The first week of October marks the start of World Space Week, a nationwide event ASU students are celebrating by educating others about the ongoing pursuit of knowledge in the final frontier.
“Since this is World Space Week, we want to get people really excited about the possibilities of exploring outer space,” said Earth and space exploration senior Jim Crowell, president of the ASU chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space. “I truly believe that space is our future.”
Monday launched the week’s festivities with SEDS introducing Raven, a space rover built by students in the School of Earth and Space Exploration.
Raven was driven out to Hayden Lawn via remote control and its capabilities were shown off in order to illustrate the applications of human-robot integration. Raven’s talents include the use of a robotic arm that can be utilized in picking up pieces of space rock or other substances too dangerous for an astronaut to touch.
On Tuesday night, SEDS brought in cosmochemist Meenakshi Wadhwa of SESE, to speak about her extensive research of comets, asteroids, meteorites and their relationship with Earth.
“My goal is to illustrate why they are important to study and how they matter to us,” Wadhwa said. “We can learn more about our origins, the solar system and the formation of Earth. One of the biggest challenges we face is that there aren’t enough kids getting interested in the sciences and because of this, America might soon be in danger of losing it’s technological edge.”
During her lecture, Wadhwa answered a diverse spectrum of space-related questions posed by the eager audience.
“I thought the speech was great,” astrobiology freshman Kira McAvoy said. “It got me really excited about the prospect of traveling through outer space someday. Asteroids and meteors are my favorite thing(s) in the world.”
SEDS will continue to host similar events through Friday night, including an exhibit on images from space, featuring some of the ultra high-resolution photos of the moon previously captured by ASU’s own Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera.
The exhibit will be held from 10 a.m. to noon at Bateman Physical Sciences Center F Wing.
Reach the reporter at mjgordo1@asu.edu
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