Sunday touchdown: Phoenix Mars Mission Lander
May 23rd, 2008
The newest mechanical visitor to Mars, the Phoenix Mars Lander, descends through the atmosphere on Sunday to land in the Martian Arctic. Dubbed the first of the “Scout Missions,” the lander will provide information that may answer questions such as: Can the Martian arctic support life, what is the history of water at the landing site, and how is the Martian climate affected by polar dynamics?
You can read more about the mission at the main project Web page. Local Bay Area events include:
* Mars: Fire & Ice at the The Crucible in Oakland. Live feed of the landing from NASA.
* Chabot Space and Science Center, Oakland will host activities on Saturday and Sunday including a live feed of the event on Sunday afternoon.
* NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, will host a Sunday afternoon event with robotic demonstrations and pre-landing remarks from local scientists and engineers.
You can also watch the landing over the Internet by tuning into NASA tv at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.
Urban & Environmental Modeler’s Datakit
May 22nd, 2008
The Urban & Environmental Footprint 2050 Project at the Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IURD) at UC, Berkeley have constructed a GIS toolkit consisting of a series of ESRI shapefiles and grids describing, “many of the physical, administrative, transportation, demographic, economic, land use and land cover, and environmental characteristics of the 48 contiguous United States.” The data were pulled together by the Penn Institute for Urban Research and and the IURD. Layers include boundary files, census block files and attributes, transportation networks, major employment center information, measures of job accessibility, boundaries of federal lands, elevation and slope data, location of water bodies, and location of wetlands. The data are free and can be used for any purpose with attribution. A great new, free resource!
Yosemite Display at Branner
May 15th, 2008
Just in time for your next field trip, come see our new display about Yosemite National Park.
Yosemite National Park, California. Cathedral Peak, viewed from Cathedral Pass, showing cut terrace. 1908. G.K. Gilbert. [via] USGS.
Visit us in person, or go to Branner’s Library Thing for a full list of books and maps on display.
We have additional copies of many of the display items available for you to take with you on your next Yosemite excursion.