SETI INSTITUTE

A discussion with Senior Astronomer Seth Shostak and Senior Researcher David Summers.

The reign of Le Grand K has come to an end. After 130 years, this hunk of metal sitting in a Parisian vault will no longer define the kilogram. The new kilogram mass will be defined by Planck’s constant, joining three other units for redefinition by fundamental constants. But as we measure with increasing precision – from cesium atomic clocks to gravitational wave detectors able to measure spacetime distortions to 1/1000th the width of a proton – is something fundamental lost along the way? Meanwhile, the BiPiSci team accepts the banana-measurement challenge. Tune in at https://bigpicturescience.org

Last month, a consortium of five dozen astronomers reported the discovery of eight new bursts that may lead to an answer. The objects were found with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, or CHIME. This unusual-looking radio telescope, about the size of a football field, consists of four metal mesh cylinders — like skateboard half-pipes — that collect and focus incoming radio waves. CHIME is in a sparsely populated, mountainous region of British Columbia about 30 miles north of the U.S. border. Read the entire story at: https://www.seti.org/fast-radio-bursts-space-have-baffled-scientists-years-explanation-may-come-soon SETI Institute: https://seti.org Find Big Picture Science Podcast, hosted by Seth Shostak, on iTunes and at https://bigpicturescience.org

This project is part of the Astrobiology Research Division of the SETI Institute. It is connected to the mission of the SETI Institute in that it provides us with answers or at least ways to find answers to are we alone in the solar system. Basically, what we are doing is to try to understand how to detect life that is not visible, or traces of past life that might be hiding somewhere.

Produced at the SETI Institute. Big Picture Science engages the public with modern science research through smart and humorous storytelling. This week's episode is Skeptic Check: Data Bias Sexist snow plowing? Data that guide everything from snow removal schedules to heart research often fail to consider gender. In these cases, “reference man” stands in for “average human.” Human bias also infects artificial intelligence, with speech recognition triggered only by male voices and facial recognition that can’t see black faces. We question the assumptions baked into these numbers and algorithms. Listen to the episode at https://bigpicturescience.org

Senior Director of STEM Simon Steel chats with Research Scientist Pablo Sobron about his new project InVADER. An autonomous robot designed to explore hydrothermal vents off the coast of San Diego. Learn more about InVADER Mission at https://invader-mission.org

InVADER Mission - Anuschech Nawaz, University of Washington Learn more about InVADER Mission at: https://invader-mission.org

InVADER Mission - Renaud Detry, NASA JPL Learn more about InVADER mission at https://invader-mission.org

InVADER Mission - Roy Price, SUNY Stony Brook University Learn more about InVADER Mission at: https://invader-mission.org

InVADER Mission - Anupam Misra, University of Hawaii InVADER will study underwater hydrothermal systems at Axial Seamount, the largest and most active volcano on western boundary of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate off the coast of Oregon. The vents at the Axial Seamount generate chemical energy which can sustain life, and are high-fidelity analogues to putative vent systems on Ocean Worlds. Learn more about InVADER Mission at: https://invader-mission.org

And can they come from underwater vents? InVADER Mission with Laurie Barge, JPL InVADER will study underwater hydrothermal systems at Axial Seamount, the largest and most active volcano on western boundary of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate off the coast of Oregon. The vents at the Axial Seamount generate chemical energy which can sustain life, and are high-fidelity analogues to putative vent systems on Ocean Worlds. Learn more about InVADER at https://invader-mission.org

InVADER Mission - Tayro Acosta-Maeda, University of Hawaii InVADER will study underwater hydrothermal systems at Axial Seamount, the largest and most active volcano on western boundary of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate off the coast of Oregon. The vents at the Axial Seamount generate chemical energy which can sustain life, and are high-fidelity analogues to putative vent systems on Ocean Worlds. Learn more about InVADER mission at: https://invader-mission.org

InVADER Mission - Pablo Sobron, SETI Institute InVADER will study underwater hydrothermal systems at Axial Seamount, the largest and most active volcano on western boundary of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate off the coast of Oregon. The vents at the Axial Seamount generate chemical energy which can sustain life, and are high-fidelity analogues to putative vent systems on Ocean Worlds. Learn more about InVADER Mission at: https://invader-mission.org

SETI Institute researchers Michael Busch and Franck Marchis talk about asteroids that come very close to the Earth.

