SPACE @ PPL: NASA: History & Vision, Monday August 19
June 14, 2019
SPACE @ PPL
Summer 2019
Rocket Science
with Rear Admiral Craig Steidle, first Associate Administrator of
the Office of Exploration Systems at NASA
Monday July 8 | 6:30 PM
Our SPACE @ PPL series will kick off with Rear Admiral Craig E. Steidle. Hear the storied history of rocket science through the lives of individuals like Copernicus, Galileo, Newton and Goddard, and landmark events like the launch of the Sputnik and the moon landings. Learn the basics of rocket science, including propulsion, fuel, and orbital mechanics.
Steidle is the Senior Advisor and past President of the Commercial Space Flight Federation and former Distinguished Visiting Professor occupying the David Rogers Chair for Aeronautics at the United States Naval Academy. He was a professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics in the Academy’s Engineering Department. Prior to being selected for this position, he was the Vice President of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), focusing on Defense and International issues for the U.S. Aerospace industry. Admiral Steidle joined AIA from NASA where he was the Associate Administrator for the Office of Exploration Systems. He was responsible for the implementation of the nation’s vision for space exploration for which he was awarded NASA’s Distinguished Service and Outstanding Leadership Medals. He was responsible for developing the capabilities and all research and technology for sustained human and robotic space exploration.
Solar Storms & Space Weather
with Professor Antoinette Galvin, UNH
Monday July 15 | 6:30 PM
What are solar storms? How does space weather affect us here on Earth? What can solar wind teach us about the sun? Dr. Antoinette B. Galvin will discuss her research on solar wind, a continuous stream of charged particles, both ions and electrons (called a plasma), coming from the sun and filling interplanetary space; as well as solar energetic particles, intermittently released from the sun during solar eruptions like solar flares and coronal mass ejections.
Galvin is Director of the New Hampshire Space Grant Consortium and Research Professor at UNH's Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space and the Department of Physics. Dr. Galvin's work includes design and development of instruments (as part of a team effort of course), the calibration of instruments, the commanding and operation of instruments in space (flight operations), the programming involved in the data reduction, and scientific analysis of that data. She has been involved with experiments on nine spacecraft!
50 Years and Beyond: From the Moon Landing to the Future
with Solar System Ambassador Tom Cocchiaro
Wednesday July 24 | 6:30 PM
This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. How did we get there? How will we get there again? How will the next 50 years of space travel unfold? Join NASA’s Solar System Ambassador Tom Cocchiaro to find out.
Cocchiaro is a former Air Force avionics technician and military public affairs practitioner. Some of his first assignments in the PR field, while stationed at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, California, were to cover the first five landings of the Space Shuttle Columbia. He was a member of the DoD press desk for the landings, served as a reporter for the installation newspaper and worked as a media coordinator for some of the most recognized news anchors of the time including Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw, Frank Reynolds, John Chancellor and Dan Rather. He also had the life-changing privilege of interviewing shuttle astronauts from STS-1 through STS-5. The NASA Solar System Ambassador (SSA) program is comprised of motivated volunteers across the nation who share the latest NASA missions and discoveries through a variety of events designed to inspire their communities.
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
with Professors Nicole Gugliucci (Physics) and Joshua Tepley (Philosophy), Saint Anselm College
Wednesday August 7 | 6:30 PM
Professors Nicole Gugliucci and Joshua Tepley of Saint Anselm College discuss the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. How likely is the existence of alien sentience? How profound would it be to discover the existence of aliens? Would it fundamentally change human culture? Or would life go on more or less the same as it was before the discovery? Is there any chance aliens would be like us—either physically or mentally? Or should we expect aliens to be so radically different from us that communication would be impossible? And in light of our answers to these and related questions: should we be spending any of our time, energy, and money on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)? Or is this just a big waste?
Gugliucci received her Ph.D. in Astronomy in 2012 at University of Virginia. Her scientific background is primarily in radio astronomy and her passion is science communication. In addition to teaching science, she assists in recruiting secondary education teachers from the ranks of the college’s STEM majors, trains pre-service elementary teachers in science and engineering, and studies the motivations of citizen scientists. Tepley received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame in 2013, and among other courses he teaches Science Fiction and Philosophy, Contemporary Philosophy and Ethics.
NASA: History & Vision
with Rear Admiral Craig Steidle
Monday August 19 | 6:30 PM
Rear Admiral Craig Steidle will return for the last in our SPACE @ PPL lecture series, focusing on the history of NASA, its vision for space exploration, and which space technologies to watch in the future.
Steidle is the Senior Advisor and past President of the Commercial Space Flight Federation and former Distinguished Visiting Professor occupying the David Rogers Chair for Aeronautics at the United States Naval Academy. He was a professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics in the Academy’s Engineering Department. Prior to being selected for this position, he was the Vice President of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), focusing on Defense and International issues for the U.S. Aerospace industry. Admiral Steidle joined AIA from NASA where he was the Associate Administrator for the Office of Exploration Systems. He was responsible for the implementation of the nation’s vision for space exploration for which he was awarded NASA’s Distinguished Service and Outstanding Leadership Medals. He was responsible for developing the capabilities and all research and technology for sustained human and robotic space exploration.
