UTD to host Texas Astronomical Society and astronaut Janice Voss

Go ahead - ask her about the space toilets.

by John P. Meyer

If there's anything you've ever wanted to ask an astronaut - really, anything at all - then you must block out time on your calendar this Friday evening (Aug. 24) at 7:30 p.m., because at that hour (which equates to 19:30 in nautical/military/astronaut time-speak) Dr. Janice Voss, veteran NASA astronaut, will guest speak at a meeting of the Texas Astronomical Society on the campus of UTD.

Dr. Voss is the science director for the forthcoming Kepler mission, whose goal is the identification of Earth-sized planets orbiting around other stars by means of the observation of transits across the visible disks of those stars. Which requires a big telescope parked outside the distorting boundaries of our atmosphere. Enter NASA and its associated spacecraft.

Voss has flown on five shuttle missions and so probably could spend the entire evening describing the numerous times she's had to duck to avoid being whacked in the helmeted face by dislodged foam debris, but instead she will probably spend at least some of the time discussing the Kepler mission, scheduled for launch in Feb. 2009.

The talk, free and open to the public, will take place in the Kusch Auditorium of the Founders North building. According to this UTD missive, you may park in lots H, I or J. Here's a campus map for reference.