Monthly Archives: March 2023

The informal ‘meet and greet’ for the Crew-4 International Space Station astronauts at the Cosmos Club was attended by about 40, many of whom were scientists with their families who wanted to meet an astronaut. After a 20 minute narrated video from the astronauts, four NASA/UMD scientists with GSW & Cosmos Club experience (Killen, Kirschbaum, Cohen and Martos) gave short (4 minute) presentations to the astronauts about topics that have direct relevance to the return of humans to the Moon. The astronauts responded with interest, and good questions. At the end of the meeting the astronauts presented a plaque to the Cosmos Club and GSW.

If so, the GSW, in conjunction with the Cosmos Club, is hosting a ‘Meet and Greet’ the evening of Thursday, March 30th for the recently returned Crew-4 astronauts. The event will be in the Crentz Room on the 2nd Floor of the Cosmos Club. We hope the meeting will begin about 6 PM tomorrow night (Thursday) for about an hour. Please adhere to the Cosmos Club’s dress code: “Gentlemen are expected to wear jackets, dress slacks, a collared long-sleeved shirt (tucked-in) or turtleneck. Ladies are expected to dress in an equivalent fashion”. The recently returned International Space Station (ISS) astronauts include one, Astronaut Dr. Jessica Watkins, who received a Ph.D. in geology from UCLA on the topic of ‘Tectonic and Aqueous processes in the formation of mass-wasting features on Mars and Earth’ in 2015 under the direction of Professor An Yin. Note that the event is on THURSDAY, not our traditional Wednesday. We hope that you (and your family) may be able to attend this event. Present yourselves at the front door of the Cosmos Club, and tell them that your host is Steve Mackwell, and that you are here for the astronaut meet and greet. Further information is available from purucker[at]alumni.caltech.edu. Hope to see you there.

Please take a look at the draft minutes of the GSW meeting on 22 March. Any suggested changes or corrections should be sent to our meeting secretary glederer[at]usgs.gov

and features three talks. Learn about the Chinese lunar and planetary program from Jim Head (Brown), the Archean origin of magnetofossils from Joe Kirschvink (Caltech/ELSI), and the Biogeochemistry of Irish bogs from Devin Smith (Ohio State). The talks will be on Zoom, and members will receive a notice soon. The meeting will begin at 8 PM (EDT), with the Zoom link opening at 7:30 PM for socializing. A reminder that we are now on Daylight Savings Time. The talks are open to all, and if you would like to attend on Zoom, send michael.e.purucker[at]nasa.gov an email to request the connection information. Short blurbs, bios, and pictures of the speakers are here.

Please take a look at the draft minutes of GSW meeting on 8 March. Any suggested changes or corrections should be sent to our meeting secretary glederer[at]usgs.gov

And will be a hybrid meeting at the Powell auditorium of the Cosmos Club, and on Zoom. The auditorium will open at 7:30 PM for socializing, and the meeting will begin at 8 PM. Our three talks include ones about joint geochemical & geophysical modeling of the deep continental crust (Sammon), Antarctic ice-sheet dynamics (Weber), and automated moonquake detection (Civilini). Members will shortly receive an invite which will include the Zoom link. Non-members are encouraged to attend, either in person or on Zoom. Anyone needing the Zoom link should email purucker[at]alumni.caltech.edu for it.