A chance for some out of this world discussions

Robert Creenan, Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, N.Y.
·2 min read

Apr. 5—The Niagara Aerospace Museum has plenty of exhibits on the aircraft manufactured in Western New York, but not as known are the different space rockets that local manufacturers had a hand in building.

It is fitting that the museum is one of many sites across the region hosting NASA presentations in the lead-up to Monday's solar eclipse. At least 10 NASA subject experts have been in the area giving talks about various aspects of NASA.

One of those speakers, Patrick Renna, discussed rockets and their use at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Renna is responsible for making sure the launch team for various NASA missions is ready to go. Ahead of the eclipse, like the other NASA speakers, he has been giving two or three presentations a day across the region.

"One of the things we do as NASA is to make sure to go out and educate the public," he said. "Part of that is the outreach things we do."

For the 2017 solar eclipse, NASA had staff in Charleston, South Carolina, giving similar presentations.

During his talk at the aerospace museum, Renna spoke about the different missions he has been and will be a part of. Those include PACE, a mission studying how plankton react in a lower atmosphere and how that affects an ocean ecosystem, and the Europa Clipper, which will launch a probe toward Jupiter's moon Europa and arrive by April 2030.

Plenty of adults brought their children and grandchildren to learn about NASA. Emmit Dafchik, 9, of Buffalo, asked lots of questions during Renna's presentation, saying he liked learning about the DART mission where a spacecraft hit an asteroid.

"I just really like space and things that go through the air," Dafchik said.

On Monday, NASA will launch three sounding rockets, one before, one during, and one after the eclipse, to take readings of the ionosphere and study how the upper atmosphere is affected when sunlight slowly dims. The agency is also working with amateur radio operators to see how their wavelengths are impacted.

Museum Executive Director Lindsey Visser said the pre-registered capacity of 75 was reached for their four-weekend talks.

"People are coming in for the events, and they're able to spend some time with the museum and see things that maybe they wouldn't ordinarily see."