Stawamus Elementary School students sit cross-legged on the gymnasium floor.
"So where do you want to start? Any ideas?" Jim Meyer asks.
Hands shoot up in every direction. Meyer picks a straight-backed boy at the end of a row.
"Mars," he enthusiastically says.
For 37 years, Meyer had his eyes on the stars. His T-shirt, which reads "Let's do launch," hints at his career as a National Aeronautics and Space Association (NASA) launch operations manager. He saw 162 launches at NASA, which included 10 Mars missions - the last one being the successful Curiosity rover that's now exploring the planet's surface.
"The Curiosity landed on Mars on Aug. 5, which was Neil Armstrong's birthday," the seasonal Squamish resident says.
He stutters and then takes a moment to remember his hero, who died on Aug. 25. As the first man who walked on the moon inspired him, Meyer hopes his Mars mission presentations will instil the same space lust in these students. On Monday (Sept. 17), Meyer spoke with students in Bralorne, 60 miles west of Lillooet. Tomorrow (Sept. 21), he'll be at the Squamish Montessori School.
The Curiosity's journey and safe arrival on the Red Planet is nothing short of a miracle, Meyer says. The size of a small SUV, the equipment withstood temperatures up to 1,600 degrees Celsius - twice as hot as lava - upon entry into Mars's atmosphere.
To slow its speed from 20,941 kilometres per hour to zero, the Curiosity changed shape six times, a process that required 76 pyrotechnic devices. Then there's the largest supersonic parachute ever made, a 100-pound chute created to deal with 65,000 pounds of force.
"Sixty per cent of our missions to Mars failed," Meyer adds.
The Curiosity has sent pictures back to Earth, the most recent being a self-portrait as scientists checked over the rover's devices. Last Thursday (Sept. 13), the Curiosity was wrapping up an extensive instrument check. Now its headed for the Glenelg, a dark patch of soil where scientists believe three types of rock intersect.
But the Curiosity's brother, the Opportunity, snagged the headlines last week, after photographing a geological mystery. Unlike iron-rich spherules nicknamed "blueberries" which the rover uncovered at its landing site in early 2004, the spheres do not share the same high iron content, NASA officials said in a statement.
As Meyer's presentation comes to a close, the students gear up for a crowd favourite - a countdown with the video of launch of the Atlas V rocket that carried the Curiosity into space.
"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1," they chant.
The rockets blast off. Smoke and a blazing flame flash across the screen. A wave of "oohs" and aahs" ripple through the classroom filled with wide-eyed students.
