San Diego (special) --Beginning tomorrow (Oct. 24) , a center once again will be open where students will have the opportunity to conduct experiments in a mock spacecraft as their classmates feed them directions from a simulated mission control room.

In one simulation, the student astronauts have to maneuver their craft toward Halley's Comet then shoot through the comet's tail a probe that will take photographs and measure its gasses. In another, some students have to take readings from environmental sensors located all over the earth while other students repair a satellite which normally takes the readings automatically.

The 2,000-square foot Challenger Learning Center, formerly housed at Parkway Middle School in La Mesa, was moved to the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theatre and Science Center in Balboa Park, thanks to a gift by the Nierman Foundation--the same family-owned philanthropic organization which financed the Nierman Preschool at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center.

Approximately 11,000 students per year--in the fifth, sixth and seventh grades--have participated in thesimulations during the six years of the Challenger Learning Center's temporary domicile at the middle school pending the Fleet's now completed expansion.

Classes are divided in halves with one group going into the spacecraft through a simulated air lock, and the other half working at computers in the Mission Control room. Halfway through the exercise, the groups switch positions so every student can have both experiences.

Resource specialists like Ann Blatnik explain to the students the procedures for communicating, configuring the probe, and conducting various experiments during the simulation. The computers are set so that "no mission fails." For example, students who cannot find a comet by its telltale signs when it is far off, eventually will be able to recognize it when the computer simulates the comet getting closer and closer. Teachers of the various classes attend workshop sessions many weeks prior to the simulation, so

Jim and Paul (near) Nierman sit at the consul at Mission Control of Challenger space center

that they may use classroom time to prepare, Blatnik said.

The ceremonies relaunching the Challenger Learning Center at the Fleet are expected to attract the parents of one of the seven astronauts who perished in the explosion less than two minutes after Challenger's lift off from Cape Canaveral on Jan. 28, 1986--astronaut Judith A. Resnick. The Resnicks are members of San Diego County's Jewish Community.

The ill-fated Challenger Mission was to have featured a "teacher in space," high school teacher turned astronaut Sharon Christa McAuliffe. A commission formed after the explosion decided that rather than building a monument of stone to the astronauts, their memories could be better served by continuing their mission and creating learning centers across the United States in Canada. 

The facility at the Fleet is one of 31 such centers, a number that is expected to grow to 60, according to Lynn Kennedy, the science center's deputy executive director and a member of the group which developed the Challenger Learning Center concept following the tragedy. Besides Resnick and McAuliffe, the Challenger astronauts included Gregory Jarvis; Ronald E. McNair; Air Force Lt. Col. Ellison S. Onizuka; Dick Scobee, and Navy Cmdr. Michael J. Smith. Brothers Paul and Jim Nierman say the Nierman Foundation--which is directed by their immediate

Nierman Brothers practice experiment inside sterile bubble aboard Challenger simulator

families and by that of their mother Bernys Nierman Levin--has tried to focus on educational projects in San Diego County which are small enough for the family's contributions to have an impact. 

"For example," said Jim, "we were involved with the Pathways to Judaism program," operated by the Agency for Jewish Education to teach intermarried families about Jewish customs and beliefs. "We felt that was a really good buy in terms of benefitting the community per dollar, if you will," he added.

The brothers said the Nierman Pre-School and the Nierman Challenger Learning Center both involved contributions in the $250,000 range.

The Nierman Foundation was begun in Illinois by Paul and Jim's grandfather, Eli A. Nierman, who owned retail and clothing stores in Chicago and later became an investor in real estate and the stock market.

Paul, a specialist who manages computer programs for Mercy Hospital, moved in the 1970s to San Diego, primarily because of our city's year round good weather for sailing. Younger brother Jim, owner of Nierman Development, moved here in the mid-80s, and the Foundation subsequently was reincorporated in California.

In the case of the Nierman Pre-School, Jim's former involvement on the board of the Lawrence Family JCC led to the contribution to establish the school, which now is housed in trailers but which will occupy a dozen classrooms in the JCC expansion currently under construction.

The contribution for the Nierman Challenger Learning Center, on the other hand, resulted from Paul's membership on the board of directors of the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater & Science Center.

That contribution, too, had its roots in Jewish community activities: Paul Nierman and his wife Deborah Horwitz are members of the same Congregation Beth Israel-formed chavurah as Joy & Jeff Kirsch. The latter is the executive director of the Fleet Science Center.

Paul Nierman recalls that as a child he used to go regularly to Chicago's Adler Planetarium. "They had a series of Planetarium shows, which they ran on a two-year cycle--a different one a month except in December which was always the same, the story of the Star of Bethlehem, which was interesting from an astronomy point of view," he said.

"I remember that I went once a month, rain or shine, winter or summer, and watched the whole cycle for two years. I later became a physics major (graduating from Knox College in Illinois), so science has been a lifelong interest for me."

No one suggests that all the school children who go through the Nierman Challenger Learning Center will develop a similar passion for science- although a certain percentage will.

"We did a focus group a number of years ago to see what teachers and students thought of it," deputy director Kennedy said. "We had comments that almost made me cry, believe it or not. One teacher said that one of her students used to stutter all the time but he didn't stutter once during the mission because he was so engrossed in what he was doing. 

"Other kids who didn't speak to each other were now good friends because they had to work together as a team," Kennedy added. "Other students wound up going home and doing more research, finding more about what they were studying."

The Fleet also has been developing simulations for adult groups who want to build teamwork, or who just want to have an evening's fun.