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The proposed Asteroid Detection And Mapping platform will help map out asteroid motions over time so we can better understand the likelihood of potential collisions with Earth.
Charting the High Frontier of Space
Monday, June 12, 2023
7:30 pm, Morrison Planetarium
Featuring Dr. Ed Lu, Asteroid Institute
Dr. Ed Lu, a former NASA astronaut, is Executive Director of the Asteroid Institute. He will present the case for a four-dimensional solar system map in a talk titled “Charting the High Frontier of Space.” The map he and his Asteroid Institute team are building is the key to protecting Earth from asteroid impacts and will also help spur future scientific exploration and commercial activities in space.
Dr. Lu is the Executive Director of the Asteroid Institute, a program of B612 Foundation. Dr. Lu served as a NASA Astronaut for twelve years. He flew aboard the Space Shuttle twice, and flew on the Russian Soyuz to the International Space Station, where he did a six-month tour. He has logged over 206 days in space.
Dr. Lu has been an active research scientist in solar physics, astrophysics, plasma physics, cosmology, and planetary science. He held positions at the High Altitude Observatory, the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, and the Institute for Astronomy. At Google, he led the Advanced Projects group, which built imaging and data gathering systems for Google Earth and Maps, Google StreetView, and Google Books. He is also a co-founder of LeoLabs, a startup building and operating a network of ground-based phased array radars for tracking satellites and space debris in Low Earth Orbit.
Ed is also the co-inventor of the Gravity Tractor, a controllable means of changing the trajectory of an asteroid.
From outer space to Earth's inner core, explore the universe from Morrison Planetarium's 75-foot digital dome.
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