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The UA Is Over The Moon About Mars
Tuscon AZ (SPX) Sep 18, 2007 The Phoenix Mars Mission is on its way to the Red Planet after a flawless launch from Cape Canaveral in early August. With landing scheduled for late May 2008, it might seem like there is nothing to do but wait through a long nine months. But The University of Arizona won't be idle during the cruise phase. Mission scientists are diligently preparing for landing and science operations. And the rest of the UA is quite busy, too, with celebration activities planned for every month through landing. It all kicks off at the Sept. 15 home football game against New Mexico, when the UA Pride of Arizona marching band will perform a special halftime tribute to Mars that includes an original Mars drill cadence. Peter Smith, UA senior research scientist and principal investigator for the mission, will be a special guest. For Family Weekend, Oct. 19-21, a prominent landing countdown clock will be installed in the Student Union rotunda and the Union's Alumni Lounge will house a special exhibit dedicated to Mars. The exhibit will include large-scale images from the UA's HiRISE camera, currently returning stunning images from aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The theme for Homecoming, Nov. 2-4, is "Exploring New Frontiers." Students will have an opportunity to celebrate the mission through Mars-themed float designs. Peter Smith has agreed to serve as grand marshal of the Homecoming parade. The Flandrau Science Center will send eyes to the sky in December, when Mars will be easiest to view from Earth. A new Mars planetarium show is planned with special lectures centered on the Phoenix Mission. Flandrau visitors also can enjoy Mars-gazing by telescope. "Mars and the Movies" is in the works for January, when a major Hollywood film company comes to campus for seminars and lectures about special effects and science in film. In February, the State Capitol Museum in Phoenix will house an exhibit currently in production about the history of UA planetary science. "Space at the Top" will commemorate the major breakthroughs in space exploration that UA scientists have made over the last 50 years. The nation's premier space artist, Robert McCall, will be honored with an exhibition of his works at The University of Arizona Museum of Art opening March 6. McCall serves as a member of the College of Science Astronomy Board. The College of Fine Arts is planning a tribute to Mars through the arts, to be performed in Centennial Hall the last week in April. Dance, theater and music that speak to man's drive for exploration and discovery will be presented in a concert setting. Apollo astronaut Frank Borman will be a keynote speaker at the UA's 2008 Spring Commencement on May 17, just 10 days before landing. Other activities are being planned for June 2008, while science operations are taking place in Tucson. The UA is the first public university to lead a mission to Mars. It centers on the search for habitable zones in the water ice of the northern polar region. The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of the UA, with project management at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif., and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, in Denver. International contributions are provided by the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; the Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links University of Arizona Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com Lunar Dreams and more
Mice and men: space gerbils blaze trail for humans to Mars
Moscow (AFP) Sept 14, 2007Ten gerbils took off from the Russian-run Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan on Friday for a 12-day voyage to test the possible effects of a human mission to Mars, an official said Friday. |
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