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By Edina A.T. Strum
Arizona Daily Wildcat
October 23, 1996
The 28th annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society begins today at the Tucson Convention Center and runs through Saturday.More than 600 scientists are expected to attend the meeting, hosted by the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Sciences and Astronomy departments.
Lunar and Planetary Sciences is designing the instrumentation for the Mars Pathfinder and will have 30-foot landing airbags, a model of the landing site on Mars and a 3-D camera on display with the Pathfinder model, said Ric Zaller, of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.
For the first time, the event includes a display open to the public. The free exhibit, called "Exploring the Solar System," will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily in the lobby of the Tucson Convention Center exhibition hall.
The public will have the opportunity to:
- Talk with researchers from participating universities, including the UA, NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
- View exhibits on how to observe the night sky.
- See results from current space missions and hear the plans for the future.
- Walk through a mini-gallery of space art, including works by local artists.
- See a full-scale model of the Mars Pathfinder lander, set for launch in December.
Presentations will also include the latest findings on Martian meteorites, current images from the Hubble and Galileo spacecrafts and information on the comets that have been visible this year, including Comet Hale-Bopp, which will make its closest approach to Earth next year.
The Tucson Convention Center is located downtown at 260 S. Church Ave.
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