Shore Leave 44 Guest: Kenneth G Carpenter
- How It Started and How It's Going: A Third of a Century of Discovery with the Hubble Space Telescope
- A Peak Behind the Scenes at the Lower Decks and Bridge of the Hubble Space Telescope Operations Control Center (STOCC)
Dr. Kenneth Carpenter is currently the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Operations Project Scientist and the Ground Systems Project Scientist for the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) and is a member of the "Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory" at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. He enjoys photography and is an enthusiastic fan of exploration of the Universe in which we live, the Maryland RenFest, and all things Trek and Disney. Carpenter credits both Star Trek and the 1964-'65 New York World's Fair, which he attended as a child, with fueling his desire to work for NASA. He has been a speaker at various Star Trek and media cons, including Atlanta's DragonCon, Denver's StarFest and Maryland's Shore Leave.
Dr. Carpenter will give two presentations.
How It Started and How It's Going: A Third of a Century of Discovery with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
Dr. Carpenter will present a short history of the Long Road Getting from There to Here, followed by selected highlights of Hubble's first 33 years, with an emphasis on recent results. He will also look to the future and the ways in which HST, JWST, and the Roman Space Telescope will work together, to illustrate that, yes, there is a place for the equivalent of Strange New Worlds, Starfleet Academy, and Star Trek: Legacy all to be running at the same time -- three is not too much!
A Peak Behind the Scenes at the Lower Decks and Bridge of the Hubble Space Telescope Operations Control Center (STOCC)
Dr. Carpenter will present a tour with photos and videos of the Hubble Space Telescope Operations Control Center (STOCC) at NASA GSFC. He will also talk about the variety of individuals who work in the trenches (aka, the Lower Decks of Hubble) and Project Management (aka, the Hubble Bridge Crew) and are critical to the health and safety, as well as the science productivity, of the mission.