Dr. Richard Byles
Director of Education
Virginia Air and Space Centre
Hampton, Virginia
http://www.vasc.org

Meet Richard Byles who, for 25 years was a Marine Biologist working on Sea Turtles in the Caribbean and Latin America. For the last 12 years Richard has been actively involved in the Education Department of the Virginia Air and Space Centre. He is truly a science enthusiast who is excited by learning and wants to instill some of this passion and excitement in younger children.

Tell us about the role Langley Research Centre has played in the transition of learning about Air and Space.

NASA Langley Research Centre was the first of 8 centres NASA established throughout the US. NASA Langley was established to learn about aeronautics. It was important as part of the Space Race (between the US and Russia) and the Apollo moon missions. (NASA Langley was originally where astronauts trained for their lunar missions). Here at the Air and Space Centre, we have a number of airplanes including fighters and jets, on display from NASA Langley that were used in research development. They're here to help children of all ages develop an understanding of what the space race was about, what it took to get to the moon and what aeronautics research involves. Our focus is in the areas of engineering, science and technology - that's what's needed for us to be a modern technological society.

What do we use on a daily basis in our lives that comes directly from Space research?

What things are made of has really changed - the materials. From Space research, materials were developed to make faster airplanes and vehicles that could withstand the heat of re-entry into the earth's atmosphere coming back from space.

Up until 1969, most things in our daily lives were made of wood, metal or other materials we mined or got from the earth. The invented materials were just coming into their realm - plastics. Resins and fibres such as fibreglass were becoming popular in the commercial market. Fibreglass is essentially fibres imbedded in a plastic or resin. So, when the United States Apollo capsule went to the Moon in 1969, it had to be made of material that was not metal or wood. It had to be made of materials that could withstand the heat of re-entry. It was made of these resins, fibres and carbon fibres. And you can see that exact capsule on display here at the Centre.

From this research, we've used these same materials to make other equipment. For example, bicycles that are lightweight are made up of carbon fibres. You can also find things such as surfboards, sailboats and bicycle helmets all made of plastics and resin, which got their beginnings from Space Research. So much today is made from plastics, you can't get away from it.

The Centre has a moon rock on display called the Goodwill Rock. Why is it called that?

When astronauts returned from the Moon they returned with a number of rock samples that were very large - large enough to share. Rather than keep one sample in one centre, NASA scientists felt that scientists around the world could learn a great deal from these rocks. So, the moon rocks were called Goodwill rocks and were shared with the world. Now people around the world are able to see moon rock samples in a number of places.

What excites you about this work?

My overarching interest is in Science and teaching Science. Science is a way of looking at the world where you can discern truth from falsehood. You can do that with scientific experiments. I want to teach kids about science. I've taught at University level, College and at Secondary. The kids I taught were unprepared for Science or investigation. By getting involved with the younger kids, I really like to get that spark in the younger kids fired up - get dirty, touch, feel, find out, make mistakes, go back and learn from your mistakes and learn science. We need scientists and engineers for the future.

Why is Space important?

We have 2 frontiers left - the Sea and Space. We've made great advances in Space and the advances we can make in exploring new worlds is phenomenal. It would be good for human kind. I would like to see us do that in Materials