Category Archives: Space participation

Winner announced in Alpha Centauri planet naming contest

Nature has this report on the naming of  exoplanets and Pluto’s moons: Moon and planet names spark battle: Company clashes with International Astronomical Union over popular labels for exoplanets – Nature News & Comment

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Meanwhile, the Uwingu contest to name a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri has a winner:

Uwingu Announces A Name for the Planet Orbiting Alpha Centauri

Space company Uwingu announced the winner of its public engagement contest to solicit and vote on a popular name for the only known planet orbiting the nearest star to the Sun, Alpha Centauri.
Apr. 24, 2013BOULDER, Colo.Space company Uwingu™TM announced the winner of its public engagement contest to solicit and vote on a popular name for the only known planet orbiting the nearest star to the Sun, Alpha Centauri.

The winning name from Uwingu’s competition to select a name for the planet is “Albertus Alauda”. This nomination was entered into Uwingu’s public planet name nomination database last November by Jason Lark, in honor of his late grandfather, Albert Lark. In the citation Lark entered into Uwingu’s database, Lark said, “His name in Latin means Noble or Bright and to praise or extol. I think this is an apt description as my Grandfather was a noble man and bright of character and in this nomination I wish to honour (extol) him.”

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The second through fifth place name nominations in the competition were Rakhat, Caleo, Amara, and Tiber, with origins in science fiction literature, science, and a man’s love for his fiancée.

Over 1,240 name nominations were received in total. “This really shows that ordinary people like to engage in astronomy and space exploration this new way, and at Uwingu we’re very happy that we could help demonstrate that. We’re also ready to now give people new ways to engage in public sector exoplanet naming” said Uwingu’s CEO Dr. Alan Stern.

Uwingu’s mission is twofold: To help the public better connect to space and the sky, and to create a new kind of grant fund for space researchers and educators using proceeds from our web site. Uwingu’s name means sky in Swahili. Uwingu’s web site can be found at www.uwingu.com.

Uwingu Fund grant dollars from the Alpha Centauri planet naming competition will be used to help space educators and educator projects.

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About Uwingu: Uwingu (which means “sky” in Swahili, and is pronounced “oo-wing-oo”)

was formed by a team of leading astronomers, planetary scientists, former space program executives, and educators. The company includes space historian and author Andrew Chaikin, space educator Dr. Emily CoBabe-Ammann, citizen science leader Dr. Pamela Gay, author and former museum science director Dr. David Grinspoon, planet hunter Dr. Geoff Marcy, planetary scientist and aerospace executive Dr. Teresa Segura, planetary scientist and former NASA science boss Dr. Alan Stern, planetary scientist and CEO of the Planetary Science Institute, Dr. Mark Sykes, former Executive Director of the Planetary Society Dr. Louis Friedman, and space artists Jon Lomberg and Dan Durda. In September, Uwingu successfully concluded one of the 25 largest Indiegogo crowd-funding campaigns ever to launch an ongoing series of public engagement projects. Visit Uwingu’s web site at www.uwingu.com to learn more.

Space Apps Challengers in Canada + A better BeagleBone embeddable processor

Chuck Black reports on Canadian teams competing in the 2013 International Space Apps Challenge (see earlier post): Our Space Future on Display: The 2013 Int’l Space Apps Challenge -| The Commercial Space Blog.

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Ed Wright spotlights the BeagleBone open-source single-board microcomputer for embedded applications, which will be presented at the upcoming First Space Hacker Workshop in Silicon Valley: Next-Generation BeagleBone is $45 – CitizensInSpace.org

Int. Space Apps Challenge + Robonaut 2 Challenge + A need for big challenges too

The International Space Apps Challenge is underway this weekend.

The International Space Apps Challenge is an international mass collaboration focused on space exploration that takes place over 48-hours in cities around the world. The event embraces collaborative problem solving with a goal of producing relevant open-source solutions to address global needs applicable to both life on Earth and life in space. NASA is leading this global collaboration along with a number of additional government collaborators and 100+ local partner organizations.

See the 50 challenges here.  And the locations around the world where the teams are competing.

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NASA Robonaut Challenge is also happening this month. It challenges programmers to code a couple of particularly useful tasks for the humanoid-like Robonaut 2 on the ISS.

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Ed Wright endorses the modest sized challenge competitions like those above but says NASA should also continue to support important major challenges with big prizes as they did with the Lunar Lander Challenge competition: Robonaut Programming Challenge – CitizensInSpace.org

 

 

3 winners selected in space video contest

An announcement from the Coalition for Space Exploration:

Three winners selected in “Why Space Matters to the Future”
national video contest

The Coalition for Space Exploration and the NASA Visitor Center Consortium successfully complete first collaborative outreach effort

HOUSTON –The Coalition for Space Exploration (Coalition) and the NASA Visitor Center Consortium are pleased to announce the winners of the “Why Space Matters to the Future” video contest: Addie Augsburger, Clyzzel Samson, and Elizabeth Paddock. The winning entries were selected for both their creative demonstrations of the importance of space exploration and their unique visions for the future if the boundaries of space continue to expand.

Three out-of-this-world prizes will be awarded to the winners for a trip for four, one to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, one to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Alabama and one to Space Center Houston in Texas. Winning videos will be featured on the Coalition and VisitNASA.com websites, shared through social media networks, and shown to NASA executives and elected officials in Washington, D.C.

“As a lead of the NASA Visitor Center Consortium, I’m pleased that our collaboration with the Coalition was able to help demonstrate public interest in space exploration,” said Mike Kincaid, Director of External Relations for Johnson Space Center. “Partnerships like these are valuable to spreading the word about NASA’s missions and I look forward to all of us working together again in the future.”

In her first place winning video, Augsburger uses a hand-drawn storyboard concept to inform viewers of the many benefits derived from the U.S. space program. She shows how continued exploration can provide a platform for research that cannot be done on Earth which could reveal new discoveries, and potentially lead to the colonization of other planets.

Samson, who takes second place, uses her narrative to describe how space exploration has given us “heroes” who have inspired us to reach beyond our current limitations of exploration. She emphasizes that space exploration is a human enterprise, not limited to one nationality, gender or economic status. The video also encourages viewers to invest in future generations.

In third place, Paddock showcases her 3-year-old twin boys, who have been avid space fans since they were 18 months old. Through vivid imagery, Paddock describes how the exploration of space has brought several countries – and brothers – together through effective teamwork, and how it has provided mankind with many benefits. The twins, looking through a large telescope, ask their father: “Can we go to the Moon?” and “Can we go to Mars?”

“The Coalition thanks all who participated in this contest and values the strong entries submitted by people across the country,” said George Torres, chairman of the Coalition. “We also thank NASA and the NASA Visitor Center Consortium for their collaboration which enabled us to expand our reach significantly. We hope to continue to grow the public’s interest in the future of space exploration through more collaborative outreach efforts in the future.”

Entrants were encouraged to share their vision of why exploring space matters to the future, while considering the following:

  • How has space affected, influenced or inspired you?
  • What are the values and benefits of space exploration?
  • Why should we continue to explore space?

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About the Coalition for Space Exploration:
The Coalition for Space Exploration is a group of space industry businesses and advocacy groups that collaborates to ensure that the U.S. remains the leader in space, science and technology by reinforcing the value and benefits of space exploration with the public and our nation’s leaders, and building lasting support for a long-term, sustainable strategic direction for space exploration.

About the NASA Visitor Center’s Consortium:
The visitor centers all support NASA’s mission and goals of maintaining the integrity of NASA’s memorable past, present and future; increase public interest in math and science careers through educational and mentoring programs as well as promoting the extensive benefits of space exploration.