space science news home

SSL serves up science during Open House

May 19, 1998: Almost a thousand visitors got a taste of space sciences at the Space Sciences Laboratory during NASA/Marshall's Open House on May 16.

"It's an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord of space science," Dr. John Horack (right) told visitors as they entered the laboratory as part of the larger tour of NASA/Marshall. "We have three kinds of food on the menu, science we do in space, science we do from space, and science we do about space."

The reference is to the lab's three main lines of investigation, microgravity materials research (in), global hydrology (from), and space physics and astronomy (about).

Visitors apparently liked the quick tour of "The Universe @ Marshall," as free posters advertised. One parent liked the fact that the scientists talked to the visitors to make scientific concepts understandable.

When asked which part of the lab he liked best, one young man replied, "I don't know which was my favorite - they were all good."

A young girl (left) peers through a microscope to view tracks left by cosmic rays in a film emulsion that was part of a NASA/Marshall experiment carried by balloon to the edge of space. Dr. Don Frazier (above) explains how a new kind of optical materials will help make possible advanced computers and communications in the 21st century.

Dr. Chryssa Kouveliotou describes our interest in gamma-ray bursts while down the hall...	Dr. Robert Wilson uses the prototype of the Burst and Transient Source Experiment to explain how we detect and measure bursts.

Two girls explore a virtual world on SSL's data analysis computers, while, outside (right), Ed Reichmann gives two visitors a tour of the sun.

---

Join our growing list of subscribers - sign up for our express news delivery and you will receive a mail message every time we post a new story!!!

return to Space Sciences Home

Author: Dave Dooling
Curator: Bryan Walls
NASA Official: John M. Horack