In our previous video about storming Area 51( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBsnfFL1JM8&feature=youtu.be ), we gave you 5 reasons not to camp out at the military installation this coming September, but some of you still wondered why we think there are no aliens there. SETI Institute Senior Astronomer Seth Shostak presents his case for why haven't visited us. Do you agree? Let us know in the comments.

Live from the SETI Institute - A discussion between NASA researcher Jon Jenkins & SETI Institute Astronomer Franck Marchis about TESS spacecraft and its recent discoveries.

Listen to this week's episode at http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/granting-immunity “Diversity or die” could be your new health mantra. Don’t boost your immune system, cultivate it! Like a garden, your body’s defenses benefit from species diversity. Find out why multiple strains of microbes, engaged in a delicate ballet with your T-cells, join internal fungi in combatting disease. Plus, global ecosystems also depend on the diversity of its tiniest members; so what happens when the world’s insects bug out?

The 2nd talk in our returning to the moon series. If you'd like to see the first lecture, it's here: https://youtu.be/0IrRHDqvmxk NASA has an ambitious plan to return astronauts to the Moon. The return includes commercial and international partners with the goal of promoting a faster and more extensive exploration of the Moon as well as destinations beyond. In a fashion similar to what has been done in commercializing low-Earth orbit, NASA proposes to lead these partnerships. The plan this time is to establish a space outpost, to learn how to live in deep space, and to explore the Moon from above. Meanwhile, as assembly of this orbital outpost takes place, astronauts would land at the lunar south pole by 2024. What are the goals of this new project? Is the lunar south pole the best place to go? What science will we be able to conduct from the surface of the moon and from lunar orbit? The new plan has received both praise and criticism. Supporters praise it as valuable, as they view it as the first true step for humans to permanently settle another world and prepare for the exploration of Mars and beyond. Opponents criticize it as too rushed, too costly, or too ill-defined.

Are you ready to defer all your personal decision-making to machines? Polls show that most Americans are uneasy about the unchecked growth of artificial intelligence. The possible misuse of genetic engineering also makes us anxious. We all have a stake in the responsible development of science and technology, but fortunately, science fiction films can help. Sci-Fi Science episode: http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/sci-fi-future Bigpicturescience podcast: https://bigpicturescience.org SETI Institute: https://seti.org

This September, thousands of people plan to storm the gates of Area 51. Should you join them? Here's what you need to know before signing up.

Why do some people think the Earth is flat? It's not as easy to understand as you might think. If you're interested in the topic, check out Big Picture Science radio podcast: http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/skeptic-check-flat-earth

Crowded subway driving you crazy? Sick of the marathon-length grocery store line? Wish you had a hovercraft to float over traffic? If you are itching to hightail it to an isolated cabin in the woods, remember, we evolved to be together. Humans are not only social, we’re driven to care for one another, even those outside our immediate family. We look at some of the reasons why this is so – from the increase in valuable communication within social groups to the power of the hormone oxytocin. Plus, how our willingness to tolerate anonymity, a condition which allows societies to grow, has a parallel in ant supercolonies. Guests: Adam Rutherford – Geneticist and author of “Humanimal: How Homo sapiens Became Nature’s Most Paradoxical Creature – a New Evolutionary History” Patricia Churchland – Neurophilosopher, professor of philosophy emerita at the University of California San Diego, and author most recently of “Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition” Mark Moffett – Tropical biologist, Smithsonian Institution researcher, and author of “The Human Swarm: How Our Societies Arise, Thrive and Fall” Big Picture Science Episode at https://bit.ly/2McfXCO

Simon Steel talks to Director of Education Pamela Harman about the Institute's involvement in the release of the girl scouts new science badges.

The first of two lectures we have about returning to the moon. If you'd like to see the second one, it's here: https://youtu.be/uBwYu-eIiRY NASA is going back to the Moon, this time with commercial and international partners that will help us explore faster and explore more. After successful efforts to commercialize low-Earth orbit, there’s a renewed commitment to this new effort, which calls for the partnership to launch and operate a new space station, the Gateway. The Gateway will first explore the Moon from above and put men and women on the surface by 2024. To celebrate this endeavor and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first moonwalk, the SETI Institute has organized two summer talks about this ambitious program, officially known as Artemis. The first will take place on June 26. Greg Schmidt, Director of the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI), and Michael Sims, CEO, and founder of Ceres Robotics will present this first talk. Greg leads NASA’s lunar exploration research program and will give us an update on Artemis. Michael, an expert on AI and robotic exploration, will describe the activities of Ceres Robotics in the exploration of the Moon and the understanding of its geology and surface properties. After a short presentation, both speakers will participate in a discussion about the past, present, and future of lunar exploration moderated by David Morrison, Senior Scientist at SSERVI and former director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute. Join us to find out how, after 50 years, we are going to go back to the moon.

Senior Astronomer Seth Shostak gives a short rundown of what the Fermi Paradox has to do with the search for ET.

Pascal Lee discusses his team's "Moon To Mars" work, from icy lava tubes in Iceland to the Haughton-Mars Project (HMP) in the Arctic. Matthew Tiscareno interviewing. Originally published live on Facebook - April 4, 2019. Ending Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzyOdH6OlV0 More info on the icy lava tubes: https://buff.ly/2uhdNrC More on the HMP: https://buff.ly/2TwnT1N

SETI Institute CEO Bill Diamond discusses Laser SETI program with Eliot Gillum.

SETI Institute Director of Education Pamela Harman discusses augmented reality in education with AstroReality co-founder Joanne Dai and AstroReality science advisor and SETI Institute research scientist J.R. Skok.

To answer the iconic question “Are We Alone?”, scientists around the world are also attempting to understand the origin of life. There are many pieces to the puzzle of how life began and many ways to put them together into a big picture. Some of the pieces are firmly established by the laws of chemistry and physics. Others are conjectures about what Earth was like four billion years ago, based on extrapolations of what we know from observing Earth today. However, there are still major gaps in our knowledge and these are necessarily filled in by best guesses. We invited talented scientists to discuss their different opinions about the origin of life and the site of life’s origin. Most of them will agree that liquid water was necessary, but if we had a time machine and went back in time, would we find life first in a hydrothermal submarine setting in sea water or a fresh water site associated with emerging land masses? Biologist David Deamer, a Research Professor of Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and multi-disciplinary scientist Bruce Damer, Associate Researcher in the Department of Biomolecular Engineering at UC Santa Cruz, will describe their most recent work, which infers that hydrothermal pools are the most plausible site for the origin of life. Both biologists have been collaborating since 2016 on a full conception of the Terrestrial Origin of Life Hypothesis. Lynn Rothschild, Senior Scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center and Adjunct Professor of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry at Brown University, who is an astrobiologist/ synthetic biologist specializing in molecular approaches to evolution, particularly in microbes and the application of synthetic biology to NASA's missions, will provide an evolutionary biologist’s perspective on the subject.

Bill Diamond and Peter Jenniskens discuss a collision on asteroid Vesta 22 million years ago that produced meteorites that fell in Turkey in 2015. Originally published live on Facebook - March 21, 2019. https://www.seti.org

Bill Diamond and Michael Busch discuss the Arecibo Observatory, a radio telescope located in Puerto Rico is one of the largest radio telescopes in the world

Bill Diamond and Nathalie Cabrol discuss the Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, and the end of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission. Originally published live on Facebook - February 28, 2019. https://www.seti.org

Matthew Tiscareno and Mark Showalter discuss the Neptune moon, Hippocamp. Originally published live on Facebook - February 21, 2019. https://www.seti.org

A discussion with Pamela Harman, Jill Tarter, Rosalba Bonaccorsi, Janice Bishop, Nathalie Cabrol and Margaret Race. Originally published live on Facebook - February 11, 2019. https://www.facebook.com/SETIInstitute/ https://www.seti.org

Bill Diamond and Andrew Siemion discuss fast radio bursts (FRBs) and SETI. Originally published live on Facebook - February 5, 2019. https://www.seti.org

