Tuesday, October 15, 2019

For Students: Mars 2020 Name the Rover Essay Contest By Nov. 1


(Image Sources: NASA, Wikipedia.org, By NASA/JPL-Caltech - http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA19672.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40891664)

By Glenn A. Walsh
Reporting for SpaceWatchtower

NASA is offering the Mars 2020 Name the Rover essay contest for Kindergarten to 12th Grade students in public, religious, private, and home schools. The student with the winning essay will name the Mars 2020 Rover and will be invited to watch the launch of the mission at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida) in July of 2020.

"This naming contest is a wonderful opportunity for our nation's youth to get involved with NASA's Moon to Mars missions," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "It is an exciting way to engage with a rover that will likely serve as the first leg of a Mars Sample return campaign, collecting and caching core samples from the Martian surface for scientists here on Earth to study for the first time."

The deadline for this student essay contest is November 1. By the November 1 deadline, students should submit a short essay (no more than 150 words) giving their proposed name for the Mars 2020 Rover and why this name should be chosen by NASA officials.

Judging the essay contest will be divided by grade level:
  • Kindergarten to 4th Grade
  • 5th to 8th Grade
  • 9th to 12th Grade

Student essays will be judged on the appropriateness, significance and originality of their proposed name, and the originality and quality of their essay. There may be an interview presentation for finalists.

From each of the three grade judging groups, 52 semifinalists will be selected per group, each representing their respective state or U.S. territory. Three finalists then will be selected from each group to advance to the final round.

In January of next year, the public will have the chance to vote, on-line, on the nine finalist Rover name suggestions, from the nine finalist essays which will be posted on the NASA Mars Internet Web-Site. On 2020 February 18 (exactly one year from the 2021 date of the Mars 2020 landing on Mars), NASA plans to announce the winning name for the Mars 2020 Rover.

Go to the following Internet World Wide Web link for complete contest and prize details, and how to enter the essay contest:


NASA is also looking for volunteers to judge the thousands of contest entries expected. U.S. residents, age 18 or older, who can offer about 5 hours of their time to judge the contest entries, should register to be a judge at the following link:


Internet Links to Additional Information ---

Mars 2020 Rover:
Link 1 >>> https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mars2020/
Link 2 >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_2020

Related Blog-Posts ---

"Place Your Name on Mars 2020 Rover Microchip By This Monday, Sept. 30." 2019 Sept. 26.

Link >>> https://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2019/09/place-your-name-on-mars-2020-rover.html

 

"Help Astronomers Name Large Kuiper Belt Asteroid." 2019 April 26.

Link >>> https://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2019/04/help-astronomers-name-large-kuiper-belt.html


Source: Glenn A. Walsh Reporting for SpaceWatchtower, a project of Friends of the Zeiss.
              Tuesday, 2019 October 15.

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gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Informal Science Educator & Communicator:
http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com/weblog/spacewatchtower/gaw/ >
Electronic Mail: < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
Project Director, Friends of the Zeiss: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/ >
SpaceWatchtower Editor / Author: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Formerly Astronomical Observatory Coordinator & Planetarium Lecturer, original Buhl Planetarium & Institute of Popular Science (a.k.a. Buhl Science Center), Pittsburgh's science & technology museum from 1939 to 1991.
Formerly Trustee, Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall, Pittsburgh suburb of Carnegie, Pennsylvania.
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >

Monday, October 7, 2019

SETI / Breakthrough Listen Now Looking for Laser Beacons From ET


This image shows the mirrors on one of the four 12-meter optical reflectors of the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS), to be used for scanning the skies for laser communication beacons from extraterrestrial civilizations.
(Image Sources: Wikipedia.org, By Wars - The image was personally taken by me, Wars, on the 3rd of September 2007, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2680980)    

By Glenn A. Walsh
Reporting for SpaceWatchtower

In the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), large radio telescopes, such as the telescopes at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, have been used for decades in the search for radio signals coming from extraterrestrial civilizations. Now, there is a plan to begin looking for possible laser communication beacons originating with extraterrestrial civilizations.

This is not the first time such laser beacons have been searched for. However, a great new tool will now help to greatly advance this search.

The Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS), composed of four
12-meter optical reflector telescopes at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Amado, Arizona, will now be used to advance the search for, what are called, 'pulsed optical beacons.' This telescope array is considered particularly useful for this type of research, even though VERITAS was originally designed to study gamma rays coming from Outer Space.

Pulsed optical beacons are strong laser-like pulses of light that are very short in duration (usually only a few nano-seconds per pulse). It is speculated that advanced civilizations may use such optical beacons for long-distance communication instead of radio waves. Such optical communication could provide advanced civilizations with greater band-width for data, as well as be less prone to signal interference and degradation.

