Courtesy
A scientist from Southwest Research Institute will speak.
By Feliciano De Haro III
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
Scobee Planetarium will present the Journey to Mars Community Engagement Day Oct. 6 to celebrate NASA’s 60th anniversary.
“We are part of the NASA/Challenger cooperative agreement that provided us with the Expedition Mars mission,” Rick Varner, Scobee Education Center director, said Sept. 28.
“The community engagement event is one of our deliverables for that agreement and is also just the right thing to do to recognize the 60th anniversary of NASA,” he said
The free event will be 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m., but tickets are required.
Tickets will be available at www.eventbite.com.
Tickets are first-come, first-served, and only 100 are available.
There will be activities for children, such as building paper rockets, using a 3D printer pen to build Mars habitats, designing and constructing different things with molding clay and doing weight comparisons.
“This is a “family event” and the target audience is intermediate elementary and middle-school age children and their families,” he said.
“These are the audiences that the Exposition Mars Challenger mission,” Varner said.
The event will have a space theme costume contest as well. Guests are encouraged to wear a costume related to space.
The Bronc Botz, a competition robotics team, will have robots doing demonstrations.
First Lego League will showcase their project build and modules. First Lego league is designed for ages 9 to 14 to get them excited about STEM concepts. STEM is curriculum based on educating students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Scientist Cynthia Dinwiddie from the Space Science and Engineering Division of Southwest Research Institute will speak on Mars research.
The planetarium will present “Mars One Thousand One,” an Evans & Sutherland production about IRIS 1, the first manmade attempt mission on Mars.
Activities start at 9 a.m. with hands-on activities for children and the Brandeis Bronc Botz FBC Robotics demonstrations and the First Lego League showcase; 10 a.m. costume contest; and 11 a.m. speaker; and noon planetarium show.
For more information, call 210 486-0100.