Bill Diamond and Jon Richards discuss the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) and SETI. Originally published live on Facebook - January 31, 2019. https://www.seti.org

Bill Diamond and Tyler Mackey discuss Tyler’s field expeditions to Antarctica. Originally published live on Facebook - January 24, 2019. https://www.seti.org

NASA's New Horizons made history when it flew by Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, nicknamed 'Ultima Thule', on New Year's Day of this year. Today, even though only 10% of the scientific data that the spacecraft collected has been sent to Earth, New Horizons has provided an amazing glimpse into the primordial solar system and revealed that Ultima Thule is the first contact binary object ever observed “in the wild” where it formed and in a largely unmodified state since its birth. High resolution images and the first comprehensive compositional spectroscopy data are now in-hand with the science team and many more scientific results will no doubt soon be forthcoming. To discuss the key results of this successful flyby and the future of the mission, we invited Alan Stern, planetary scientist at Southwest Research Institute and the Principal Investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission who will join us remotely via video-conferencing. Two Senior Research Scientists from our own SETI Institute who are part of the mission will participate in this discussion as well. Mark Showalter is a Fellow of the Institute who led the New Horizons risk assessment team before the flyby, and Ross Beyer, also a member of the New Horizons Geology and Geophysics team, who is helping to understand the 3D shape of MU69.

Each year we celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8. In some countries, it’s a holiday, in others, it’s practically ignored. At the SETI Institute, we have women working at all levels – as leaders, as scientists, as educators and as professionals who make it all happen. The women of the SETI Institute are smart, talented, dedicated, passionate and hard-working. We are grateful for all the women of the SETI Institute who help us advance our mission every day. Thank you!

Movie revealing the shock veins inside the fifth Creston meteorite found, using X-ray Computed Tomography. Movie: UC Davis/Douglas Rowland.

What should we expect from the next generation of space telescopes? What key scientific questions will they help answer? Do we have the technology we need to operate them in 20-30 years? To address these issues, NASA selected four large space mission concepts to study and consider as possible future Large Strategic Science Missions. Of the NASA astrophysics division missions, these tend to be the most expensive, but also have the greatest capacity. Three of those space telescopes got the attention of the SETI Institute because of their potential to answer the question, “Are We Alone?” The Origins Space Telescope (Origins) is a large cooled infrared space telescope with higher sensitivity and better angular resolution than any prior observatory accessing similar wavelengths. Among its many science objectives covering the first stars to life, Origins could help scientists understand the abundance and availability of water for habitable planets and could look forbiosignatures on potentially habitable worlds transiting low-mass stars. The Large UV Optical Infrared Surveyor (or LUVOIR) is a general-purpose observatory; its key science goal is to characterize a wide range of exoplanets, including those that might be habitable and orbiting a range of stellar types. The Habitable Exoplanet Imaging Mission (HabEx) is a space telescope, optimized to search for and image Earth-sized exoplanets in the habitable zones around sun-like stars, where liquid water might exist. HabEx would also have a suite of general astrophysics science capabilities. Each of these concepts has pros and cons, as well as other technological, cost, and risk challenges. These mission concepts will be described in detail in their final study reports, which will be delivered to the National Academy of Sciences for the Astro 2020 Decadal Survey later this year. It is still unknown whether the Decadal Survey will prioritize none, one, or even all of these concepts, but the several hundred scientists and engineers involved in these mission concept studies for the past three years are confident that we are now capable of building these telescopes, and that the science that they can deliver will be compelling and change again our view of the cosmos, just as the Hubble Space Telescope has done for the past 3 decades. We invited three scientists directly involved in each one of the three teams above to discuss these exciting future mission projects. During this SETI Talk, they will describe their projects, and tell us more about the challenges and the processes that could make these missions a reality: Prof. Courtney Dressing, astronomer and member of the LUVOIR Science and Technology Definition Team (STDT), whose research aims to detect and characterize planetary systems orbiting nearby stars. Dr. Kimberly Ennico Smith, a NASA research astrophysicist who is multidisciplinary in her approach to space instruments, telescopes, and mission concepts. She is a member of the STDT of OST. Prof. Scott Gaudi, astronomer and community chair of the HabEx STDT, who bridges the gap between theory and observations, with extensive experience in leadership roles and consensus-building, as well as experience with several exoplanet detection methods and exoplanet surveys.

