the room. Hills said employees who work in the room take air showers every day before entering to minimize particles of dust and other material on their bodies that could lodge in pieces of equipment and cause problems in outer space. Employees in the room wear shower caps, masks, lab coats and have their shoes covered to prevent any contamination.

Hills now helps run a radar system in the Mojave Desert and tracks asteroids - including the one predicted to cross Earth's path and possibly collide in 2880. Hills said scientists are studying how to throw the asteroid off course, such as by landing something on it, to avert any contact with Earth.

Students weren't the only ones learning about space. The trip also dusted off the school books for parents who chaperoned the trip.

``I was really amazed by how many people it takes to build a rover,'' said Newhall mother Jayne Heberle. ``You'd think it was only a handful.''

It actually takes about 10,000 people to work on a rover, from people who develop the technology to secretarial support, said Michael Connally, JPL technical staffer.

The space curriculum at school for the fifth-graders will expand as weeks go on and will encompass English and math. Students will re-create ratios of the distance between planets and will diagram their work on the school playground. They'll also read space articles and write biographies on astronauts, said teacher Ken Hintz.

Whether the field trip had an influence on students' science fair projects next month remains to be seen. By the end of the tour Monday, students were sticking to their original ideas for the projects: Apollo 13, the moon and stars.

Sue Doyle, [phone]

sue.doyle(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Nichole Allen, 10, left, Raquel Perez, 11, and Kayla Stafford have their picture taken near a large mural photo of Saturn.

(2 -- color) Fifth-grade students from Wiley Canyon Elementary School in Newhall pose by a half-scale model of the Cassini spacecraft Monday during a field trip to JPL.

(3) Erin Cholakian, 10, a fifth-grader at Wiley Elementary, checks out a Venus space probe during a visit Monday to JPL.

(4) Students examine a mannequin in the clean room of the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

(5) Stefan Edwards, 10, is reflected Monday in the gold cover of a record album sent into space on the Voyager space probe.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer