Goddard Visitor Centers - September events

Greetings!

We hope your summer has wound down nicely for you…here’s what we have planned for the first part of September, 2013. We will send another listserve release out in early September with information about the programs and events later in the month.

September Hours: During July and August, the Visitor Center will be return to its customary hours Tuesday-Friday, 10am-3pm, and Saturday-Sunday, 12pm-4pm.  We hope to see you here!

Special Holiday Opening:
We will open from noon to 4 pm on Labor Day, September 2.  Please come join us!


Sunday Model Rocket Launch on September 1

We have a special First Sunday Model Rocket Program for you.  NASA is soon to launch the LADEE scientific probe to the Moon and some of the mission staff will be here on Sunday to talk about that mission.  Join the LADEE Project staff at the Visitors Center this Sunday, September 1, 2013 from 1-3 pm for model rocket launches.  Bring your rocket with a D engine or less (or purchase one at the VC gift shop) and members of the National Association of Rocketry will provide the launch system and technical support for you outside in the Goddard Rocket Garden.  Sarah Noble, LADEE Program Scientist, will talk about the LADEE mission.  Don’t miss this extra special model rocket launch.

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) is a 100-day robotic mission to study the moon's thin atmosphere and dust particles. The spacecraft will attempt to confirm whether dust caused a mysterious glow on the lunar horizon observed by astronauts during several Apollo mission. It carries 3-instruments: Neutral Mass Spectrometer (NMS), UV-Vis Spectrometer (UVS) and the Lunar Dust EXperiment (LDEX). LADEE also carries a technology demonstration payload for testing an optical communication system. The Lunar Laser Communication Demo (LLCD) was developed and built at GSFC. It uses a laser to transmit and receive data as pulses of light with the potential to provide 6 times the rate of data return.

LADEE launches on Friday, September 6, 2013, at 11:27pm EST from the Mid- Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Flight Facility aboard a Minotaur V rocket. This will be the largest rocket launched from WFF.

Science on a Sphere
Nearly every hour of the six days we are open for your education and enjoyment, movies and animations run continuously in this theater.  Come see some of the best in NASA science visualizations on space exploration, the Sun, planets, moon, and Earth, and more.  


New Outdoor Exhibits
Just over a week ago we installed ten new exhibits in the Goddard Rocket Garden.  The new Astrobiology Walk introduces you to one of the most exciting interdisciplinary fields of science.  Astrobiology is the study of the origin and formation of the building blocks of life in extraterrestrial environments.  The exhibits cover the formation of the solar system, the birth and development of Earth, the appearance of life, the necessary conditions and ingredients needed for life, the hunt for planets around other stars, and much more.  This is the first new set of outdoor exhibits in at least a decade if not much longer. Come and explore!

Some Visitor Center Basics
We are open to everyone during the hours listed above. No reservations required or accepted for your visit.

Parking and admission are free.

We do not have a cafeteria and we cannot allow food or drinks of any kind inside the Visitor Center. However, there are a number of restaurants nearby along Greenbelt Road.  We do have outdoor picnic tables for your enjoyment.

The facility and grounds are wheel chair accessible.

And you can always visit the Visitor Center Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/NASAGoddardVisitorCenter <http://www.facebook.com/NASAGoddardVisitorCenter> ) or home page (http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/visitor/home/index.html <http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/visitor/home/index.html> ) for more information.

Thank you for supporting our programs, and we hope to see you at the Visitor Center soon!