The Faculty of the Canyons Canyon Nation Campus held its 2024 Star Get together close to the Don Takeda Science Heart on Friday with visitor speaker J. (Bob) Balaram, an inventor and retired chief engineer of the Mars Ingenuity Challenge at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The free, open-to-the-public occasion was a haven for science fanatics the place they might communicate to fifteen totally different golf equipment and organizations on campus about their work starting from astronomy and physics to engineering and coding.
The star get together was comprised of varied elements. The primary portion was a science showcase the place pupil teams introduced what they’re presently engaged on with the campus organizations and golf equipment they’re part of. The second half, which was the science talks collection, featured Balaram, the originator of the idea that grew to become the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars. He served as chief engineer throughout the helicopter’s growth.
The NASA Mars Ingenuity Helicopter is the primary plane to attain powered managed flight on the planet of Mars and has accomplished 72 flights since its sendoff to the Crimson planet on April 19, 2021, stated Balaram.
All through his presentation, attendees sat underneath the evening sky within the amphitheater, a few of whom had been chilly from the low 50-degree climate.
“Is is chilly out right here tonight?” Balaram requested. “I used to be wanting on the climate within the Jezero crater on Mars, which is the place Ingenuity nonetheless is and functioning. It’s day 1190 and these are Martian days, in order that’s how lengthy the Ingenuity has been on the floor of Mars … and I checked the climate report from Perseverance from a few days in the past and it was -110 levels at evening … So in comparison with that, we’re very heat,” he stated humorously.
Balaram shared insights on how his concepts got here to be and the journey he went by means of to efficiently ship a drone-like machine to the fourth planet of the photo voltaic system, the primary of its variety that flies in a special environment from Earth.
A decades-long effort got here to fruition with the assistance of funding a group extremely educated in engineering and different focuses equivalent to avionics, he stated.
Balaram additionally mentioned some challenges confronted all through the method, equivalent to making a useful flying machine that may have the ability to adapt to the environment of Mars, he stated. Creating the Ingenuity helicopter to be gentle in weight but in addition rugged and robust like a spacecraft to outlive the send-off had been among the many obstacles that finally he and his group overcame, he stated.
Throughout his presentation, he additionally described the historic second that it took its first flight, bringing pleasure to the group members who labored on making NASA’s Mars Ingenuity Helicopter.
Roughly 300 college students and neighborhood members had been in attendance for the much-anticipated occasion, stated COC Campus Vice President Ryan Theule.
“We use it as an opportunity to get folks to go to the campus, study what’s occurring right here, and [have them] possibly even contemplate signing up for lessons,” he stated.
The Star Get together made its debut in 2010 and targeted on astronomy, however in recent times has “zoomed out” to give attention to different disciplines, Theule added.
One of many most important highlights of the occasion each season, the star viewing section, needed to be canceled because of the cloudy climate and the chance of rain. The massive telescopes had been deliberate to be supplied by The Native Group Astronomy Membership of Santa Clarita Valley.
“It’s actually powerful to get the [rain] water out of the telescopes,” stated Dave Flynn, member of the astronomy membership. Members of the native astronomy membership have been attending the star events because the events’ debut, and it was the primary time the membership couldn’t deliver out their telescopes because of the climate, Flynn stated.
