Parents are encouraged
to attend alongside their children for an unique space exploration
exhibit next Thursday in the convocation center of the University of
Virginia’s College at Wise. The morning will feature a live downlink
with astronauts on the International Space Station and museum
quality NASA exhibits, depicting several milestones of the country’s
past and present space excursions. Activities will begin at 9 a.m.
with the live downlink set for 9:25 to 9:45 AM. The downlink will be
carried on NASA-TV and webcast.
Close to 4,000 students in fourth, sixth and ninth grades in Wise,
Lee, Scott, Dickenson and Russell counties and Norton, as well as
Wise County Christian School, UVa-Wise and Mountain Empire Community
College have been invited to attend. Seventeen students will have an
opportunity to ask questions to astronauts on the space station
during the live video link.
Gov. Bob McDonnell will also appear via Skype and US Senator Mark R.
Warner is sending a video message to the students. Two former
astronauts, Anousheh Ansari and Leland Melvin, will also attend and
talk about their own space flight experiences. Dr. Bille Reed will
talk about the launches being planned this year to the ISS from the
Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, VA.
Exhibits will include a moon rock from the Apollo 14 mission and a
full-scale model of Robonaut 2 (R2), a humanoid robot sent to the
space station last year. Adam Sanders, a graduate of Powell Valley
High School and the University of Virginia, was the lead software
engineer on the R2 project. PC Magazine has recently rated R2 as
among the Top 10 Research Projects to Watch in 2012.
There will also be a lunar globe, lunar space suit and full-scale
model of the Mars Science Laboratory rover "Curiosity", which will
arrive on Mars this coming August. The rover was launched late last
year to determine whether the planet has ever been able to support
life and whether it could in the future.
If the reader is within a two-to-three hour drive from this event in
Wise, Virginia (near Eastern Kentucky, East Tennessee and Western
North Carolina), it is one not to miss as a human space flight,
robotics, or lunar exploration enthusiast. Call 276.328.6111 for
more information today.
Meanwhile, the Russians are preparing for the launch of Progress-46
from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International
Space Station Wednesday, January 25 to dock at the ISS on January
27, 2012 with additional cargo and supplies.
