September 9, 2011

Swirling Around the Globe

Screenshot of Georgiana Kramer's presentation "Overview of new spacecraft missions and data integration" with a slide showing the Mare Ingenii swirl.

On September 7 at 8:30am PDT which for me was 3:30am New Zealand time Sept 8, I rose early to take part in a unique event in the lunar science arena - The Lunar Science Institute hosted "Lunar Swirls - Workshop-Without-Walls". For the first time anyone with an interest in lunar science could attend a major workshop in Lunar Science without having to travel many hours (for me at it would have been at least 12 hours across the Pacific Ocean) to attend in person. The format was shown using Adobe Connect video conferencing that downloaded from a webbrowser and there were speakers from all around the world in different timezones that connected into the LSI and was broadcast out to our computers via the internet. There was the opportunity to phone in questions or to use the chat window at lower left of the screen to ask questions of the speakers. Being an amateur astronomer it was a privilege to be able to hear from the top lunar scientists in the field what was the current thinking on lunar swirls. It is not something one gets to be a part of often and I look forward to more workshops of this type. I am sure a lot of LPOD'ers were also there and can comment on their thoughts in the LPOD discussion. It was very much like attending LPSC (the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference) but without the cost of hotels and flights (but still with the jet lag)!

Maurice Collins

Related Links
Schedule of papers presented: https://sites.google.com/site/lunarswirls/schedule

LAC chart 119

Yesterday's LPOD: Fly Me To the Moon

Tomorrow's LPOD: A Giant Footprint

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