NASA engineer gives presentation to LMS sixth graders

Laconia Middle School’s sixth grade classes, about 130 students, gathered in the multipurpose room for a presentation from NASA Electrical Engineer Bianca Rhym, who video called in from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on Friday morning. Sixth graders spent the past month learning about planetary science. Rhym is part of a team working on Gateway, humanity’s first space station around the moon. Gateway is part of the Artemis mission, which explores the moon for scientific discovery, technology advancement and to prepare for a human missions to Mars. Artemis is aiming to land the first woman and person of color on the moon. NASA, in collaboration with private company Intuitive Machines, launched Odysseus, an unmanned spacecraft from the Kennedy Space Center, on Thursday, which landed on the moon, the first landing since the last Apollo mission in 1972. Students had the chance to ask questions, including about hotels on the moon, Rhym’s favorite lunar mission, and space tourism. Sixth grade science teacher Brian Bolduc said it was an amazing opportunity to hear Rhym talk, especially after the recent developments with Odysseus. “We really covered the Apollo 11 mission, which was the big one, like Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong,” Bolduc said. “And so the fact that there's another mission right now in their lives that is going to be happening in the next few years that is going to replicate that, is pretty cool.”