Mars And Beyond: A Panel and Games at the Museum of Science BostonJoseph Paul Cohen and Wei Ding at the University of Massachuestts Boston, Julia Sable at the Museum of ScienceBoston, and Ron Li at the Ohio State University, Tom Stepinski at the University of CincinnatiIntroduction

In the second year of this ongoing outreach project [1]we continue to uniquely combine the data, systems,and resources from four existing NASA-funded researchprojects on Mars robotic navigation. This year’s eventincluded highlights from the new curiosity mission,astronaut Steve Bowen, and many local researcherspresenting work on planets throughout the solar system.The ongoing objectives are:

• Effectively take advantage of the public scienceand technology component of the Museum ofScience, Boston, which hosts more than 1.5million visitors yearly.

• Grow the previous event via communityparticipation. Create a platform for localarea researchers to engage the public regardingspace exploration.

Approach

This years event was held August 18-19, 2012 tocoincide with the Curiosity rover landing as well as theNASA Destination Station exhibit visiting the Museumof Science. Each day included panel discussions, talks,and table presentations. Panelists, listed in the tablebelow and shown in figure 1b, were asked about theirinvolvement and research regarding space explorationand then received questions from visitors. The nextsection details other activites and talks during the event.

Both days of the event astronaut Stephen Bowen(figure 1a), a three-time resident of the InternationalSpace Station, gave a presentation and then met to talkwith visitors, take photos, and sign autographs.

Panelist ProjectSam Kounaves Phoenix Lander

Ron Li Mars Rover GPSZachary Girazian Atmospheres of Mars and Venus

Carol Carveth Atmospheres of Mars and VenusCourtney Dressing Exoplanets using Kepler data

Activities/Talks

The following is a list of talks and presentations thatoccured over the two days. With the exclusion of theMars Crater Seeker game, the following acitivities areadditional and were organized at the Museum event.

(a) Astronaut Stephen Bowen presents “Experiences in Orbit”

(b) Top: Sam Kounaves, Ron Li,and Zachary Girazian. Bottom:Sam Kounaves, Courtney Dressing, and Carol Carveth

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Mars Crater Seeker Game (Joseph Paul Cohen ofUMass Boston) A rover can’t rove without a navigationplan based on high-quality data. This video game,improved and enhanced since last year, lets players drivea Mars rover over simulated surfaces based on real datafrom Mars missions.

Living on Mars (Bruce Mackenzie of the MarsFoundation) Visitors learn what engineering challengesmust be overcome to live on Mars. The Mars Foundationsponsors experimental work toward building the firsthabitat on Mars using materials found in the Martian soil.

Worlds Outside Our Solar System (Sarah Ballard andCourtney Dressing of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centerfor Astrophysics) Every week, Kepler and other missionsdiscover possible planets in distant solar systems.Visitors learn how researchers find and study theseexoplanets.

Flying SPHERES on the Space Station (AlvarSaenz-Otero of MIT; Kimberly Slater of NASA)Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient,Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) are small free-flyingsatellites on the International Space Station. Visitors findout how high school students can compete to operate theSPHERES for experiments.

Life after Liftoff / Space Suit Technology (DonRethke, aerospace engineer; Erika Guillory and HeatherPaul, NASA; and Nikhil Vadhavkar of MIT) Visitorslearn how astronauts stay comfortable and healthy inspace. The simplest tasks, like using the bathroom,become complicated in near-zero gravity.

Explore the Moon (Mike Sori and Ryan Kobrickof MIT) Visitors study high-resolution images of theMoon’s surface and discuss what’s next for lunarexploration.

Gas Giants (Glenn Flierl of MIT) Visitors watchdemonstrations of turbulent fluid motions like those in

the atmosphere of Jupiter and Saturn simulated withliquids and coloring.

3D Panorama of Martian Landscape Visitors use 3Dglasses to get a rover’s-eye view of the Gusev Crater areaon Mars, imaged by the Mars Spirit rover in 2006.

Asteroids, Comets, and Dwarf Planets (Sonia Keysand Mike Rudenko of Harvard-Smithsonian Center forAstrophysics) Visitors learn to distinguish asteroids,comets, and dwarf planets, and learn how and whyscientists track these bodies.

Design Challenge: Soaring Satellites Visitors buildand test hovering satellites using some of the sameprinciples that NASA engineers use to design parachutesfor Mars lander and rover missions.

Space Weather (Nicholas Gross and Susan McGregorfrom the Center for Integrated Space Weather Modelingat Boston University) Explosions on the surface ofthe Sun occasionally send high-energy particles andX-rays toward Earth, resulting in auroras and other spaceweather phenomena. Visitors learn how the Sun worksand how its activity can impact us here on Earth.

Pressures on Mars and Venus (Carol Carveth andZachary Girazian of Boston University) The solid partsof Venus, Earth, and Mars are similar, but these planetshave dramatically different atmospheres. Visitors seehow scientists study planetary atmospheres and learnwhat this means for space exploration.

References

[1] J. P. Cohen, W. Ding, J. Sable, R. Li, and T. F. Stepinski,“Mars weekend: A panel and games at the museum ofscience boston,” in Lunar and Planetary Institute ScienceConference Abstracts, Mar. 2012.

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