Mars Day Activities Slated for 7/19/14 at Columbia Space Center in Downey

The Mars Society Los Angeles is hosting a "Mars Day 2014" commemoration at the Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey on Saturday, 19 July 2014, from 10:30am to 4:30pm PDT.  There will be fun activities for all ages to commemorate the landing of the Viking 1 spacecraft on Mars in July 1976.  They include (subject to change): Choose a Landing Site; Design a Rover; Mars Colony; Mission to the Red Planet; Rover Challenge; Voyage to Mars (ages 12+ pre-registration required); and a keynote address by Dr. John Callas, Mars Rover program.  There is a fee of $5 to enter the Space Center (located at 12400 Columbia Way, Downey), but no additional charge to participate in activities.  For additional information and registration links, visit Mars Society LA - Mars Day 2014 .

Upcoming NASA AERO Institute Gallery Events

On the next several Thursday evenings, NASA/AERO Institute's Palmdale gallery (located at 38256 Sierra Highway) will be open for public events from 5:30 to 8:30pm.  Here is the schedule of topics:

• 26 July 2012, Science Mission Directorate (earth and planets), with an earthquake activity;
• 2 August 2012, Mars Science Laboratory, with a presentation by  Dr. Kelly Fast and local robotics team demonstrations;
• 9 August 2012, Human Explorations and Operations Mission, with a "working in space" activity;
• 16 August 2012, arrival of the Space Shuttle Endeavour to the California Science Center, and the International Space Station;
• 23 August 2012, DOME.

For more information, visit AERO Institute.

Mars Rover Events Slated for June 2012

Los Angeles and Orange County high school and college students are invited to attend two upcoming Mars Rover events in June.  The first is co-sponsored by IEEE-OC Computer Society and ICOSE, and will be held on 2 June 2012 from 2-5pm at Brandman University in Irvine, California.  Two lead JPL mission engineers will discuss the role of the new rover, "Curiosity," and what has been learned about Mars to date.  RSVP as soon as possible to http://occs-060212.eventbrite.com/ ; questions about the event may be addressed to fredlawler@hotmail.com .

The second event is the annual Jet Propulsion Lab open house, which will be held on 9-10 June 2012 from 9:00am to 4:00pm at 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena.  The theme is "Great Journeys," and will feature "high-definition and 3-D videos, live demonstrations, interactions with scientists and engineers, and a first look at JPL's new Earth Science Center."  For more information, see www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/open-house.cfm .