Oct 4 2007 (6-9PM) Sputnik: T+50 Years and Counting
The event was well attended and there were a lot of different types of activities: interesting talks and presentations, the Challenger Center was open for visits, telescopes were set up outside, science demonstrations, tables hosted by different space and astronomy groups from the community, and of course all the space-related exhibits.
Since the Challenge Learning Center was involved, there were lots of kids to the event. They were especially drawn to our Moon map...A fun evening for everyone!!
The evening's speakers:
Boris Ivanov:
A Russian physicist who was involved in various aspect of the Russian space program, including the Lunokhod 2 mission as well as missions to Venus in the 1980s.
Robert Mercer:
An Aerospace Research Physicist who contributed to several American Space missions: Lunar Orbiter, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, USAF MOL, Pioneer 10 and 11, Skylab, Hubble Space Telescope and the Space Shuttle program.
Ewen Whitaker: (see photo below)
Ewen worked as an astronomer at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, Yerkes Observatory and the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona. He is one of the world's leading expert on mapping the Moon and lunar nomenclature. He is the co-author with Gerard Kuiper and others of the Consolidated Lunar Atlas. Ewen Whitaker is also famous for having determined the exact landing location of the Surveyor 3 spacecraft. This allowed Apollo 12 to land near the Surveyor spacecraft and return pieces from Surveyor 3. This was the first Apollo pinpoint landing.
For more information:http://history.nasa.gov/SP-350/ch-5-4.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewen_Whitaker
You can see another picture of the event here: http://pixofmyuniverse.blogspot.com/2007/10/ewen-whitaker.html
Jim Scotti:
Jim Scotti is a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. As part of his work with the Spacewatch Project, he has discovered hundreds of Earth Approaching Asteroids and three comets which bear his name.
Alan Binder: (see last photo below)
Dr. Binder is a lunar and planetary scientist with over 40 years of experience working with NASA and European Space programs. He was principal investigator on the 1976 Viking Mars Lander. Dr. Binder served as the principal investigator on the Lunar Prospector mission flown in the late 90's. Dr. Binder resides in Tucson and is the founder of the Lunar Research Institute.
Brian Ewenson:
Brian is an Aerospace Education Specialist who has designed, developed and flown student experiments on the Space Shuttle and Space Station. He is currently in charge of the Challenger Learning Center at the Pima Air & Space Museum.
(All photographs by Ben Nault. Copyright reserved.)
Article by Ben Nault
Member: National Space Society
Moon Society
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By the way, the glass case in the background of the photo holds a Moon rock returned by Apollo 16.
Both of the photos above show our table with our very nice volunteers. This was a joint National Space Society and Moon Society table.
Ewen Whitaker:
Alan Binder:
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