Virtual Astronomy Live

The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum will present the next iteration in its free monthly Virtual Astronomy Live series on Thursday, September 17 from 5:30pm to 7:00pm ET. The program will explore asteroids in our solar system with Solveig Irvine, mission manager for the Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall Space Flight Center, and Dr. Christopher Snead, one of the top experts in astromaterial sample preparation and analysis at NASA Johnson Space Center.

Asteroids are celestial fragments that date from the birth of the solar system some 4.6 billion years ago, and studying them could help scientists unravel some big mysteries! Currently, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx’s mission is scheduled to land on the asteroid Bennu on October 20, 2020 to collect samples, returning to Earth in Sept. 2023. This conversation will detail what scientists hope to learn from the mission and how the techniques developed to gather this sample will lay the foundation for future spaceflight and exploration.

The event is hosted and co-produced by John “Das” Galloway, founder of the Kerbal Space Academy, moderated by Summer Ash, an astrophysicist, rocket scientist and freelance writer, and will be livestreamed on Kerbel Space Academy’s TWICH.TV channel.

A pre-show will take place at 5:00pm ET with a live comet making demonstration.

The livestream can be seen here: https://kerbalspaceacademy.com/intrepid.

This is the sixth in a monthly series of Virtual Astronomy Live programs. The next iteration on October 15 will feature food in space.
Virtual Astronomy Live is generously supported through a NASA Cooperative Agreement awarded to the New York Space Grant Consortium.

The event is suitable for all ages. For more information and to register, visit www.intrepidmuseum.org.