Evento

Space Junk -- What is it? Where is it? Why Do We Care? -- Dr. Kira Abercromby

Here's your chance to learn about space junk. Orbital debris, specifically that made by humans, can be created through pieces falling off spacecraft, collisions between objects, or just an object that is no longer in use.

Right now there are more than 13,000 pieces of orbital debris being tracked in both close orbital range as well as further out in space. It is essential for our scientists to know of the material and orbital information to understand the impacts of these objects on the current operational satellites.

This discussion will be about the creation of debris, the observations of it, how to curtail the existence of space junk, and what the future holds for operational spacecraft.

Your instructor, Dr. Kira Abercromby, is an assistant professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department at Cal Poly. She teaches classes on the spacecraft side of the department, mostly orbital mechanics and space environment effects. In addition to teaching, Dr. Abercromby's research interests include orbital debris, spacecraft material degradation, reflectance spectroscopy of satellites and materials, and orbit determination.

Prior to coming to Cal Poly, Dr. Abercromby spent eight years at Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas working for the Orbital Debris Program Office where her duties surrounded determining the physical properties of orbiting objects in both LEO and GEO.

This course has one class session: Friday, January 10, Adult School, Room B-3, 1 to 3 .

Please purchase a separate ticket for each person so that we can have a record of all attendees.

Please remember to have Brown Paper Tickets send you a reminder for this course. You can do that before you begin the signup process. Look for the "Remind Me" section at the bottom right of this webpage. Thanks.

If you would like to have the password for the member price for this course, go to www.lifelearnerscc.org for information on how you can become a member.