Space Expoloration Adventures (Fall, 2024)

These are some of the cool space exploration events I went to recently. I’m blogging about them in reverse-chronological order. :)

Tour of the Roman Space Telescope Clean Room (Fri. 9/27/24 @ 11:00 AM EDT):

As part of a work perk, I was invited to tour NASA Goddard again after International Observe the Moon Night a week earlier. This time, it was an actual tour of the Hubble Space Telescope mission operations center (MOC) and Roman clean room. I was most excited to see the Roman clean room because this is where the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope assembly is taking place. The Roman Space Telescope is the next-generation space telescope in infrared slated for launch in summer, 2027. It’s more powerful than either the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) or the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), with a field of view 100x bigger than JWST and 200x bigger than HST. Let me talk about both experiences in detail: first the HST MOC visit and then the Roman clean room visit.

The HST MOC is something that I had seen ~10 years earlier. As part of a NASA open house back in 2015, I first visited NASA Goddard with my friends. That was a rather crazy day, given that NASA expected a couple thousand people to show up and ~15K-20K actually showed up. It was utter chaos, and my friends and I had to wait 4 hours at a Metro stop before we could get on a school bus that took us on-site to Goddard. Seeing the HST MOC again after ~10 years brought back so many memories and it’s definitely crazy how time flies. The center was not as exciting the second time as it was the first time, but I really enjoyed it because of the excellent deputy director who gave a wonderful presentation. He was also a Penn Engineering guy, so that was cool. It was also cool to see the same letter from Pres. Obama to NASA that I saw back in 2015 still hanging there in the MOC. It seemed like yesterday I was just there to tour NASA Goddard as a fresh college graduate. Now I’m +10 years out from college, which is wild. The center had hardware that’s mostly automated to control HST, but overall I had already seen everything before.

The really cool part of the tour was seeing the Roman clean room as well as walking the factory floor where they were testing various instruments. The clean room was just like what’s shown in any movie about space exploration! It was totally white and all the technicians working inside were wearing protective gear to minimize dirt and contamination. Watching them assemble the different components of the telescope and working in the clean room was pretty awesome. I learned that the parts the team was assembling came from various defense contractors (i.e. Northrup Grunman, L3 Harris, etc.) and most of the workers themselves were contractors too. Radical! Then they let us tour the testing part of the facility. This was my first time in a big factory-like setting and it was awesome just to observe the engineers as they worked on the ground. I learned that once again a lot of them were contractors. The role that NASA Goddard plays in the Roman Telescope mission is to design, budget, and operate the project at the high-level, working with contractors and suppliers who actually build and assemble all the parts. The telescope is assembled and tested at Goddard as well as tested at other facilities before it’s launched. The telescope will be launched on Elon’s rocket in 2027, the Falcon Heavy. Mark my words: I will be going down to Cape Canaveral, FL to witness the launch myself. You can book it!

Overall I really enjoyed the Roman tour at Goddard and it was definitely a rare opportunity. I’m so glad I signed up for the tour when I saw it on the Roman Channel (Slack) at work! Opportunity waits for no one so if you see a good opportunity, ALWAYS SAY YES!

International Observe the Moon Night at NASA Goddard (Sat. 9/14/24 @ 6:00 PM EDT):

I almost didn’t go due to a lack of energy, but I decided to go to International Observe the Moon Night @ NASA Goddard after I saw a news report about the event on YouTube. The NASA representative had such high energy that I said to myself, “you know what, f**k it. Let’s go to the event.” I really did not want to go, but I was so impressed by the NASA rep. on YouTube that I called up my friend George Gomes and we ended up going to the event. We got to NASA Goddard and parked our car, then a shuttle came and took us to the Goddard Visitor Center. At the visitor center, citizen scientists had lined up and set up telescopes for the public to see the moon. NASA representatives were there to showcase some of the big current and upcoming NASA missions, with flyers and goodies present. There were NASA representatives present for the following missions: the Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, Grace Roman Space Telescope, and Europa Clipper Mission (which recently launched).

I think the thing I liked most about this event was once again, it was excellent weather! The sky was clear and the weather was totally excellent to view the moon. A couple of the telescopes were so excellent that the views of the moon were just breath-taking. The shots through the telescopes were crystal clear and the night was so beautiful. There were many families there with children, and the event was really catered more for kids. But whatever, I enjoyed the night and the event’s atmosphere and really felt good afterwards! It was far better than staying at home, you know? I just really enjoyed being back at Goddard again after ~10 years and this was the first time I went to the Visitor Center. The Visitor Center has some pretty cool exhibits, especially some of the Moon rocks that they let people touch. They also had a rock sample from Mars, which was wild. I can’t complain about this event because it was free and it’s definitely worth remembering forever!

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Udvar-Hazy Center Star Party (Sat. 8/24/24 @ 8:00 PM EDT):

This event happened a few months ago, but it was so good that I don’t want to forget it. I really enjoyed the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club (NOVAC) Star Party on Sat. 8/24/24 evening. I don’t have a picture of the event because it was dusk already when I got to the Udvar-Hazy Center-Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, VA that night. The picture shown above is a stock photo of the Udvar-Hazy Center from the meetup event page. I really loved this event because it was a gathering of astronomy enthusiasts and I could feel the passion, especially from the young people and students that were there. They were really CURIOUS and asked all sorts of questions about the planets! The event was sponsored by the Smithsonian and NOVAC, where NOVAC members set up their telescopes in the parking lot for the public to view the stars. The event was mostly for kids and families, but I didn’t care. I showed up anyway due to my interest in astronomy. The weather was excellent and the sky was crystal clear with no clouds blocking our view of the sky. I’m delighted to report that I saw the following celestial objects:

• Venus
• Saturn
• The Dumbbell Nebula
• Two sets of Binary Stars
• One Very Bright Star

Everything I saw through a telescope, except for Venus which was visible with the naked eye. This was a totally unforgettable night because I work in astronomy support and it made everything that I do feel real. I really am supporting astronomers who are studying objects in the sky that I could see with my own eyes. As the night got darker, it just felt more and more magical. There were long lines for each and every one of the telescopes, but I didn’t care. I tried to see as many things as I possibly could. I really loved the smart telescopes that some of the NOVAC members brought, where the telescope would adjust and take stacked photos of an object that the astronomer would select from an iPhone app (super cool). I guess it was the people, the weather, the venue, and objects visible that night that really made it one event I will NEVER FORGET! I felt a sense of awe with respect to the Universe and how big it is. As one person I’m small, but it’s awesome to think that I can affect things in the Universe which is big.