Posted by Chris Radcliff in Calendar, Moon Society, Science on July 28, 2010
Sun, Aug 8, 2010
2:30 pm to 4:30 pm
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 Calendar, Contests, Events, Moon Society on April 20, 2010
Fri, Apr 30, 2010
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Location:
X PRIZE Foundation Headquarters (map)
5510 Lincoln Blvd Suite 100, Playa Vista, CA
SD Space members will be attending the X PRIZE Foundation Tweetup. Details on attending can be found at the official event website.
Please join us on the evening of Friday, April 30th, 2010 for the X PRIZE Foundation’s first ever TweetUp! For the first time, we are holding an open house to give us a chance to interact directly with our online fans and supporters.
The event will feature brief, Ignite-style presentations on the Foundation’s three ongoing prizes—the Archon Genomics X PRIZE, the Google Lunar X PRIZE, and the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE —as well as our on-going work developing new prizes in a variety of fields. Additionally, we’ll be joined by a very special guest; Anousheh Ansari, the first female private space explorer and a trustee of the X PRIZE Foundation, will join us for a reading and signing or her new memoir, My Dream of Stars, co-authored by Homer Hickham (Rocket Boys). At this event, Anousheh will discuss her new memoir and the pursuit of her goal to travel to space.
The event will take place at the X PRIZE Foundation’s headquarters in Playa Vista, CA from 6pm – 8pm on Friday, April 30th. Light appetizers and refreshments will be provided. Cameras, tweeting, and live-blogging of the event are, of course, welcomed. This event is open to any and all of our fans, but space will be limited; so be sure to register early to ensure admission to the event. Further details, including directions and parking instructions, will be provided to our confirmed guests. We look forward to seeing you soon!
Posted by Chris Radcliff in Astronomy, Calendar, Moon Society on September 18, 2009
October 8, 2009 6:00 pm to October 9, 2009 5:00 am
Location:
SDAA Observation Site (map and directions)
Tierra de Luna Rd, Tierra del Sol, CA
On Thursday evening, October 8th, the San Diego Astronomy Association will be hosting a special star party event at the Tierra Del Sol remote observation facility 90 minutes east of San Diego. The NASA Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) will be completing its mission to the moon by smashing two large pieces of the satellite into the moon. The impact will eject material from the crater’s surface to create a plume that will be visible to astronomers nationwide. The SDAA invites interested members of the public to attend the viewing of this once-in-a-lifetime event.
(more…)
Posted by Chris Radcliff in Calendar, Moon Society on July 30, 2009
Sun, Sep 13, 2009
2:30 pm to 4:30 pm
Location:
Serra Mesa Branch Library (map)
9005 Aero Dr, San Diego, CA
Join us for the September general meeting of the San Diego Space Society. Dr. David Schrunk of the San Diego Moon Society will give a lecture on the Planet Moon Project, which portrays a vision to transform the Moon into an inhabited sister planet of the Earth in the 21st century.
Dr. Schrunk is lead author of “The Moon: Resources, Future Development and Settlement” (2007), which has been praised as “a handbook describing what must be done to return to the Moon, build permanent bases, and use them as a springboard for economic development”.
Everyone is welcome to attend this presentation. Email events@sdspace.org if you have any questions.
Posted by Chris Radcliff in Mars Society, Moon Society, News on July 13, 2009
I love it when good projects come together. Google Lunar X Prize team Omega Envoy has been demonstrating their latest Moon rover prototype at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS), operated by the Mars Society.
The initial demonstration was to remotely control the rover from Omega Envoy Headquarters in Orlando, Fl., take images of the crew hab, and stream the coverage live from mission control as well as the video from the rover feed. This was just the first of many more demonstrations the team plans to complete before the expedition concludes at the end of July.
So if you’re following along on your NewSpace Bingo card, mark off the “private Moon mission”, “human Mars mission”, and “Earth analog” squares. Thanks for playing!