This month, we invited three scientists whose work is directly related to Antarctica to discuss the potential of this “continent for science”. Peter Roopnarine, Curator of Geology, Department of Invertebrate Zoology & Geology, Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability, California Academy of Sciences,  has studied ecosystems in extreme environments and how a planet emerges from a snowball to become a diverse biosphere. Tyler Mackey, Postdoctoral Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, focuses his research on habitats of the cryosphere and has dived in the lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica to study records of microbial activity. Ariel Waldman, citizen scientist and artist, just recently came back from an expedition in Antarctica, where she filmed microbes living within glaciers, under the sea ice, and in subglacial ponds. While there, she also shadowed various research teams, including a mission testing an autonomous underwater vehicle. Beyond understanding the past life of our planet, Antarctica is a great platform to study life in an extreme environment. This month’s speakers are explorers who travel to the bottom of Earth to search for and characterize life with instruments that could one day explore Europa’s ocean. They’ll share their thoughts on Earth’s cryogenic past, when the surface was entirely or partially frozen, and discuss how their work in Antarctica is related to understanding its impact on the expansion of complex multicellular life.

CEO Bill Diamond is joined by New Horizons Hazard team lead and SETI Institute Senior Scientist, Mark Showalter to discuss the spacecraft's flyby of Ultima Thule, what it's like working on the Hazards team, and even the naming of some of Pluto's surface features.

It is impossible to know when we will get our first contact and what this message will say, but we know that this discovery will have an ethical and political impact on our world. And then what will happen next? Will the detection of ET be dangerous or beneficial for humankind? Will it change everything, including our place in the universe or will we simply continue our life knowing that ‘We are not alone’? For more than four decades, astronomers have been searching for techno-signatures: signals coming from distant technological civilizations. The first SETI searches began in the 1960s by searching for extraterrestrial radio waves and have more recently expanded to include optical (visible) signals, such as powerful laser pulses. We know that, like technological progress, the search is also accelerating, evolving with the development of new antenna arrays and new networks of telescopes which will soon be capable of listening to the entire sky, everywhere, and all the time. To discuss these points, we invited four SETI researchers: Julia DeMarines, Astrobiologist and Science Communicator at the UC Berkeley SETI Research Center, Doug Vakoch, President of METI, Eliot Gillum, director of LASER SETI and Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute.

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Kepler was NASA’s first mission dedicated to the search for planets around other stars, called exoplanets. The first exoplanet was discovered just 20 years prior to launch, and only a few hundred more were discovered in that time, with most of them inhabitable and more similar to gas giants like Jupiter than Earth. In the nearly ten years since Kepler’s launch, data from the spacecraft has resulted in the detection of thousands of exoplanets, with a multitude of them the size of Earth or smaller, and many of them at the right distance from their star to possibly support life. Thanks to data from Kepler, we now have greater understanding of two terms of the Drake Equation that had eluded us for fifty-seven years --- we now know there are even more planets than stars in our galaxy and that a significant number of them could have the right conditions to be habitable. Thanks to Kepler, we know that Earth is not alone. The odds of humanity not being alone in the cosmos seem high. But there are still a lot of big terms in that simple little Drake Equation to figure out. The search will continue with new space telescopes like TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), and future generation of large space telescopes like JWST (James Webb Space Telescope). We invited Natalie Batalha, Professor at U.C. Santa Cruz, and Doug Caldwell, Senior Research Scientist at the SETI Institute to discuss the state of the search for exoplanets. What did we learn from the Kepler mission? What are the most exotic planetary systems discovered so far? What are the chances of finding extraterrestrial life in the next decade using new telescopes? These are the questions that will be addressed during our special SETI Talk on the end of the Kepler spacecraft on November 13 at 7pm at SRI International, Menlo Park, CA. Join us for a special tribute to the Kepler spacecraft.

