Today, I made my usual rounds, wandering between poster boards in the poster hall.
For the keynote, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell (former CEO of REI, and all-around TOUGH CHICK) talked about the importance scientific research has on shaping public policy (and the world). I’ll be blogging about her lecture on the AGU Blog “The Bridge,” so I’ll link to that when it’s published!
.@SecretaryJewell “enormously proud” of Pres @BarackObama for stepping up (referencing USA-CHINA emissions agreement) #AGU14 @WhiteHouse
— Abbey Dufoe (@abbeydufoe) December 18, 2014
This afternoon, I watched a rough-cut of the upcoming program “The Year of Pluto,” which documents the 9 year 3 billion mile journey that NASA spacecraft New Horizons has taken out to the body (former planet). The mission, which launched in Jan. 2006, will do a fly-by during July 2015.
“I can’t tell you what we’re gonna find, but we’re gonna go find it.” #Pluto @NewHorizons2015 #AGU14 — Abbey Dufoe (@abbeydufoe) December 18, 2014
The scientists who worked on the mission since grad school, including Alan Stern (principal investigator of the mission and planetary scientist), are more than excited for the project’s success. This mission is significant because it’s an exploration mission – since no country has yet been to Pluto. While the fly-by is happening, communications to the space station will go momentarily dark because the spacecraft need’s to spend all it’s energy taking photos and collecting data.
Stern: #Pluto is first time expedition to a body this size. It’s “mind-blowing.” Pluto is the whole package. @NewHorizons2015 #AGU14
— Abbey Dufoe (@abbeydufoe) December 18, 2014
Around dinner time, we headed over to the Penn State reception, where I got to get my Penn State fix, since I haven’t been back since I graduated in May 2013. The AGU retweeted me twice today, but below is the most popular one. Follow me on Twitter if you haven’t already! My last day of live-tweeting is tomorrow!
.@TheEconomist predicts the @NewHorizons2015 Pluto mission will be top news story in 2015 #AGU14
— Abbey Dufoe (@abbeydufoe) December 18, 2014
Abbey Dufoe 