RVAS MONTHLY “Zoom” MEETING: Monday, May 16th, 7:30 p.m. (Informal “Celestial Café”
chat session begins at 7:00 p.m.). Unreachably deep within Earth and the other rocky
planets lies a core that scientists infer is molten metal. We can’t directly see
or measure this core. But there are other means to gain insight into its nature and
history. Scheduled for launch August 1st, the NASA Psyche Mission is among these
means and Arizona State University is one of NASA’s key partners. Our guest speaker
for the May meeting is Dr. David A. Williams, Research Professor in the School of
Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. He is also
Director of the Ronald Greeley Center for Planetary Studies and a Co-Investigator
for the Psyche Mission. He will share his perspectives on this mission to metal-rich
Psyche, a main-belt asteroid, which appears to be the exposed core of an early planet.
Dr. Williams will guide us through Psyche’s science goals and objectives, instruments
and investigations, Deep Space Optical Communication system, testing a sophisticated
new laser technology, and the mission timeline and events. Please plan to join us
on the 16th for Dr. Williams’ presentation, along with our monthly astrophotography,
What’s Up and other segments. RVAS President John Goss will email the Zoom invitation
and link during the weekend prior to the meeting.
