Space is buzzing with a lot of traffic this year

Volume 21, Issue 2 Summer 2022 NEWSLETTER

Space is buzzing with a lot of traffic this year!

Galaxy Forum 2022 tracks Voyager to Artemis

August 27, 2022 1 p.m.-3 p.m. at the

Cosmosphere in Hutchinson

Voyager --Happy 45th to Humanity's Most Distant Explorers
DART--A Targeted Mission
Summer around the Moon--three new orbiters
Mars Update
Interstellar 101

FREE! Open to the Public. To register for in-person attendance send us an email. Or stream at AAKF facebook.

Voyager to Artemis 1

The little spacecraft that could--Voyagers 1 & 2 (launched in 1977 with 470 watts of power)--are still going and mark their 45th anniversary in 2022. "Humanity's Most Distant Explorers", they've passed the outer giant planets into interstellar space, and possibly infinity. To wrap your mind around the almost incomprehensible history and numbers attached to these two marvels, come to the 2022 Galaxy Forum. Kansan Todd Barber, NASA JPL propulsion scientist who is on the Voyager flight team will inform us.

Then, we fast forward to today and learn about a plethora of space happenings this summer. Hint: there's a crash a-coming! For more info and bios of the speakers:

AAKF HAD SPRING ACTIVITIES APLENTY!

Virtual reality wows kids

At our 2022 AAK Day Space Celebration April 23 at Washburn University in Topeka, over 200 attendees of all ages enjoyed demos, talks and activities ranging from astronomy and telescopes, meteorites, virtual reality, tracking the Mars rover, eating space ice cream, flight demos and more. Photo credits: Jeanette Steinert

We "rocked" at SWE Expo

We were at the Society of Women Engineers EXPO on April 9 in Wichita. To illustrate what the Perseverance rover is doing, kids used clear straws to “drill” core samples of bite-sized candy bars. Then comparisons were made and recorded. EXPO attendance was over 1,000 kids plus parents.

Ad Astra Seminars given at KU and WSU

In conjunction with the Ad Astra Kansas Space Celebration on April 23 in Topeka, AAKF board member Steve Durst gave two seminars on space and its potential for Kansas. One on April 21 at WSU hosted by the Wichita Space Initiative and on April 22 at KU hosted by the KU student branch of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Photo: Durst, center, with the KU AIAA student board. Photo credits: Vicki Johnson

New interstellar seminar to be offered at WSU

A new, unique course on space will be offered through WSU for the spring 2023 semester. The LASI 150G Interstellar Seminar will be a 16-week 1-credit hour evening course geared for everyone, students or not. Access is local or even worldwide.

Though a credit course, this is not a technical course, more of an Interstellar 101 course to fill the ever-growing need and interest for learning about interstellar issues. Lectures will be given by state and national science professionals. Topics include cosmology, exoworlds, habitability, rockets, robotics, life support systems, multi-generational missions, ethical considerations. Expect a balance of science and humanities.

For information, contact mark.schneegurt@wichita.edu

Gimar receives prestigious NASA Finesst Award

Cheers to Hutchinson native CALEB GIMAR for winning a prestigious “Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology” (FINESST) award 2022. This funds grad student research which contributes to goals identified by NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD).

Gimar is a grad student in the joint University of Texas San Antonio- Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) space physics program. He is studying the effects of solar wind radiation on the chemical ices and red pole of Charon, Pluto's largest moon.

Gimar is a graduate of WSU, a past science educator at the Cosmosphere and a board member of the Ad Astra Kansas Foundation.

Eight Kansas college students awarded NASA summer internships

A record eight Kansas students have been funded for NASA internships this summer by the NASA Kansas Space Grant Consortium.

According to Kerry Majher, program coordinator at NASAinKansas, three undergrad students from KU, three undergrads and one grad student from WSU, and one undergraduate from KSU were funded. Five of the internships are with Langley Research Center, and one each with Glenn Research Center, Kennedy Space Center, and Goddard Space Flight Center.

The internships are a mix of virtual and in-person formats. Topics for Kansas internships include: Development of Materials for Passive Lunar Dust Adhesion Mitigation / Technologies Acoustic Liner Design and Research / NASA Science Journalism, Social Media, Video News Internships. Release of names by NASA are pending.

NASA internships are not just for students at KSGC- affiliated colleges—community college students are eligible also and encouraged to apply, according to Majher.

Wildcat Windpower notches first-ever win at DOE Collegiate Wind Competition

Manhattan--Kansas State University 's Wildcat Wind Power Team won for the first time in club history at the 2022 Collegiate Wind Competition, a U.S. Department of Energy event in San Antonio May 16-18. K-State battled 11 other schools to claim the top prize in the yearlong national competition.

Chee breaks Guinness World Record

In April, Yie Jian “Julian” Chee ’21, a WSU aerospace grad and a design engineer at Airbus in Wichita, and two friends designed and flew a paper airplane 77.134m (252 ft 7 in), earning a Guinness World Record in the “Farthest Flight by a Paper Aircraft” category. Originally from Malaysia, as a student at Wichita State Chee studied aerospace, aeronautical and astronautical engineering, and worked as a lab technician

KU junior earns Astronaut Scholarship

LAWRENCE— Kade Townsend, a microbiology major from Topeka, will receive the award of up to $15,000 from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. His was one of 68 scholarships to students from 45 different institutions. To Learn More

INTERSTELLAR R&D Column will return in the Fall

Ad Astra Kansas Foundation

534 So. Kansas Ave, Suite 1000, Topeka, Kansas
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