Tag Archives: Mars

Empower, Excite, and Engage!

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9/26/23 – 12/5/23

Be the engineering guide for a group of students as they launch a mission to grow plants on Mars!

Through weekly meetups, students create a dynamic Project Proposal, which includes
designing, planning, and collaboration with aerospace subject matter experts and other students. By
the end of the term, students will be exposed to the basics of project management, considerations for
the spaceflight environment, and basics of habitat design.

As a mentor, you are the engineering guide for an assigned student group. Through weekly tag-ups, you
answer questions and guide the design thought process of students as they form the greenhouse.

No previous plant experience needed, only enthusiasm for getting students involved in STEM! Please sign up if you’re interested in this low time-commitment/high impact mentoring opportunity by Tuesday 9/12 at this link


For more information, email Emily Matula

AIAA Houston Section Dinner Meeting: “Questioning the Surface of Mars as the 21st Century’s Ultimate Pioneering Destination in Space”

AIAA Houston Section will have a dinner event next Monday, March 9!
Presentation at 5:30 (FREE lecture only)
The presentation will take place in the Discovery Room of the Gilruth Center.

Join us as AIAA distinguished lecturer, Dan Adamo, explores what can be a pioneering destination in space. Why is Mars the widely accepted future?

Description:

This 1.5-hour lecture reviews historic Earthly distinctions between exploring and pioneering before applying these distinctions to destinations in space. Although a case can be made for human and robotic exploration in space, there is as yet no compelling rationale for “putting down roots” to pioneer anywhere off Earth. Why then is the surface of Mars widely accepted as humanity’s future “home away from home” to the extent some 200,000 people are willing to attempt forming a permanent colony there? There is no evidence suggesting humans can survive on the surface of Mars long term, let alone thrive there to produce viable offspring. A variety of evidence is presented to affirm the surface of Mars is a “socio-cultural” destination whose suitability for human pioneering is based on more than a century of fictional literature and poorly informed research as the Space Age dawned. More current knowledge of the “unexplored country” in our Solar System suggests small bodies such as asteroids and the moons of Mars are humanity’s best hope for pioneering off Earth this century.

Presenter:

Dan Adamo –
A recognized authority in human space flight trajectory design and operations with extensive experience in associated operations concept formulation, training, documentation, and software development

Specialties: Rendezvous launch window and orbit maneuver targeting, procedures development and coordination with domestic and international stake-holders, technical documentation, trajectory prediction and simulation, public education and outreach

RSVP:

RSVP below or on the Eventbrite page:

Lunch and Learn: Mars Analog on Earth

AIAA Houston section presents Free Lunch-and-Learn event: Analog missions

– Date: Monday, August 27, 2018
– Time: 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM presentation by CESARE GUARINIELLO, PhD.
– Presentation start time: Noon.
– Place: Tietronix, 1331 Gemini Avenue, Suite 300, Houston Texas 77058.
– Cost: No charge for attending. Membership not required.
– Meal: AIAA Houston Section provides sandwiches (our treat) from Jimmy Johns based on the crowd size using the online registration. Walk-ins are welcome, but advance registration helps us to plan better.
– Registration: (www.aiaahouston.org) or our EventBrite web page. Walk-ins are welcome. Advance registration helps us to plan better. The bigger the audience, the better.

Going to Mars is hard, much harder than anything else we ever tried. Most of the people involved in this field are pushing for an Apollo-style approach, based on step-by-step technology development and testing to approach missions to Mars. However, going to the Moon or even just to Earth orbit is still very expensive. One way to perform effective research towards the exploration of Mars at a lower cost is the use of Mars Analogs on Earth. These are areas that, because of isolated and unusual environment, provide physical and psychological situations similar to those found on Mars. Habitats have been built in these regions that allow for simulated Mars missions. The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), near Hanksville, UT, comprises a habitat, a greenhouse, a scientific laboratory, and an astronomical observatory and can host up to 7 people for 2-week simulated missions. Cesare Guariniello served as crew geologist in mission MDRS 186, and used every minute of his 2-week rotation to gather not only scientific data, but an astonishing personal experience. His presentation will touch both these aspects of his mission, with emphasis on the value and limitations of analog missions to support human exploration of Mars.

