Rocketry Planet

WORLD WIDE WEB — Mavericks Civilian Space Foundation announced today that Sony and Intel Corporation have joined as sponsors of the Mavericks Clotho Project. The Clotho Project is a joint collaboration between NASA's Department of Astrobiology, the United Kingdom's National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), and Mavericks Civilian Space Foundation, to determine how far off the surface of the earth, life exists.

"For millennia we have explored the biodiversity of life on earth, from the bottom of the oceans to the tropical rainforests. But what happens when we leave the surface of the earth? Darwin noted algae in dust, Pasteur started the quest, and The Clotho Project will turn it into a research program sampling higher than ever before, and using cutting edge aerospace technology and biological techniques to answer one of the fundamental questions in biology today", commented Dr. Rocco Mancinelli, recently the lead Senior Research Scientist at the Carl Sagan Center and Senior Research Scientist at the SETI Institute, and Co-Investigator behind the Clotho Project research team.

"The main mission is to carry out the first general survey of life in the upper atmosphere, including the upper portions of the stratosphere and mesosphere, as well as exploring areas of particular interest such as the biology of clouds and the airborne extent of algal blooms. These areas of the upper atmosphere are not accessible by aircraft nor weather balloons.", states Dr. Lynn Rothschilds, Senior Scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center, and Principle Investigator behind the Clotho Project research team.

In support of this science mission, the program will also develop a platform capable of repeatedly carrying biological sampling device(s) up on sounding rockets, rocket powered drones, and/or balloon to retrieve organisms and other biological traces from the upper atmosphere. In addition, the program will develop a high altitude high velocity biological air sampling system, as part of a doctoral research effort at Stanford University by Diana Gentry, Ph.D. candidate with the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

"The Clotho Project represents a new opportunity to advance STEM (Science Technology Engineering & Mathematics) education for our youth in K-12, undergraduate, and graduate educational institutions, through direct participation in research.", stated Thomas M. Atchison, Chairman of the Mavericks Civilian Space Foundation. "Mavericks Foundation is providing the opportunity to inspire and engage students to demonstrate their mastery of STEM principals through active participation in research programs. The recent Sony Rocket Project engaged high school students at the California Academy of Math and Science (CAMS), to design, build, and test fly the rocket that will support Clotho missions. This effort was a direct example of the impact that programs like this can have to provide engagement and passion for science and technology as career choices by our youth."

The Mavericks Civilian Space Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)3 educational foundation which combines raising public awareness through the inspiration and productivity of competitive challenges, with the leverage of social networking to provide resources for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and research programs that drive civilian space exploration.

The organization depends upon support from the public and private institutions to fund education and research opportunities like the Clotho Project and The Sony Rocket Project, and encourages donations through its foundation website at http://www.rocketmavericks.com.