2012 Ad Astra Kansas Day features Voyager Anniversary

The Voyager Spacecraft's 35th anniversary was featured April 21 at the 2012 Ad Astra Kansas Day Space Celebration at Washburn University in Topeka.

Lawrence scientist Thomas Armstrong has been connected with NASA's Voyager program since its beginning and will be one of the first to see data sent back from interstellar space by  Voyager as it leaves the solar system some time in 2012.

Armstrong's illustrated lecture with video and sound, “Space History: Politics, Science and Discovery,” describes U.S. space exploration from the first satellite launch in 1958 through the present, with Voyager 1 about 14 billion miles from Earth.  Major discoveries and future possibilities will be discussed for general audiences, especially school children.

The free, family event was sponsored by the Ad Astra Kansas Initiative Foundation in cooperation with the Washburn University Dept. of Physics and Astronomy. Activities included telescope displays; planetarium and observatory viewing; flight, telescope and  robotics demos; “space” ice cream;  a virtual solar system; hands-on activities and take-aways.