About 50 people from 11 U.S. states will attend a two-day NASA Social, to be held April 1 at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and April 2 at NASA’s Deep Space Network complex in Goldstone, Calif.
The attendees, who follow NASA and JPL on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other social networks, will be provided a unique, in-person experience, which they are encouraged to share with others through their favorite social networks. They were selected from nearly 500 people who registered online last month. Participants represent California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
On April 1 at JPL, attendees will be based inside the Space Flights Operations Facility, which is the mission control center of NASA’s Deep Space Network. That’s where engineers communicate with spacecraft across the solar system. Tour stops will include the Spacecraft Assembly Facility, where hardware for upcoming missions is under construction, and the Mars Yard, where engineering models of NASA’s Curiosity rover are tested in a sandy, Mars-like environment.
On April 2, participants will attend the Deep Space Network’s 50th anniversary celebration at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow in California’s Mojave Desert. The tour will include Apollo Valley, site of the historic Apollo antenna; Mars Valley, home of the 70-meter Mars antenna; and the Spacecraft Operations Control Center.
NASA Television will broadcast a portion of the NASA Social on April 1 starting at 9:30 a.m. PDT (12:30 p.m. EDT) at: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv and http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 .
To join and track the conversation online during the NASA Social, follow the hashtags #NASASocial and #DSN50.
More information about connecting and collaborating with NASA.
More information about the Deep Space Network.
Top image: Beam Wave Guide antennas at Goldstone, known as the “Beam Waveguide Cluster.” Each antenna is 111.5-feet (34-m) in diameter. They are located in an area at Goldstone called “Apollo Valley.” This photograph was taken on Jan. 11, 2012.
The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, located in the Mojave Desert in California, is one of three complexes that comprise NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN). The DSN provides radio communications for all of NASA’s interplanetary spacecraft and is also utilized for radio astronomy and radar observations of the solar system and the universe.
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Filed under: Astronomy News
