GeekSpeak for June 25, 2004

Joe Jordan, planetary and atmospheric modeler for the SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), joins the geeks to discuss his work modeling the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan, where the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will arrive in July 2004. This seven-year journey to Saturn will place the Cassini spacecraft into a four-year orbit around the planet to measure its magnetosphere and will analyze the composition of Saturn's famous rings and its atmosphere. In December 2004, Cassini will eject the Huygens probe that will descend into Saturn's mysterious moon of Titan. If Huygen's survives the impact of the landing upon the frozen moon, it will be the furthest human-made object ever to land on a celestial body. (Cassini-Huygens image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Cassini-Huygens - Mission to Saturn and Titan

 

Joe Jordan, planetary and atmospheric modeler for the SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), joins the geeks to discuss his work modeling the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan, where the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will arrive in July 2004. This seven-year journey to Saturn will place the Cassini spacecraft into a four-year orbit around the planet to measure its magnetosphere and will analyze the composition of Saturn's famous rings and its atmosphere. In December 2004, Cassini will eject the Huygens probe that will descend into Saturn's mysterious moon of Titan. If Huygen's survives the impact of the landing upon the frozen moon, it will be the furthest human-made object ever to land on a celestial body. (Cassini-Huygens image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Interview Guest: Joe Jordan

 

Joe Jordan has worked at the NASA Ames Research Center for over 20 years, on projects ranging from a flying observatory for infrared astronomy, to studies of the polar stratospheric ozone layer, to the search for planets around other stars, to image analysis from Mars landers and rovers. He's also been teaching science and math in area public schools; leads stargazing and "physics-in-nature" hikes for various organizations; and teaches renewable energy at Cabrillo and the Monterey Institute of International Studies. He's had some success getting solar electric systems installed on area schools and other public buildings. At NASA he is currently employed by the SETI Institute, which supports a broad array of research on astronomy and biology, bearing upon questions of the origins of life and where else it might exist, besides Earth. Last fall he went to Chile's rather unearthly Atacama Desert to an area where it's so dry that even microbes don't make it.