NASA has already successfully used laser communication to transit high-definition images from the Moon to the Earth.

It is likely that artificial optical pulses would be brighter than most stars in the same star-field, which would be one way of confirming their artificial nature. And, the use of VERITAS' four telescopes would help to eliminate false positive pulse detections

The SETI Institute has already been involved in an optical communication search using the 40-inch Nickel Telescope in Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, California. Adding VERITAS to this project will greatly extend this search. The huge mirror area of the four VERITAS telescopes will provide the ability to receive very faint light signals.

This new search is part of the Breakthough Listen project, which is a part of Breakthrough Initiatives founded in 2015 by entrepreneur Yuri Milner. Based at the Berkeley SETI Research Center in the Astronomy Department of the University of California, Berkeley, it is a $100 million project expected to last at least 10 years.

Internet Links to Additional Information ---

Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS):
Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VERITAS

Breakthrough Listen: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Listen

Breakthrough Initiatives: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Initiatives

Related Blog Posts ---

"Nano-Space Probes to Star Alpha Centauri by Laser-Sail ?" 2017 Dec. 7.

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2017/12/nano-space-probes-to-star-alpha.html


"Lasers in Space ?" 2017 Nov. 13.

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2017/11/lasers-in-space.htm

 

Source: Glenn A. Walsh Reporting for SpaceWatchtower, a project of Friends of the Zeiss.
              Monday, 2019 October 7.

                             Like This Post?  Please Share!

           More Astronomy & Science News - SpaceWatchtower Twitter Feed:
            Link >>> https://twitter.com/spacewatchtower

        Astronomy & Science Links: Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#sciencelinks

                Want to receive SpaceWatchtower blog posts in your in-box ?
                Send request to < spacewatchtower@planetarium.cc >.

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Informal Science Educator & Communicator:
http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com/weblog/spacewatchtower/gaw/ >
Electronic Mail: < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
Project Director, Friends of the Zeiss: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/ >
SpaceWatchtower Editor / Author: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Formerly Astronomical Observatory Coordinator & Planetarium Lecturer, original Buhl Planetarium & Institute of Popular Science (a.k.a. Buhl Science Center), Pittsburgh's science & technology museum from 1939 to 1991.
Formerly Trustee, Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall, Pittsburgh suburb of Carnegie, Pennsylvania.
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Astronomical Calendar: 2019 October / Change in ISS Crew

                ISS insignia.svg
Early in October there will be two important events aboard the International Space Station ---
October 2: Change of Command ceremony: Russian Cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin hands over command of the space station to European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano.
October 3: NASA astronaut Nick Hague, Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and Hazzaa Ali Almansoori of the United Arab Emirates return to Earth from the International Space Station. Undocking is scheduled: 3:35 a.m. EDT / 7:35 UTC; crew scheduled to land near Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan: 6:58 a.m. EDT / 10:58 UTC. As always, NASA-TV will provide full coverage:
Link >>> https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#public
Above is the official insignia of the International Space Station (ISS).
(Image Sources: NASA, Wikipedia.org, By Original: NASAThis vector version by Mysid - Self-made in Inkscape; based on Image:InternationalSpaceStationPatch.png and http://www.spacefacts.de/iss/p_large/iss_project.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3472226)

Astronomical Calendar for 2019 October ---
Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium4.tripod.com/astrocalendar/2019.html#oct

 Related Blog Post ---

"Astro-Calendar: Sep. / 160th Anniv: Carrington Event Solar Mega-Storm"

Tuesday, 2019 September 3.

Link >>> https://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2019/09/astro-calendar-sep-160th-anniv.html


Source: Friends of the Zeiss.
              Tuesday, 2019 October 1.

                             Like This Post?  Please Share!

            More Astronomy & Science News - SpaceWatchtower Twitter Feed:
            Link >>> https://twitter.com/spacewatchtower

        Astronomy & Science Links: Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#sciencelinks

                Want to receive SpaceWatchtower blog posts in your in-box ?
                Send request to < spacewatchtower@planetarium.cc >.

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Informal Science Educator & Communicator:
http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com/weblog/spacewatchtower/gaw/ >
Electronic Mail: < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
Project Director, Friends of the Zeiss: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/ >
SpaceWatchtower Editor / Author: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Formerly Astronomical Observatory Coordinator & Planetarium Lecturer, original Buhl Planetarium & Institute of Popular Science (a.k.a. Buhl Science Center), Pittsburgh's science & technology museum from 1939 to 1991.
Formerly Trustee, Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall, Pittsburgh suburb of Carnegie, Pennsylvania.
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >