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Babbitt Ranches Supporting Artemis Missions, Promoting Land-Use Ethic on Other Worlds

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Dark moon walks and ‘Lunar Gateway’ planned.

On land commonly occupied by Hereford cattle, pronghorn antelope and mule deer, a moon rover prototype cruises at a top speed of eight miles per hour near Black Point Lava Flow. It is here on Babbitt Ranches that NASA, Japan’s space program, JAXA, U.S. Geological Survey scientists, along with engineers and technicians, set up a space camp of sorts. They have been preparing for a series of Artemis Missions to enable human exploration of the moon and Mars. The first, the uncrewed Artemis 1, launched Nov. 16.

“The next one [Artemis 2] will have crew on it orbiting around the moon and then Artemis 3 will bring humans back to the surface,” said USGS geologist and astronaut trainer Lauren Edgar. “But there are many more Artemis Missions that are planned, including having a ‘Lunar Gateway,’ a space station that will be in orbit around the moon, and a pressurized rover that will enable the crew to go much further from the lander.

That pressurized rover is about the size of a tank or small RV. The cockpit has two pilot seats, where each astronaut can control the vehicle using a joystick device. Benches behind the seats fold down into beds with a toilet located between them. The 12 wheels underneath can turn 90 degrees to make the rover go sideways. The rover takes on rocks and small boulders with ease, climbs up and down hills and can turn in a complete circle. Last month, astronauts from NASA and JAXA spent two and a half days at a time inside the vehicle.

“They were having dehydrated food, which would be equivalent to a lot of the dehydrated food being used on the Space Station right now,” said Edgar. “Everyone said it worked out pretty well. They were very comfortable for the time that they spent in there and I’m glad we had the chance to test it out.”

“It’s really exciting to be back out here on the Babbitt property,” said Desert RATS Mission Manager Barbara Janoiko. “The last time we were here for a Desert RATS mission was in 2011. They’ve been real supporters of our testing this year as well as in the past. It’s also really exciting that what we’re doing out here – developing the pressurized rover requirements – plays a small piece in the Artemis Missions.”

The Artemis 3 Mission is being planned for 2025 or 2026, with a landing at the lunar South Pole where the sun shines at a very low angle and creates long shadows. To simulate the conditions, the Babbitt land provides the rocky lunar-like terrain while the Desert RATS team has brought in a big spotlight, or “portable sun,” to practice drills with at night. “The biggest challenge,” said Janoiko, “is trying to understand how to operate in this low-lighting condition with these different natural conditions and what you can see and explore in that type of environment.”

“There’s a lot of great science that can be done at the lunar South Pole,” said Edgar. “We expect there to be volatiles, potentially water ice, in some of the permanently shadowed regions there and that could be a really good resource for future exploration. It’s also a good chance to go to this part of the moon that we’ve never explored before to better understand the moon’s formation and evolution and to sample some geologic units that are really old and reveal information about the impact-cratering history. One of the really cool things about the moon is it’s really been this witness plate to everything that we’ve experienced here on the Earth, but maybe we don’t have a record of that anymore because of plate tectonics on Earth that have actively destroyed some of those earlier records.”

Although the specific landing site has not been identified yet, NASA recently announced 13 different regions of interest at the lunar South Pole. “Right now the planetary science community is working to understand those areas in more detail including the geology and minerology, the potential hazards that might exist and the challenging lighting conditions. In terms of what the terrain might look like, there are some really big old impact craters in that area. We don’t necessarily intend to see lava flows because that terrain has just been pummeled over and over again by impact craters over time, so it’s going to be a lot of loose fluffy regolith probably.”

As a scientist inspired by the Apollo Missions, Edgar calls it a huge honor to be part of the process. “It is a privilege to be at this point in human history. And it’s even more special to be connected to some of those who might be making those first steps. I can just say from the astronauts I’ve worked with, the future of space exploration is in great hands.”

Also inspiring, says Cordasco, is a land stewardship philosophy intended to travel with the astronauts. “Together with the USGS and NASA, we want to promote the idea that the land-use ethic we practice here on Babbitt Ranches be extended to form our ideals in space,” he said.

“We have land ethics here on the Babbitt property that we maintain and then we’re going to carry that forward as we explore future destinations in our solar system,” said Janoiko.

USGS geologist Jim Skinner is one of the key forces behind developing a statement that honors the use of land wherever humans travel. “It’s a way to have everyone understand that we are taking care of the land, whether we are on private land, like Babbitt Ranches, or on the moon or other worlds,” he said. “We want to always be respectful and that goes beyond the ground itself, it includes the critters and the biota. That’s something we will be working on over the next year.”

A draft statement suggests a personal and professional commitment “to help maintain the integrity of the land as we take this next step off of our world and onto another.”

“We want to ensure that those who follow will have the same lands here and beyond available to them for their own stewardship, use and exploration,” said Cordasco. QCBN

By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN

For drone video of the moon rover rolling across Babbitt Ranches north of Flagstaff by LightForce Media and a more in-depth interview with astronaut trainer Lauren Edgar, go to Zonie Living at
StarWorldWideNetworks.com.

Honoring our Values, Living a Life of Thanksgiving

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As Oprah says, “You are fulfilling your mission and purpose on Earth when you honor the real you. Your whole life becomes a prayer of thanksgiving.”

After spending a day in the open spaces of Babbitt Ranches with mission-driven engineers, technicians, geologists, journalists and visionaries from organizations such as NASA, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), the U.S. Geological Survey and Babbitt Ranches, I found myself energized, joyful, inspired and grateful to be in this bubble of positive intelligence focused on propelling the human race forward in cooperation and doing so with a land use ethic.

In this pop-up aerospace village of sorts that was testing equipment and communication systems in the challenging, rocky and lunar-like remote terrain, Babbitt Ranches President Billy Cordasco asked representatives in this international effort to sign a “goat bar,” a tool the ranch designed and uses to pull up the lower strand of wire fences to help pronghorn antelope crawl under and maneuver across the landscape. The exercise was a symbolic, global commitment to care for the land and its inhabitants wherever we are and to consider how we leave the environment for generations to come.

Imagine feeling so good about what you are doing, who you are working with and how you are contributing to an effort bigger than yourself that you are giddy with enthusiasm, open to the possibilities and just plain happy. I believe this is what happens when we love who we are and live our lives on purpose. And that comes from knowing who we are and visualizing what living our best life looks like.

We can all benefit by giving ourselves some quiet time to contemplate what we care about, what talents we have to give the world and how we can participate with others to achieve goals that fulfill us individually, as a group, or even as a species. What do you value? What do you obsessively care about? What are you doing when you lose time and forget about all other matters, including eating and sleeping?

In organizations, foundational principles explain why a company does what it does. An organization with impeccable clarity about what it stands for will have employees who can make decisions with great pride and confidence, knowing and understanding how their actions align with the identified core values. In much the same way, adopting your own personal values will save you from wallowing in indecision or going down a path that’s not right for you and hanging around people who don’t inspire you to be your best. Your values ground you in who you are.

Getting focused about what you, personally, and your work, professionally, stand for makes all kinds of decisions simpler, faster and cleaner, whether they are about selling a product, joining a company, forming a partnership or choosing a new friend.

Google says a mission statement is a “formal summary of the aims and values of a company, organization or individual.” My favorite mission statements are concise and leave no room for interpretation, like TED Talks: “Spread ideas.”

Core values are the fundamental beliefs of a person or organization. They are guiding principles that should be unwavering and serve as a measure against which any idea or action can be measured. They look like: integrity, commitment and perseverance. NASA lists teamwork and excellence.

When we break it all down, living out a personal or professional mission and honoring our values is really about our truth – what we stand for and why we do what we do. This sets us up for a gratifying life.

When we know who we are and are doing what fits for us, uses our individual gifts and contributes to something greater than ourselves, we will know we are living our purpose by how we feel about ourselves and our lives.

As Oprah says, “You are fulfilling your mission and purpose on Earth when you honor the real you. Your whole life becomes a prayer of thanksgiving.” QCBN

By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN

Bonnie Stevens is a public relations consultant. She can be reached at bonnie.stevens@gmail.com.

Moon Rover Continues to Gain Traction

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Inventor Bill Tinnin has global fan base; GROVER to be featured at Star Party.

While Neil Armstrong’s and Buzz Aldrin’s footsteps have been imprinted on the moon and in world history, the Moon Buggy they explored in left tracks on the lunar surface and also in the imaginations of the news media and fans. At 88, the Northern Arizona man who played a role in designing the buggy prototype continues to be tracked down by the news media and fans. GROVER, or Geology Rover, spends its days in retirement in the U.S. Geological Survey building in Flagstaff. Bill Tinnin, the inventor credited with inventing the moon buggy, is retired in Prescott Valley. The two have been connected since the 1960s Apollo moon missions.

Since the first moon landing on July 20, 1969, Tinnin has been contacted by people from 12 states and nine countries for his contributions to the NASA space program. He was never featured in international TV and press the way the first astronauts were, but GROVER was.

Tinnin credits a story published three years ago in the Flagstaff Business News (FBN) and Quad Cities Business News (QCBN) with creating public awareness, especially in Central and Northern Arizona. “I had hundreds of people from just Arizona contact me. Some come visit me. They want to hear even more.”

The really big exposure happened when a television team from the Netherlands visited Flagstaff in June 2019 and read the FBN article. They contacted him at his Prescott Valley home, arranged to film a video and posted that video on YouTube. Shortly thereafter, Tinnin began receiving messages from viewers from around the world. He now has fans from coast to coast and border to border – Massachusetts to Washington and Oregon, and Texas to Wisconsin, and many states between.

International contacts range from the one with the Dutch in 2019 to a more recent one this fall with the Czech Republic. An especially intriguing handwritten letter was from a youngster, Sue Jennings, from Victoria, Australia, who said in part: “What an exciting life you led. You must be very clever to be involved in all the ground-breaking activities you have. Will you please autograph the enclosed photo and return it to me?”

Foreign contacts range from throughout Europe and the United Kingdom to Canada and the South Pacific.

For instance, Bill and his wife, Pam, encountered a British couple while on a vacation in Alaska in 2011. They have remained in regular contact since. The couple did some research about Tinnin and his connection to NASA and the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) where Tinnin worked for decades. The Brits, both teachers and cinematographers, made a video focusing on Bill and Grover and shared it with organizations and groups and put it on travel blogs. That stimulated even more contacts from around the world. The couple visited and stayed with the Tinnins in April.

To be clear, Tinnin did not build the actual vehicles that roved the moon. He built the prototype that astronauts trained in from a wrecked truck and auto parts he scrounged from Flagstaff junkyards. He replaced the original wheels with four battery-driven electric wheels. He stripped an old umbrella frame, turned it inside out and used it as the antenna to send and receive radio signals from the spaceship and Earth.

Asked if he could build a lunar rover, Tinnin said, “Sure, why not?” At that time he was working at the USGS where he began work as a mechanic after being honorably discharged from the U.S. Air Force. Tinnin credits Eugene Shoemaker, a distinguished USGS geologist, with having the vision to realize astronauts would need more than foot power to roam a moonscape pockmarked by eons of space debris impacts. Shoemaker also realized the terrain around Flagstaff, with its many craters, lava flows and craggy ravines, would be an ideal location to train astronauts.

Shoemaker and fellow geologists, including the late Gordon Swann, dedicated years of their careers to train and educate astronauts about what they likely would encounter on the moon’s surface. Tinnin traveled with Swann to diverse terrains throughout Arizona and Nevada to train astronauts in GROVER.

“I was one of the lucky ones,” Tinnin said. “I worked with every astronaut who walked on the moon. I have a framed wall display with mission patches and images given to me from every Apollo mission and I’m very proud of it. I’m proud of our team that made it happen – Rutledge ‘Putty’ Mills, Dick Wiser and Walt Fahey.”

The cost for Tinnin’s version of the Moon Buggy was about $2,000. NASA’s version cost $20,000, he said. “And when the ones used on the moon were built by Boeing, it cost more than $1 million.”

Tinnin says he doesn’t have much contact now with the early astronauts and other NASA and USGS personnel. “Many of them are gone now. After all, it has been more than 50 years. But I have my memories, and I have people who still want to learn more. What else could I ask for?”

Tinnin’s achievements are documented in several publications, including “Lunar and Planetary Rovers,” by Anthony Young and “Northern Arizona Space Training,” by Kevin Schindler and William Sheehan. He is cited in dozens of USGS publications.

Guided tours to visit GROVER and other USGS space exploration tools will be offered by the USGS at the free Flagstaff Star Party Field Day, 3-5 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 22, at Buffalo Park.

A SPECIAL MEMORY

Being near CBS newsman Walter Cronkite when he said those now indelible words, “Man is on the Moon.”

A MAJOR CHALLENGE

Building something from scratch for an outer space exploration that had never before been attempted. Our technology then was very primitive.

HOW I DECOMPRESS

Listening to a lot of country music.

GREATEST SOURCE OF PRIDE

All 20 astronauts who were sent to the Moon used the vehicles we built to train on the crater fields that surround Flagstaff.

REALITY HIT

When some of those astronauts returned to Flagstaff and shook our hands. We knew it [driving on the moon] had really happened. QCBN

By Ray Newton, QCBN

From Earth to Space and into NightVisions

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Prescott sculptor Joseph McShane finds inspiration in the night sky and beyond.

Prescott sculptor Joseph McShane’s style might be considered other worldly. He has engaged outer space and the sun to co-create with him and is the first artist to have his work leave this planet and travel with astronauts on board the space shuttle to be created in the vacuum and weightlessness of the space environment. A photograph of his sculpture titled S.P.A.C.E. will be part of NightVisions: Cultural Interpretations of the Night Sky, an exhibition running May 21 through Aug. 27, at the Coconino Center for the Arts in Flagstaff.

In 1984, McShane worked with NASA’s Small Self-Contained Payload Program to conduct a Space Shuttle experiment. Nine glass spheres were placed in the cargo bay of the Challenger. As he explains it, small coils in the smaller bubbles were coated with gold, platinum and other elements, and when, at the direction of the payload computer, the coils heated in the vacuum of space, it caused the material to vaporize and flash out to coat the inside of the spheres and change the clear glass to a wide spectrum of color, “in much the same way that a pair of mirrored sunglasses would be coated in a vacuum chamber,” he said.

McShane could have created the same experiment in his own vacuum chamber without leaving Earth, but the shuttle program provided him with the only way to create art in space, which he was excited about. Unfortunately, the project became more complex than he ever imagined, taking seven years from conception to completion. “After all the years of technical work, at times, I wanted to use a sledgehammer on it,” he joked, recalling his frustration with what seemed like an endless process.

Nonetheless, as the shuttle lifted, a valve on the larger sphere opened and remained open for the seven days of the 3.3-million-mile mission. “Earth’s atmosphere escaped from inside all nine spheres and they became one with the vacuum of outer space,” he said. “The valve closed on the largest sphere before the shuttle re-entered the  atmosphere, capturing the vacuum of space and returning it to Earth.”

McShane observes that the largest sphere, the sculpture S.P.A.C.E., “is an anomaly of our common experience of Earth’s atmosphere surrounded by the vacuum of space. It is a sculpture to observe and stimulate wonder about the nature and meaning of space; a sphere to touch and know that only an eighth of an inch of glass separates the viewer from the vacuum that is the sculpture S.P.A.C.E.”

McShane is used to having his artwork receive a lot of attention. His sculptures are often large and at times affected by the elements. For example, his heavy copper and brass piece, The Good Adventure, glistens in the sunlight at the Richard Marcusen Sculpture Garden at Yavapai College. It was created to evoke images of the Industrial Revolution and early mining and railroading in Yavapai County, he says, a time when large metal objects were joined together with mechanical fasteners like rivets, nuts and bolts. Over time, the sculpture’s interaction with the arid high desert environment is turning The Good Adventure’s brightly polished finish to a dark patina.

Another example of his work, Spectrum, can be seen at the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix, both inside and outside the building. The huge sculpture, beginning with the light emanating from the sun, transforms visible sunlight into the colors of the spectrum to dance across the Dorrance Planetarium’s exterior walls.

An Eclectic Exhibit

For the spring/summer NightVisions exhibition, McShane served as one of three jurors to help select art pieces from around the world. “It’s an eclectic exhibition, very different in some regards from any show I’ve juried in the past,” he said. “It was enjoyable and brought a certain diversity. One really interesting piece is a video submitted by a park ranger, who is a dark-sky advocate, from the Grand Canyon National Park.”

“We are thrilled to have Joseph’s participation,” said Julie Comnick, exhibitions and programs director for Coconino Center for the Arts. “NightVisions is an elegant synthesis of contemporary artworks and astronomical artifacts that brings the vastness of the night skies into contemplative reach.”

“The exhibit will offer a better understanding of how artists view the night sky,” said McShane.

Honoring Astronomer Carolyn Shoemaker

This eighth iteration of NightVisions, presented by Creative Flagstaff and the Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition, features astronomer Carolyn Shoemaker, one of the greatest comet hunters of all time. She found a total of 32 comets and, according to the IAU Minor Planet Center, 377 asteroids, of which 160 were her sole discoveries.

“We are excited to showcase Carolyn’s legacy as a dedicated Flagstaff astronomer, along with her collaborations with her husband, geologist Eugene Shoemaker, with the inclusion of archival astronomical elements alongside the work of contemporary artists,” said Chris Luginbuhl, president of the Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition, a non-profit organization that created NightVisions in 2001.

Carolyn, who became an astronomer at 51, is best known as part of the team that discovered the comet that crashed into Jupiter. “I do not know what I have, but it looks like a squashed comet,” she said about the fragmented comet pulled apart by Jupiter’s gravitational pull, which she discovered with her husband, Gene, known as the Father of Astrogeology, and astronomer David Levy in 1993. Sixteen months later, the Shoemaker-Levy Comet dominated the news with the cosmic collision viewed around the world through telescopes and on television as it slammed into Jupiter.

Along with Levy, Carolyn and Gene’s children, Patrick Shoemaker and Christine Abanto, are part of the NightVisions planning team. “Our parents were always close – she was not the wife who stayed at home – and they’d take us along on their adventures,” said Patrick. “I remember being out there camping with my parents before I was old enough to remember much of anything.”

Levy will be presenting during the opening public reception, scheduled for 6-8 p.m., Saturday, May 21. “We never really worked – it was so much fun!” said Levy of his time observing the night sky with Carolyn. “We were kidding each other constantly!”

Carolyn died last August at 92. “I don’t know of anyone more passionate about the night sky,” he said. QCBN

By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN

For more information, visit https://www.ccaflagstaff.org/nightvisions-2022 or

https://FlagstaffDarkSkies.org

Dream Big, Sweet Girls

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“Dreams come true if you have the courage to pursue them.”

The searing flash of flames, the ground-shaking vibration, the deafening roar of engines – witnessing a space shuttle launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, is not something easily forgotten, but for Lauren Edgar, it is the stuff dreams are made of.

The then-second grader, who came to visit her grandmother in Florida, left her vacation with more than warmth in her heart. Little Lauren’s imagination was on fire. “That moment was pretty significant for me – the realization that there were people on board and they were leaving this planet.”

Lauren began to wonder what else was out there, and thus began her own countdown to a career in space exploration.

A few years later, Jessica Watkins, growing up under the starry skies of Lafayette, Colorado, decided she wouldn’t be limited by Earth’s boundaries either. “I wanted to be an astronaut since I was about 9 years old,” she said, “because of the desire to explore and an interest in planets, Mars in particular.”

In the same decade that Lauren and Jessica were born, Sally Ride was the first American woman in space. There weren’t a lot of women who had gone where these little girls wanted to go, but dreams thrive in a place where logic and doubt have no power.

“By their very nature, dreams aren’t practical, and neither are they achieved by playing it safe,” writes author Marc Guss in “Instincts of a Talent Agent: Entrepreneurial Takeaways from an Industry Insider.” He says, “You are your own best risk. The time for practicality comes later, when you’re taking your first steps toward success, not when your dream is still gestating.”

Lauren and Jessica both developed a passion for geology and followed similar paths through grad school. The two were guided by the same advisor at Caltech for their postdoctoral research.

And some might say the gravity of their passion for rocks and space pulled them together in Hawaii for a planetary volcanology workshop.

And then, like a dream, their stars aligned again, both called to work on the Curiosity Mars rover, investigating ancient sedimentary environments that might have been habitable at one time.

In 2019, Jessica arrived in the rocky, moon-like terrain north of Flagstaff as one of six women who made up the astronaut class known as the Turtles – it’s an astronaut tradition that your group is named by the one that comes before you – and there was Lauren to greet her.

Lauren, a research geologist with the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, was selected to train Jessica’s NASA astronaut candidate class about basic geology. “Jessica had insider knowledge, but she hadn’t been to the sites before,” said Lauren. “She is very level headed, easy to work with and a great teammate. She has the right disposition to be a great astronaut.”

This month, Lauren plans to return to Cape Canaveral for the April 15 launch of SpaceX, as Elon Musk’s spacecraft carries four astronauts to the International Space Station. “I think I’ll be even more excited this time. I’m emotionally invested.”

That’s because Jessica will be suited up inside. She will be celebrating her 34th birthday in the space station and is on course to be the first black woman to have an extended space station stay. Jessica also has been selected for the Artemis team – the astronauts who are helping Americans return to the moon in 2025. The actual crew going to the moon has not been selected yet, but President Joe Biden has said there will be a woman and a person of color on that mission.

In the meantime, the Artemis team will be back in Flagstaff this year. And yes, the friends will be reunited again, as Lauren helps prepare them for the rocks they might encounter at the lunar South Pole.

Is there power in a dream?

“A dream feels like a big far-away goal that’s going to be difficult to achieve and something that you might achieve much later in life,” said Jessica in a NASA video. “But in reality, what a dream realized is, is just putting one foot in front of the other on a daily basis. And if you put enough of those footprints together, eventually they become a path toward your dreams.”

Marc Guss would agree. And so would Walt Disney, who said, “Dreams come true if you have the courage to pursue them.” QCBN

By: Bonnie Stevens

Bonnie Stevens is a public relations consultant. She can be reached at bonnie.stevens@gmail.com.

Sinema Highlights the Importance of Arizona Universities to NASA’s Continued Research and Innovation

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Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema spoke today in a Senate Commerce Committee hearing and highlighted the important partnerships between Arizona State University, University of Arizona, and Northern Arizona University and NASA for continued space research and innovation.

 

“NASA partnerships with Arizona’s universities are strong and beneficial.  All three Arizona public universities – the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and Northern Arizona University – provide students with hands-on STEM education and research opportunities, thanks to the Space Grant program and other NASA partnerships,” said Sinema. 

 

Sinema questioned NASA Administrator Bridenstine about potential changes to the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission at the University of Arizona. Kyrsten has long championed the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission, and helped secure 36 million dollars in dedicated funding to further the mission in last year’s end of year spending bill. Sinema also recently introduced the NASA Authorization Act—bipartisan legislation strengthening American’s leadership in space, bolstering national security, and creating economic opportunities for all Arizonans. The bill also directs NASA to fully fund and launch the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission by 2025. 

 

Last year, Sinema introduced the 21st Century Space Grant Modernization Act—bipartisan legislation boosting space education and research funding at Arizona universities by reforming the National Space Grant College and Fellowship program to better support state-based space education and research programs. As part of the Space Grant College and Fellowship program, each state creates a Space Grant Consortium which provides funding for space-related research, workforce training, and education programs throughout the state. Space Grant Consortium consists of Arizona State University. University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University and Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. In recent years, NASA’s office of STEM Engagement has diverted a portion of Space Grant funding to cover administrative overhead and unrelated programs, which deprives states, including Arizona, of federal funding upon which they rely. Sinema’s 21st Century Space Grant Modernization Act protects and boosts funding for Arizona space initiatives.