The San Diego Space Society works toward creating a spacefaring civilization within our lifetimes by raising awareness and educating the general public to the benefits of space exploration and San Diego's role in it. More about us…
Location: Serra Mesa Branch Library (map)
9005 Aero Dr, San Diego, CA
Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) has for decades been one of our most powerful tools for testing Einstein’s theory of gravity, or general relativity. LLR provides the best tests to date of the equivalence principle, of the constancy of the strength of gravity, of gravitomagnetism, and much more. In addition, LLR probes the nature of the lunar interior. The science of LLR will be presented, along with a description of the technique. The design and results of APOLLO (the Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation) will be highlighted. Also covered will be APOLLO’s recent discovery of the lost reflector on the Soviet Lunokhod 1 rover, after almost 40 years of silence.
Tom Murphy is an associate professor of physics at UCSD. Murphy was an amateur astronomer in high school, a physics undergraduate at Georgia Tech, then combined the two interests as a graduate student at Caltech, where he built an infrared integral field spectrograph for the Palomar 200-inch telescope. With this spectrograph, Murphy disentangled train-wreck galaxy mergers called ultraluminous infrared galaxies. After graduation in 2000, Murphy switched gears as a postdoc at the University of Washington in Seattle to initiate the APOLLO lunar ranging project. He continued the development of APOLLO after he arrived at UCSD in 2003. Today, he continues to lead the APOLLO project, also developing keen interests in energy use in our society.
Everyone is welcome to attend this presentation. Email events@sdspace.org if you have any questions.
Posted by Chris Radcliff in Events, News on July 26, 2010
Last Friday, during the madness that was Comic-Con, the Space Travelers Emporium hosted a small performance by geek singer/songwriter Marian Call. We set it up at the last minute, to take advantage of having such an amazing (and venue-appropriate) singer in San Diego.
Even without advertising, the event attracted upwards of 40 people. That just about matched the number of seats we can fit in the Emporium, with a tiny space left over for Marian and her guitarist Scott Barkan. Gerry Williams set up excellent lighting for the event (thanks, Gerry!), and extra chairs were provided by the Women’s History Museum.
The audience was a mix of SD Space members (who also helped set up) and Browncoats (active fans of the TV series Firefly). Marian mixed both groups’ passions into her 90-minute set, featuring tunes like “Got To Fly” and “It’s Good To Have Jayne On Your Side”, plus an as-yet-unreleased song about the Moon that I think will be a big hit among the GLXP community.
If you aren’t familiar with Marian’s music, I strongly suggest you become so. Start with thesethreesongs, then get to know the rest on her website.
Bonus: An attendee posted some iPhone video of one of the songs, “I Wish I Were A Real Alaskan Girl”:
More than 300 excited space fans turned out for our Comic-Con panel today. The panel featured newspace companies, represented by John Hunter, Mark Street, and Molly McCormick, plus Dave Rankin from the Mars Society. Moderator Jeff Berkwits kept things lively with his questions, and we were also able to answer a few from the crowd as well.
At one point, during a discussion of FAA safety rules for private spacecraft and informed consent, I asked the crowd, “Who here would go anyway?” Nearly everyone in the room raised their hands.
Update: Attendees have already written a few articles about the panel, including ScriptPhD.com, Pajiba, and Science Not Fiction, a Discover Magazine blog. (Twice, in that case.)
Posted by Chris Radcliff in Education, News on July 21, 2010
Our friend Francis French is being honored by the Space Camp Hall of Fame, according to a SDASM press release from today:
The San Diego Air & Space Museum (SDASM) is proud to announce the forthcoming induction of Francis French, the Museum’s Education Director, into the US Space & Rocket Center’s Hall of Fame in Huntsville, Alabama.
The center’s Space Camp Hall of Fame is designed to honor graduates, former employees and supporters who have distinguished themselves in their respective careers.
The grand opening of the Space Travelers Emporium last Saturday was a smashing success. People from both our existing space community and our new South Park community came out in droves to see the new store and Space Activities Lab, and the response was overwhelmingly positive.
Even better, everyone seemed to have their own space stories to share. One common theme was, “I’ve loved space since I was little,” which we always enjoy hearing. We also talked to people who worked on Apollo, or for NASA, or with the military. Teachers, families, and even an Virgin Galactic space agent stopped by.
Of course, it helped that we got amazing media coverage over the last week, both for the grand opening and the screening of “Moon Beat”. (Thanks, Jeff!) A sampling:
Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) has for decades been one of our most powerful tools for testing Einstein’s theory of gravity, or general relativity. LLR provides the best tests to date of the equivalence principle, of the constancy of the strength of gravity, of gravitomagnetism, and much more. In addition, LLR probes the nature of the lunar interior. The science of LLR will be presented, along with a description of the technique. The design and results of APOLLO (the Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation) will be highlighted. Also covered will be APOLLO’s recent discovery of the lost reflector on the Soviet Lunokhod 1 rover, after almost 40 years of silence.
Our friend Francis French is being honored by the Space Camp Hall of Fame, according to a SDASM press release from today:
