Spreading the Word
Construction of the ARTEMIS bot house continues to be stalled by weather. It’s frustrating, but the silver lining has been a series of opportunities to share ARTEMIS with the McMurdo Station population before it’s moved out of town to our field site. We’ve had show-and-tell events yesterday and today. Both events were attended well beyond our expectations by administrators, galley staff, shuttle drivers, equipment techs, other science groups… you name it! We were really happy to meet so many different folks from around the station and to share ARTEMIS with them before it disappears to our field camp. We encouraged our visitors to climb up on the ARTEMIS crate, touch the robot, take pictures, and ask questions. I wedged myself into the space in front of the vehicle nose and had a fantastic time with visitors for over two hours. Britney, Kristof, Luke, Evan, and Bill were all around the room doing the same.
In related news, Vickie kicked off the season’s series of Sunday Science Lectures yesterday. Her talk, Ice and Rocks and Robots, oh My! The Yellow-Brick Road to Europa, was very well attended and very well received. There’s no auditorium on station, so these sorts of things happen in the dining hall. Our group will be giving two more talks this season – one about the SIMPLE science mission, and one about the ARTEMIS robot specifically.
Vickie gives a well-attended Sunday Science Lecture in the McMurdo dining hall about robotics projects at Stone Aerospace related to the search for extraterrestrial life. (photo: Peter Kimball)
Reporting by Peter Kimball