2006 Issue

www.utahengineerscouncil.org 18 UEC JOURNAL February 2006 SOCIETY FORUM AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICS & ASTRONAUTICS Kepler Spacecraft Mission NASA’s first mission capable of finding Earth-size and smaller planets around other stars On November 4 th , 2005, A joint AIAA, ASME, IEEE, and AIChE meeting (headed by AIAA) was held host- ing guest lecturer Dr. Janice Voss at the Davis Conference Center in Layton, UT with approximately 80 guests in atten- dance. Dr. Voss is NASA’s science director for the Kepler spacecraft (mission – to ex- plore the structure and diversity of plan- etary systems), scheduled to launch in Oc- tober 2007 on a mission to look for Earth- sized planets around distant stars. Dr. Voss was selected by NASA as an astronaut in Jan. 1980 and has flown on five STS mis- sions bringing her time in space total to 49 days (traveling 18.8 million miles in 779 Earth orbits). Dr. Voss spoke on her jour- neys into space and her role and the pur- pose of the Kepler mission. The Kepler Mission , is specifically designed to survey our area of the Milky Way to detect and characterize hundreds of Earth-size and larger planets in or near the habitable zone. The habitable zone encompasses the dis- tances from a star where liquid water can exist on a planet’s surface. ■ AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICS & ASTRONAUTICS www.aiaa.org Chair/Alternate UEC Representative Mark Snaufer ATK Thiokol Vice Chair/Program Chair Stephannie D. Mecham Secretary/Treasurer Vernon L. Arne UEC Representative Kenneth W. Randle Newsletter Editor Cynthia E. Lee Contact Information Mark Snaufer Phone: 801-251-5538 E-mail: mark_snaufer@atk.com Astronaut Dr. Janice Voss, NASA science director for the Kepler spacecraft mission. The Kepler Mission , is specifically designed to survey our area of the Milky Way to detect and characterize hundreds of Earth-size and larger planets in or near the habitable zone. The habitable zone encompasses the distances from a star where liquid water can exist on a planet’s surface.