B
Paul Weideman I The New Mexican
Los Alamos revels in a week of geek
iofeedback video games, moon observations with Bandelier National Monument rangers, a talk by a space shuttle astronaut, a geeky costume contest, and a lecture by scientist Cathy Wilson on “Climate Impacts and Feedbacks in the Arctic Ecosystems.” Where else but Los Alamos would you find such a diverse —but always sciential — offering at a community event? They’re part of the Los Alamos ScienceFest, which runs Friday, Sept. 5, through Sept. 13 on the Hill. The festival also features conservation activities for kids, demos on quantum dots, and a BMW i3 electric car. Art’s happening in the Sec Sandoval Chalk Walk and the Parade of Painted Fire Hydrants. The Los Alamos Historical Museum shows Early Photographs of Berlyn Brixner. Brixner (1911 to 2009) gained renown as chief of the photography team assigned to record the Trinity nuclear detonation at White Sands and as an innovator of high-speed photography. This exhibit focuses on his earlier work photographing the village of Cordova and its famous woodcarvers. Over at Mesa Public Library is an exhibition of artist Evelyn Rosenberg’s detonography art: she uses explosives in the creation of her metal sculptures. Los Alamos ScienceFest was conceived in 2007 and has grown into a nine-day event. “The variety of programming helps highlight the role of science in everyday life and encourages continuous learning in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math,” said Suzette Fox, executive director of Los Alamos MainStreet. That organization facilitates the event in partnership with Los Alamos County and the Creative District — a state-sponsored economic development initiative that aims to capitalize on arts and cultural assets in communities that participate. The whole schedule is available onine at www.losalamossciencefest.com, but here’s some more motivation: a “News From Mars” talk with Roger Wiens, leader of the Mars laser team; quadcopter demonstrations; tours of Los Alamos’ solar-powered transfer station and a 1-megawatt solar array; an open house at the Jemez Mountain Herbarium; presentations on “The Art and Science of Green Chile” and “The Fate of the Río Grande Cutthroat Trout”; and talks and workshops on sea-level rise, biofuels, geodesic domes, fractals, and augmented reality. Concerts by Whitewater Ramble, DK & the Affordables, Ryan Finn, and the Squash Blossom Boys round out the schedule. RocketDay is celebrated in White Rock on Saturday, Sept. 6, with the firing of 270 rockets. Girl Scout Troop 116 sponsors this tribute to the approximately 270 rockets launched in the last half-century by Los Alamos National Laboratory to transport scientific instruments into outer space. The dozen seventh-graders are earning their Girl Scout Silver Awards with the activity.
O
R O C K E T
M A N
n hand for RocketDay is former of what’s really out there, ranging from astronaut John L. Phillips. Born in the upper atmosphere of Earth out to the Virginia, he grew up in Scottsdale, sun. At Los Alamos, we built instruments Arizona. He earned his Bachelor and flew them on a variety of spacecraft. of Science degree in mathematics Pasa: Instruments to measure what, and a commission from the U.S. exactly? Naval Academy (second in a class Phillips: Our instruments measured of 906) in 1972 and went on to atomic particles in space. One was solar get his master’s degree and his wind. That’s the ionized gas that comes doctorate in geophysics and space from the sun constantly. We measured physics at UCLA. He flew the A-7 Corsair and that, and we also measured the particles later the CT-39 Sabreliner, logging more in the radiation belts around Earth. than 4,500 hours and making 250 aircraftPasa: What are the practical applications carrier landings. of that work? After completing his doctorate in 1987, he Phillips: We’ve basically built up an received an Oppenheimer Fellowship at Los understanding of the space environment Alamos National Laboratory. After nine years of the sun and Earth and the other planets. at the lab, he was selected by the National That helps you design spacecraft that are Aeronautics and Space Administration and resistant to radiation and helps you forebegan astronaut training. He served on the John L. Phillips, NASA’s International Space Station science officer and flight cast space weather events that can affect space shuttle Endeavor during a 12-day engineer, right, with cosmonaut Sergei K. Krikalev in the Destiny laboratory aboard spacecraft and electrical power supplies mission to the International Space Station the space station; top, the space station seen from space shuttle Discovery. on Earth. in the spring of 2001. Four years later, Soyuz Pasa: The space station seems so vulTMA-6 took him back to the station, where nerable. It’s all gangly and doesn’t have he served for six months as science officer and flight engi- Pasatiempo: What’s it like blasting out into space? shields like in Star Trek. neer. In March 2009, Phillips flew to the ISS on space shuttle John Phillips: It’s great fun. For me it was a culmination, Phillips: There’s not a lot of shielding, but the space station’s Discovery, where he deployed a robotic arm to install the S6 something I had wanted to do for a very long time. I had shield is the same that’s shielding you and me right now: truss, part of the station’s “backbone.” been interested ever since the first manned space flight just Earth’s magnetic field. The station is only 240 miles up. It’s Phillips talks about “Heavy Lifting in Space: Building before my 10th birthday. one one-thousandth of the way to the moon. You do get an the International Space Station” at the Bradbury Science Pasa: You were a Navy pilot, and then you worked at Los elevated radiation dose if you spend six months in space, but Museum on Sunday, Sept. 7. Pasatiempo called Phillips at his Alamos. What did you do at the lab? it’s not life-threatening. home in northern Idaho, where he has lived since he retired Phillips: I began as a postdoctoral fellow; then I was on staff. continued on Page 34 from NASA three years ago. My emphasis was space plasma physics, which is the physics PASATIEMPOMAGAZINE.COM
33