As humans prepare to venture once more into deep space, there is a clear need for creating new models for space exploration and expanding the roles, for those who travel in space and eventually settle on other worlds and for those on the ground whose work ensures their success. In our first space era, astronaut heroes thrilled us with their daring exploits in the high-flying rocket-ships they rode all the way to the moon and back. Women were not invited to go along, but many were integral to the effort, an invisible space community that we’re just beginning to value and recognize, a revised and more comprehensive history that includes Hidden Figures, Rocket Girls, the Mercury 13, and more. It’s been six decades since we first left Earth. The heyday of the space cowboy has come and gone, and the face of space exploration is overdue for a makeover. As humans prepare to venture once more into deep space, the need is clear to create new models for space exploration and to expand the roles, not only for those who travel in space and eventually settle on other worlds, but also for the ground-based scientists and technicians who are so vital to the success of any off-Earth mission. Speakers: Dr. Jan Millsapps, Brian Patrick Green, Dr. Margaret Race

The SETI Institute is known for its world-class, cutting edge scientific research but we also have a passion as science ambassadors to inspire young STEM learners and engage the general public. Education and public outreach are part of our mission and that’s why the Center for Education is one of the three centers of the SETI Institute. The SETI Institute’s Center for Education promotes STEM education through NASA- and NSF-funded, as well as privately funded programs aimed at educating and inspiring children, young adults and educators with emphasis on space sciences and astrobiology. Join us on August 14 at 7pm at SRI International Headquarters in Menlo Park, CA for a special SETI Talk to hear about our education programs. Pamela Harman, Acting Director of Center for Education at the SETI Institute, will give an overview of our education programs, including our NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), the NASA Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors (AAA), STEM Teacher and Researcher (STAR), Reaching for the Stars: NASA Science for Girl Scouts (Girl Scout Stars), and the NASA Frontier Development Labs (NASA-FDL). Several participants from those programs, including Jessica Henricks (Girl Scouts of Northern California Council), Zoe Sharp (STAR Fellow), Marita Beard (AAA), and one REU student of the year 2018 will discuss their experience and what they learned while being embedded in our Center for Education.

What is the potential of Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) technology in Space? Could VR technology plays a role in our ambition to reach the stars. Could we use this new tool to explore and understand our solar system? Will it help to harvest the almost infinite amount of energy and material available in space? Together with VR/AR specialists, Space entrepreneurs, as well as scientific institutions like the SETI Institute, we will discuss the role of VR/AR, emphasizing how this new technology can be used by scientists, engineers, and educators to build, share and describe future innovative space projects as well as share with the public the excitement of exploring our universe. Timoni West is a director of XR Research in Unity Labs, managing a team of cross-disciplinary artists and engineers. Her group explores how humans can create and live in worlds in virtual & augmented reality. She will describe how the VR/AR tools are now available to everybody giving the opportunity to talented artists and engineers to build their own applications for space exploration. Amaresh Kollipara is an Emmy-nominated VR producer and space industry executive with a multidisciplinary background. He recently led a project called Mission:ISS at Facebook's VR company Oculus. This project was conducted in collaboration with NASA and is a true-to-life simulation of the International Space Station in VR. Amaresh will also discuss new VR use cases being developed by NASA, ESA, and other agencies. He’ll discuss how several agencies and companies are using VR and AR technologies to visualize large amounts of data and communicate space themes with the general public. Franck Marchis, a senior planetary astronomer at the SETI Institute and Chief Scientific Officer at Unistellar. Franck is also a scientific advisor for VR2Planets, a company which specialized in creating accurate environments from space-based and drone/rover data to help scientists explore and understand planets and other bodies in our solar system. A multi-user demo which immerses the users on the surface of Mars made from the Curiosity rover data combined with the space-satellite data will be featured at the event. Franck will discuss his thoughts on the potential of VR for scientific investigations at large. J.R Skok is a planetary scientist with the SETI Institute. His research is focused on exploring the deep history of Mars and the Earth and the active exploration for astrobiology. He is the scientific advisor for AstroReality, a company that developed topographically precise planetary models that are paired with AR technology for education and science outreach. J.R. will demonstrate the power of combining the limitless potential of AR with tangible handheld artifacts to understand Space like never before.