Astronaut to Discuss How the Sun Impacts Earth

Submitted by Geophysical Institute
Phone: (907) 474-7558
02/18/03

Shannon Lucid, NASA chief scientist and veteran astronaut, will present a free lecture for people of all ages on understanding the relationship between Sun and Earth at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25 at the Chena River Convention Center in Fairbanks. NASA Senior Scientist Art Poland and Johns Hopkins University APL Senior Scientist Nicola Fox will join her in the hour-long multimedia presentation.

Lucid is among the first six women selected to become an astronaut and has logged 223 days in space, an international record for the most flight hours in orbit by any non-Russian. She holds the US single-mission space-flight endurance record on the Russian Space Station Mir, where in 1996 she performed numerous life science and physical science experiments. In completing this mission, she traveled 75.2 million miles in just over 188 days. Dr. Lucid recently was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor by US President George Bush, becoming the first and only woman to have earned this prestigious award.

Lucid, Poland and Fox will present colorful images illustrating the impact of the sun on Earth’s systems. They will discuss how NASA knows when a solar storm has occurred before it can affect Earth and how such storms can affect current technology. Relying on personal experience, Lucid also will describe how the sun impacts astronauts as they live and work in space.

Lucid’s co-presenters, Poland and Fox, are major contributors to NASA’s Living with a Star program, a space weather-focused and applications-driven research program designed to understand and address aspects of the Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society.

The lecture is one of six weekly presentations included in the 2003 Science for Alaska free public lecture series, coordinated by the UAF Geophysical Institute and sponsored by the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation and the University of Alaska.

For more information about the series, call the Geophysical Institute at (907) 474-7558.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Additional biographical information about the speakers can be found on the Science for Alaska free public lecture series Web site.

Information about NASA’s Living with a Star program can be found online.

CONTACT:
Vicki Daniels, Public Relations Specialist, UAF Geophysical Institute: (907) 474-7558
Lynda McGilvary, UAF Geophysical Institute Information Office: (907) 474-7558