Africa and Space: Astronomy Flourishing, Astronautics Focus Increasing
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MONDAYMay 2 — ISS, LEO: Expedition 47 crew of 6 astronauts from 3 countries continues bone and muscle research and testing of new radios for communicating with future visiting spacecraft, British Astronaut Tim Peake completed the 42-km London Marathon from orbit in 3 hours, 35 minutes and 21 seconds. May 2 — Hubble Space Telescope, LEO: Identifying new worlds at the outer edges of the Solar System like 160-km-wide moon ‘MK 2’ found orbiting dwarf planet Makemake in the Kuiper Belt. May 2 — Juno, Jupiter Trajectory: More than 659M km from Earth having traveled 2.78B km (18.56AU) since launch spacecraft is preparing for July 4 arrival; public participation is encouraged through the JunoCam instrument and web platform. May 2 — SpaceX, Multiple Locations: NewSpace company announces Dragon 2 spacecraft designed to land ‘anywhere in the Solar System’, Red Dragon un-crewed 2018 Mars landing is first test flight in the series. May 2 — Interstellar Technologies Inc., Taiki, Hokkaido, Japan: Building toward full test flights of suborbital LEAP rocket and aiming to offer the ‘world’s smallest’ orbital launcher, lead by CEO Takahiro Inagawa May 2 — Space Angels Network, Global: Seeking out, evaluating and investing in early-stage NewSpace startups, maintains offices in New York, Los Angeles and Seattle, expecting global space economy to double by 2030 reaching US$600B. May 2 — Cornell University, Ithaca NY: Lectures: Surface Processes and Regolith Thickness at Southwestern Elysium Planitia, Mars, Nicholas Warner; and A New View of the High Energy Universe, Fiona Harrison. May 2-4 — University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada: Great Lakes Quasar Symposium, featuring keynote by Karen Leighly (University of Oklahoma), first in series of regional conferences on super-massive black holes. |
= All times
for terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for space events, and…
= All times for international space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time;’ Greenwich, England).
Weekly Planet Watch – Evening Planets: Jupiter (S); Morning Planets: Mars (S), Saturn (SSW), Neptune (ESE).
Cornell University Advancing Astrophysics and Planetary Science
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May 2-6 — French National Aeronautical & Astronautical Association (3AF), ESA, CNES, Rome, Italy: Conference: Space Propulsion 2016.
May 2-6 — The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics, Trieste, Italy: Workshop on Perspectives on the Extragalactic Frontier: from Astrophysics to Fundamental Physics. May 2-6 — Texas Tech University, Junction TX: Meeting: Stellar Remnants at the Junction – Comparing Accreting White Dwarfs, Neutron Stars, and Black Holes. May 2 — Southwest Research Institute, Commercial Spaceflight Federation, Suborbital Applications Researchers Group, Broomfield CO: Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference 2016; poster abstracts due (extended from April 28). May 2 — Moon: 1.6° NNW of Neptune, 01:00; 1.4° SSE of asteroid 18 Melpomene, 02:00. May 2 — Comet C/2013 X1 PANSTARRS: 1.0° NNW of Moon, 17:00. Continued from…Aug 28, 2015 – Aug 28, 2016 — NASA, University of Hawai`i at Mānoa, Mauna Loa HI: Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) Mission 4; at 2,440-meter altitude. Feb 26 — Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC: Exhibit Open: A New Moon Rises – New Views from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera. May 1-4 — Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, Nice Observatory, Nice, France: Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) 11th Users’ Meeting. |
TUESDAY
May 3 — Library of Congress – Science, Technology and Business Division, Washington DC: Lecture: The Science of Interstellar; NASA astrophysicist Jeremy Schnittman.
May 3 — SETI Institute, Mountain View CA: Lecture: When Will We Find Life Beyond Earth?; Nathalie Cabrol, Seth Shostak, Mark Showalter, Fergal Mullally, 12:00.
May 3 — Cassini OTM-448, Saturn Orbit: Spacecraft conducts Orbital Trim Maneuver #448 today.
May 3 — Apollo Asteroid 444584 (2006 UK): Near-Earth flyby (0.046 AU).
WEDNESDAY
May 4 — Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, Greenbelt MD: Colloquium: Exploration, Discovery, and Technology in Space Astrophysics, Harvey Moseley, senior astrophysicist in the Laboratory for Observational Cosmology at GSFC.
May 4-6 — Mechanisms Education Association, Santa Clara CA: 43rd Aerospace Mechanisms Symposium; at Biltmore Hotel.
May 4-8 — ESA, Noordwijk, The Netherlands: 14th Spacecraft Charging Technology Conference, organizers plan to maintain conference biannually rotating between Europe, USA and Japan.
May 4 — Moon: 2.1° SSE of Uranus, 18:00.
May 4 — Apollo Asteroid 2016 HN: Near-Earth flyby (0.031 AU).
May 4 — Apollo Asteroid 2016 EK56: Near-Earth flyby (0.083 AU).
THURSDAY
May 5 — Stanford Graduate School of Education, Palo Alto CA: Cubberley Lecture Series: An Evening with Bill Nye the Science Guy; Memorial Auditorium, 18:00-19:30.
May 5 — Cornell University, Ithaca NY: Lecture: Observing Extremes of Accretion, by Fiona Harrison, California Institute of Technology.
May 5 — Moon: At perigee (distance 357,413 km), 18:09; 2.6° SSE of Venus, 19:00.
May 5 — Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower Peak: The 1st of 2 showers that occur each year as a result of Earth passing through dust released by Halley’s Comet; Eta Aquarid meteors appear to radiate from Constellation Aquarius, likely to see about 10+ meteors per hour, while Southern Hemisphere observers may see up to 85+ per hour.
May 5 — Apollo Asteroid 388945 (2008 TZ3): Near-Earth flyby (0.034 AU).
FRIDAY
May 6 — Cassini, Saturn Orbit: Titan flyby scheduled at 971-km altitude.
May 6 — International Space Day 2016, Worldwide: Events and presentations to promote STEM education and inspire people to continue the work of Space explorers; originally began as ‘National Space Day’ in 1997 by Lockheed Martin Corp.
May 6-13 — National Research Foundation, South African Astroinformatics Alliance, Cape Town, South Africa: International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) Interoperability Meeting.
May 6 — Moon: New Moon, 09:30; 5.1° SSE of Mercury, 16:00.
SATURDAY
May 7 — Mauna Kea Astronomy Outreach Committee, Kamuela HI, Mauna Kea 2,800-meter level: The Universe Tonight: TMT: The Next Generation of Ground-based Telescope – What, Why, and How; by Dr. Warren Skidmore, TMT Observatory System Scientist, 18:00, followed by stargazing program, at Mauna Kea Visitor Information Center.
May 7 — Moon: 8.8° S of Pleiades, 07:00.
SUNDAY
May 8 — National Space Society of North Texas, Irving TX: National Space Society of North Texas monthly meeting; at Spring Creek BBQ, 15:30.
May 8 — Eta Lyrid Meteor Shower Peak: Favorable due to New Moon, shower offers only about 3 per hour.
May 8 — Apollo Asteroid 2014 JG55: Near-Earth flyby (0.020 AU).
May 8 — Apollo Asteroid 2010 KP10: Near-Earth flyby (0.076 AU).