Monthly Archives: January 2010

challenger, space exploration, space flight, space shuttle

Remembering Pioneers

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Apollo, Challenger, and Columbia

Remembering the Challenger 7
If we die, we want people to accept it. We are in a risky business and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life.
Gus Grissom, Apollo 1 astronaut
In memory of the Apollo 1 astronauts.

This week marks three epic disasters in the United States space program’s history: the Apollo 1 fire that killed astronauts Ed White, Roger Chaffee and Gus Grissom during a routine training mission on January 27, 1967, the Challenger disaster that took the lives of astronauts Francis R. Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Judith A. Resnik, Ellison S. Onizuka, Ronald E. McNair, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe on January 27, 1986, and the loss of space shuttle Columbia on February 1, 2002, that killed Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, Michael P. Anderson, Ilan Ramon, Kalpana Chawla, David M. Brown, and Laurel Clark.

In memory of the Columbia crew.

It’s a rather poignant time for U.S. space exploration as we face the last shuttle launches and an unknown period of time where our country will NOT have a readily available way to get to space. There are hints and rumors that the new budget will not contain funds for the Ares program, and this has a lot of people wringing their hands in agony of our lack of space exploration capability.  It’s not a wonderful coincidence that these cuts come as we remember those who gave their lives in pursuit of space exploration. But, I don’t see the loss of Ares funding as the tragedy that some do. In fact, I hope that it galvanizes us to dream up better ways to get to space — more efficient, less dangerous, and above all–accessible to any of us who want to go to space some day.  If that happens, I think it will be a good way to salute the Apollo, Challenger, and Columbia crews who gave their all so we could explore.  Let’s do them the honor of pushing forward and continuing our push to space regardless of the challenges we face at the moment.

And remember, we ARE still exploring space — from ISS, at the planets, and gazing out past billions of light-years with our orbiting telescopes. We’ll get ourselves out there someday, too.

'Casts, astronomy media, astronomy news

Cool Online Outreach in Astronomy

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Astrocast.TV and Me

Welcome to The Astronomer's Universe!

As anybody who’s surfed the Web any length of time at all knows, there’s a bounty of information out there about astronomy and space exploration. It seems that every time I turn around there’s a new web site or blog or online media presence devoted to the subjects.

Of course, long-time readers here know that I’ve been blogging and writing about astronomy-related topics online since the mid-1990s.  It’s a fun gig and for some years now, it’s been part of my regular job as vice-president of Loch Ness Productions — a production company my husband and I started some years back.  We produce fulldome video shows (for fulldome planetarium theaters). I’ve written more than two dozen shows over the years and am working on new ones as we speak. Recently, we branched out to create vodcasts and podcasts for such clients as the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and Haystack Observatory. We also sponsored and produced for the 365 Days of Astronomy project in 2009, and I’m producing more podcasts for the project in 2010.

In addition to my multimedia projects, I’ve also written exhibits for Griffith Observatory and the California Academy of Sciences, and am working on a set of exhibits for NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. I have worked on a wide variety of other materials that help museums and science centers and observatories bring the wonders of astronomy and space exploration to anybody who’s interested in learning about it.  That’s my day (and night) job, and it’s so darned cool that I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world!  If it’s about astronomy and space exploration — I get to write about it in whatever media I wish.

Which brings me to another cool outreach effort I’ve been involved in for almost a year now —  an online “TV” segment about what astronomers are observing and learning. Last year, I wrote a short little space-related article for the New York Times and that led to my being contacted by the producer of Astrocast.TV, an online news magazine about astronomy and space science that shows up on the first of each month. After some discussion, I agreed to become the producer of a segment called The Astronomer’s Universe.

I’ve worked on seven segments so far, and two more will show up in February highlighting the recent American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, D.C.   Here’s a little promo video featuring our series host Solar System Ambassador Greg Redfern, talking about each of our segments.  Check it out and then make Astrocast.TV a regular stop in your astronomy and space science web-surfing routine!  I especially urge you to check out our February 1st episode, which will feature not only my AAS interviews, but a special segment on Earth science, created by another Astrocast.TV producer, Bente Lilje Bye!