User:Romeoch/Camilla Corona SDO

Camilla Corona SDO is a rubber chicken and mission mascot for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). She is part of the Education and Public Outreach team and assists with various functions to help educate the public, mainly kids, about the SDO mission, facts about the sun and space weather. Camilla also assists in cross-informing about other NASA missions and space related projects. Camilla Corona SDO uses social media to interact with fans and friends, visits classrooms and attends science fairs and space exhibits to educate and inform people.

Stanford Solar Center, Camilla Webpage

Camilla's ultimate dream and wish is to fly to space and visit her best friend little SDO. In order to be ready for this adventure, Camilla is educated and trained almost like a real astronaut. In the progress of her education and training, she shares the information with her fans. Her articles aim to explain many of the "behind the scenes" tasks and people, including how they ended up in their positions. This story line allows for greater flexibility to inform and educate students, teachers and adults about not only the Solar Dynamics Observatory mission, the Sun, Space Weather, but also about other NASA missions and human space exploration.

NASA EDGE Podcast Live Sun-Earth Day 2010

Thinkgeek Blog, February 2010

Camilla's Outfits
Camilla became a little more notable the months leading up to NASA SDO's launch in February 2010. Followers on her Facebook site helped with promotion and one Facebook Follower became Camilla's outfit-maker. Camilla has received several hand and custom made outfits; from her silver flight suit, with name tag and mission patch, an EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity Suit) with helmet and backpack, a Star Trek Captain's Uniform (Voyager area), a "I Dream of Jeannie" outfit, all the way to a Canadian Hockey Jersey for winning Gold at the 2010 Winter Olympics] in Vancouver B.C., Canada. The #11 for Patrick Marleau is stitched to the back of the jersey. Patrick Marleau is a player at the San Jose Sharks, which is Camilla's favorite hockey team. She has also received a "Pumpkin" Suit, which is knows as the Advanced Crew Escape Suit, or ACES, is a full pressure suit currently worn by all Space Shuttle crews for the ascent and entry portions of flight.

Nancy Atkinson

Jen Scheer, Gear Log

Camilla and Little SDO are both featured on a quilt panel for The Dream Rocket Project. The Dream Rocket aims to connect art and education through a global collaborative initiative. It will inspire participants to consider, express, and explore their dreams for a better future using "Dream Themes" such as energy, space, peace, science, recycling, among others.

Camilla's Training
In September 2010 Camilla spent a month at NASA Johnson Space Center to go through "Astronaut" training. Everyday she visited a different person/team and learned about the work that was done. Her stay at NASA JSC started out with a day with Astronaut Clayton Anderson. She later visited Houston's Mission Control Center, the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, spent time with people working on human space flight medical and health issues, learned about Space Food, spent a day with a JSC Intern, and continued to meet Astronauts (Astronaut Cady Coleman, Astronaut Chris Hadfield and Astronaut TJ Creamer). She even got to experience zero gravity during a Zero G flight.

Madi Sengupta, openNASA

Camilla's Education and Public Outreach Events
Using Camilla for EP/O (Education and Public Outreach) has shown big benefits. Capturing kids attention in school rooms or attract visitors at a science fair/space exhibit allows for sharing of SDO's science, teaching about the Sun, Space Weather and its impact on life on Earth more effectively. As such Camilla has visited class rooms in the US and in Africa and attended various science and space exhibit fairs.

- NASA SDOisGO Tweet-up, Kennedy Space Center, February 9 - 10, 2010, KSC, Florida

- NASA JSC Tweet-up, Johnson Space Flight Center, February 17, 2010, Houston, Texas

- NASA SDO First Light Press/Media Conference, Newseum, April 21, 2010, Washington D.C.

- Astronomy Event, Boys and Girls Club Silicon Valley, July 27, 2010, San Jose, California

- International Observe the Moon Night, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, September 18, 2010, Greenbelt, Maryland

- Take Flights for Kids, September 25, 2010, San Jose, California

- Education Alley / Space 2010, AIAA American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, August 30 - September 2, 2010, Anaheim, California; STEM K-12 Education

- World Space Week 2010,, October 4 - 6, 2010, Nigeria, Africa

- NAVY in Space Exhibit as part of the San Francisco Fleet Week, October 9 - 10, 2010, San Francisco, California

Upcoming Events

- NASA STS-133 Space Shuttle Discovery launch, NASA KSC, November 2010 - NASA Tweet-up

- Exploration Station, AGU American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, December 13 - 17, 2010















NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)
The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is a NASA mission which will observe the Sun for over five years. Launched on February 11, 2010, the observatory is part of the Living With a Star (LWS) program. The goal of the LWS program is to develop the scientific understanding necessary to effectively address those aspects of the connected Sun–Earth system that directly affect life and society. SDO's goal is to understand the Sun's influence on Earth and near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously. SDO will investigate how the Sun's magnetic field is generated and structured, how this stored magnetic energy is converted and released into the heliosphere and geospace in the form of solar wind, energetic particles, and variations in the solar irradiance.

NASA SDO is also known as Little SDO in the social media world. Little SDO's BFF (best friend forever)is Camilla the Rubber Chicken. Camilla is an Education and Public Outreach tool and during the development phase explained the various aspects of the SDO spacecraft. In fact, Camilla visited Little SDO several times in the NASA Goddard clean room, sealed in a plastic bag. Camilla continues to share information with fans via Facebook and Twitter. NASA EDGE Podcast, NASA EDGE @ SDO

NASA SDO Team

Secondastronomy.org