What does it take to travel to Mars? Wondering how you can become involved in space exploration efforts on campus?
Then you're in luck! The Purdue Mars Society is hosting a forum with a unified theme:
Onward to Mars – outstanding academic endeavors from Purdue's campus supporting robotic and human voyages to Mars
This 3-part event is comprised of:
A presentation session from leading Purdue faculty on their research contributions to space exploration
A discussion forum where you can ask all those space-related queries you’ve been dying to get answered!
A networking social with these professors to get to know them and their research in more detail
This event is free and pizza is provided. Space is limited to 150 people, so register soon! Scroll down or see the event flyer for more info.
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5:30 - 6:45pm
Presentations from featured professors
6:45 - 7:15pm
Q&A forum with professor panel
7:15 - 8:00pm
Networking with professors
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FEATURING GUEST SPEAKERS:
Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering – Professor Kathleen Howell
will discuss Cis-Lunar Orbital infrastructure to Support Space Exploration
- Innovative trajectory concepts have enabled and enhanced a significant number of recent space missions, including robotic science missions, both Earth-focused and interplanetary, as well as the new directions for the human space flight program. The next step is the evolution of a sustainable space-based infrastructure in cis-lunar space to support all such activities.
Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering – Professor David Spencer
will discuss University-Led Planetary SmallSats: Opportunities and Challenges
Small satellites have enabled new opportunities for universities to conduct cutting-edge space science and technology missions. University-led CubeSat missions beyond Earth orbit are within reach, including missions to the Mars system. Significant challenges must be addressed in order to develop and operate university smallsats in the high-risk deep space environment.
Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering – Professor Daniel Dumbacher
will discuss Space Exploration: It’s more and harder than you think!
- Everyone’s needed to do what has not been done before!
Planetary Sciences – Professor Briony Horgan
will discuss NASA's Mars 2020 Rover and Mars Sample Return
- NASA will be sending our next rover to Mars in 2020, to fulfill two major goals of the past 50 years of Mars exploration: to search for signs of life in rocks from ancient Mars and to select a suite of samples for eventual return to Earth. Mars 2020 and the follow on sample return missions will be the focus of the Mars program for the next decade or more, and represent a major step toward the technology and understanding of Mars required for a human mission to the surface.
Agriculture and Biological Engineering – Professor Marshall Porterfield
will discuss The biological frontier and human space exploration
- Over the course of the history of human spaceflight we have only just began to scientifically understand the biological challenges to sustained human operations. Living systems are impacted by both the absence of gravity, and elevated radiation. Further development of space for long-duration human habitation depends upon future developments in biomedical countermeasures, closed environment agriculture, and bioregenerative life support.
Civil Engineering – Professor Antonio Bobet
will discuss Resilient Extraterrestrial Habitat Engineering
- The focus of the presentation is on the identification and quantification of the hazards, as part of the design of permanent habitats on the Moon and Mars. The approach proposed for the design and the key questions and challenges that need to be addressed for a safe and resilient extraterrestrial habitat will be discussed.
Industrial Engineering – Professor Steven Landry
will discuss Two human factors issues for long-duration space missions
- In this talk I’ll briefly identify what NASA sees as critical human factors issues that need to be resolved to allow long-duration space missions, such as a mission to Mars. From this, I’ll describe why one of them is a real problem (physiological monitoring) and why one of them is not (function allocation).
