Posted by Jesse Clark in Calendar, Education, Events, Projects, SAL, Science on January 4, 2011
January 18, 2011 to January 21, 2011
Location:
Space Travelers Emporium (map)
1947 30th St. San Diego, CA 92102
Sponsored by NASA, EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students) is an educational outreach program allowing middle school students to take pictures of our Earth from a digital camera on board the International Space Station.
SD Space will work with local middle schools and offer after-school activities supporting the mission. If you would like your middle-school child to participate, please RSVP to events@sdspace.org to participate.
SD Space members and the public are welcome to help out. Please let us know if you’d like to volunteer by emailing us at events@sdspace.org.
Posted by Jesse Clark in Calendar, Events, Projects, SAL on January 4, 2011
Sat, Jan 15, 2011
12:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Location:
Space Travelers Emporium (map)
1947 30th St. San Diego, CA 92102
Interested in building something? Get together with other SD Space members to work on space-related projects.
This month’s Saturday build session includes a DIY Sky Satellite.
We will be starting phase one of the project we selected in December. We took a page from Make magazine’s 
“DIY Space” issue and determined we would build our own homebuilt satellite that take payloads first to a tethered height, then phase two will launch into near-space and hopefully phase three high into sub-orbit.
Members and the public are welcome to join the project team, but please sign up by Jan. 14th. RSVP to events@sdspace.org to participate.
Note: We recommend that parents participate with their children; children under 10 must have a parent present for the entire workshop.
Posted by Jesse Clark in Astronomy, Chapter Updates, Education, News, Project ASTRO, Projects, SAL, Science on October 20, 2010
On Saturday, October 16th, Derek Nye and several SD Space members led a telescope building workshop at the Space Activities Lab in South Park. Five students attended the free hands-on activity, the second in a series offered by SD Space.
Before starting the build project, the students learned about telescopes from Phil Blanco, a local astronomy professor and Project ASTRO leader. They talked about how telescopes work, Galileo’s discoveries with them 400 years ago, and the kinds of things one could see with the Galileoscope (which has far better optics than Galileo’s telescope!).
After completing their new telescopes, everyone had fun trying them out in the lab, and then looking up and down the street. With a telescope mount – such as a camera tripod, some of the night time objects that can be observed in the next couple of weeks include: craters on our Moon, Jupiter and its moons, and even a special appearance by comet Hartley 2. We’ll be getting together at the Emporium soon to do just that when we have a clear night.
Contact projects@sdspace.org if you’d like to participate, or if you’re interested in attending future workshops.
Posted by Jesse Clark in Calendar, Chapter Updates, Contests, Events, SAL, movie on October 15, 2010
Sun, Nov 7, 2010
3:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Tue, Nov 9, 2010
6:30 pm to 9:00 pm
Location:
Space Travelers Emporium (map)
1947 30th St. San Diego, CA 92102
SD Space is celebrating Carl Sagan Day through a series of events. First, we’ll highlight some of the work done by the enigmatic astronomer through a series of wall displays at the Space Activities Lab the week leading to Sagan Day. On Sunday, Nov. 7th, we’ll show our favorite episodes from the series “Cosmos” and finally, on Nov. 9th – Sagan’s birthday – we’ll screen the movie “Contact”, based on the book that Sagan authored.
If Carl Sagan was an inspiration to you, like he was to so many of us, consider entering the contest sponsored by the Kepler (planet-hunting telescope) mission. They plan to celebrate “Sagan Day” – Carl Sagan’s birthday – by holding an essay contest with a Carl Sagan theme. The contest is based around one of Sagan’s most famous Cosmos ‘chapters’, “On the shore of the Cosmic Ocean”..
“The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore, we’ve learned most of what we know. Recently, we’ve waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return, and we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We’re made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”
- Carl Sagan, Cosmos, 1980
If this passage inspires you, consider joining in the competition and the celebrations of “Sagan Day” too.
Members and the public are invited to visit the Space Travelers Emporium and the Space Activities Lab, view the Sagan highlights on display and attend the screenings. RSVP events@sdspace.org if you would like to join either celebration or have questions about the contest.
Posted by Chris Radcliff in Education, Projects, SAL on September 29, 2010
On Saturday, September 18th, Derek Nye led a model rocketry workshop at the Space Activities Lab in South Park. Seven San Diego students attended the free hands-on event, the first in a series offered by SD Space.
While building their rocket kits, the students learned about aerodynamics, construction techniques, and the fundamentals of rocketry itself. Many of the kids were introduced to rocketry for the very first time. By the time we were done, they had a fully built rocket ready to fly that they built themselves, proving their own capabilities in working hands on with tools, and their ability to take on an interesting project.
Derek and the kids hope to launch their rockets at an upcoming Dart Rocketry event. Contact projects@sdspace.org if you’d like to participate, or if you’re interested in attending future workshops.