CESARE GUARINIELLO, PhD

Cesare GuarinielloCesare is a Research Associate in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Purdue University He holds two Master degrees, in Automation and Robotics Engineering and in Astronautical Engineering, from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, and a PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University. His research ranges from System-of-Systems design and architecture to space applications, cybersecurity, and defense and includes projects with NASA, the US DoD, the US Navy, and MITRE corporation. Cesare recently expanded his research in the field of Earth Sciences, where he is pursuing a Master degree in Planetary Geology. He is a member of various professional societies, including IEEE, AIAA, and INCOSE.

Outside academia, Cesare enjoys a wide variety of activities. After representing Purdue University in various collegiate tournaments, he is now the coach of Purdue Fencing Club. He is a licensed radio amateur, a private pilot, and a certified scuba diver. In 2017, he began participating in simulated missions as analog astronaut.

RSVP

RSVP below or on the Eventbrite page:

Lunch and Learn: Mars Analog on Earth

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– Date: Monday, August 27, 2018
– Time: 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM presentation by CESARE GUARINIELLO, PhD.
– Presentation start time: Noon.
– Place: Tietronix, 1331 Gemini Avenue, Suite 300, Houston Texas 77058.
– Cost: No charge for attending. Membership not required.
– Meal: AIAA Houston Section provides sandwiches (our treat) from Jimmy Johns based on the crowd size using the online registration. Walk-ins are welcome, but advance registration helps us to plan better.
– Registration: On the event page or our EventBrite. Walk-ins are welcome. Advance registration helps us to plan better. The bigger the audience, the better.

2016 AIAA Houston Section Awards Banquet

Please join us as we wrap up a spectacular 2015-16 year with the AIAA-Houston Awards Banquet! The keynote speaker will be Dr. John B. Charles, Chief Scientist of NASA’s Human Research Program.

We will also be presenting the awards for the year to AIAA members who became Senior Members, Associate Fellows, Fellows, and Honorary Fellows, as well as those celebrating an anniversary with AIAA. Please come out and congratulate them with us!

Speaker: Dr. John B. Charles, Chief Scientist of NASA’s Human Research Program
Topic: “The Year-long ISS Expedition, the Twins Study, and Preparations for Mars.”
Date: Friday, June 10, 2016
Location: JSC Gilruth Center, Alamo Ballroom

Times:

Ticket Prices:

  • Presentation Only (No Dinner): FREE!
  • Dinner, AIAA Member/Spouse: $20.00
  • Dinner, Non-Member: $25.00
  • Dinner, Student with ID: $7.00

Speaker Biography:

John B. Charles, Ph.D., is the Chief Scientist of NASA’s Human Research Program (HRP), a position he also held from 2006 to 2012. He provides scientific direction of research and development enabling astronauts to go beyond low Earth orbit and eventually to Mars.

Dr. Charles earned his B.S. in biophysics at The Ohio State University and his doctorate in physiology and biophysics at the University of Kentucky. He came to the Johnson Space Center in 1983 a postdoctoral fellow and became a civil servant in 1985. He is co-developer of the Shuttle-era fluid-loading countermeasure, and investigated the cardiovascular effects of space flight using ultrasound, re-entry data recording and in-flight lower body negative pressure (LBNP) on Space Shuttle astronauts and on crewmembers of the Russian space station Mir. He coordinated the NASA-sponsored biomedical, biological and microgravity science investigations as Mission Scientist for NASA-Mir, for STS-95, John Glenn’s Shuttle flight, and for STS-107, Columbia’s last mission in January 2003.

From 20012 to 2015, he was HRP’s Associate Manager for International Science and led NASA’s space life sciences planning and international coordination for the joint US/Russian one-year mission on ISS, including the Twins Study.

He is a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association and has been a member since 1983. He is a Full Member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and co-chaired the IAA’s 18th “Humans in Space Symposium” in Houston in 2011.

He has published over 60 scientific articles, and has received several professional awards.

RSVP

RSVP below or on the Eventbrite page