Visitor from NASA

Nagin Cox is a NASA scientist who worked on the Mars Rover expeditions. She addressed the audience of P7 pupils from Bellsbank, Littlemill, Dalmellington and Patna primary schools, and pupils from the Doon Academy’s Astronomy Master Class. The P7 pupils have been attending the academy as part of their transition project which is focused on astronomy and the local Dark Skies Observatory.

Nagin Cox described how she progressed from the US Navy to working on robots with the space agency, NASA. Her photographs of the Mars Rover expeditions captured the excitement of the NASA scientists and engineers as their years of planning culminated in the successful landing on Mars.
 The pictures transmitted by the wheeled robot showed the incredible details of the Mars landscape and evidence of the relatively recent existence of streams of clean water.

 Pupils were able to ask questions of Nagin about her career, space exploration and the prospects of life in distant planets. A show of hands at the end indicated that pupils are interested in following careers in Science and Engineering and one pupil asked about the challenges of working in the multi-national, multi-lingual team at the NASA control centre.

 Mr MacKenzie, head teacher, said the talk had been inspiring. Astronomy and curricular subjects such as the Sciences, Technologies, Maths, Languages and Social Subjects will offer even greater great opportunities for pupils to follow in Nagin Cox’s footsteps in the coming decades.