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Showing posts from July, 2010

Lunar Science Forum

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Last week I attended the 3rd annual Lunar Science Forum (LSF) held at the NASA Ames Conference Center .  The 3-day meeting sponsored by the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI) dealt with topics "of the Moon, on the Moon, and from the Moon."  The LSF was one of several lunar- and space-focused meetings during the week that also included the LunarGradCon , Next Generation Lunar Scientists and Engineers Workshop (NGLSE), Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG), and NewSpace2010 .  I want to thank the NLSI for providing the travel grant that made it possible for me to attend the meeting. After introductory speeches from Ames Director Pete Worden (whom I know from ISU ), Jen Heldmann (whom I know from the PSSS ), and others, science journalist Andrew Chaikin delivered a very engaging an opening talk titled "Luna 2.0." One of his slides showed the LROC mission patch, which says in Latin "Science enables Exploration. Exploration enables Science." T

Teachers in Space, part deux

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Teachers, if you've ever wanted to be an astronaut, now is your chance to apply. The Teachers in Space (TIS) project is seeking applicants for its second class of teacher astronauts. The goal of the TIS program is to create a pool of qualified teacher astronauts to fly on commercial spacecraft and then bring the experience back to students. There will be an information session on July 12 in Washington, DC. More details are in the latest TIS press release .

Triathlon Tribulations

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Last weekend I participated in the Fire Cracker Sprint Triathlon at Kaleoloa near my home on O'ahu.  It was my first triathlon in 9 years, so I was a little apprehensive about it. With an official time of 1:22:49, I think did pretty well considering I hardly trained prior to the event and got hit by a car during the bike portion.  It was a lot of fun, and I may start doing the multi-sport race more often from now on. The race consisted of a 500 m swim, a 20 km bike, and a 5 km run.  I'm really cold-natured when it comes to swimming, so I was a little worried about the 6:00am start time.  To my relief, the water temperature felt very comfortable for the 15 minutes I was in it.  Swimming has never been my favorite activity, despite being on my hometown's swim team for two years when I was a kid.  The freestyle stroke zaps my energy very quickly, so I always end up reverting to breast stroke when I swim, and this triathlon was no exception.  With an official swim time