Special Event | Dishing up the Data: Parkes and Apollo 11 with John Sarkissian

A special event celebrating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, proudly presented by the Melbourne Branch - Royal Aeronautical Society Australian Division in association with the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, RMIT University and the Space Association of Australia Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, 10 July 2019
TIME: 6.00-9.30 pm (AEST)
VENUE: RMIT University, Swanston Academic Building, 445 Swanston Street, Melbourne
COST: Free
DETAILS & REGISTRATION: https://bit.ly/2Ey36Gt

The Australian film, "The Dish", highlighted the role played by the Parkes Radio Telescope in tracking and communicating with the Apollo 11 mission. However, the events depicted in this film represent only a single snapshot of the role played by Parkes in the exploration of the Solar System by NASA.

From Mariner 2 in 1962 to Voyager 2 in 2019, the Parkes Radio Telescope has been contracted by NASA on many occasions to support interplanetary spacecraft. The highlight of the NASA support was its critical role in the Apollo lunar landing missions. In July 1969, the Parkes telescope brought TV pictures of the historic Apollo 11 moonwalk to 600 million viewers world-wide (1/6th of mankind at the time). This talk will describe the Parkes Telescope’s role in the Apollo 11 mission, and the impact it has had on tracking spacecraft in deep space, generally.

SPEAKER BIO:
John Sarkissian OAM, is an Operations Scientist at the CSIRO Parkes Radio Observatory. His main responsibilities are the science operations at the radio telescope, and the support of remote astronomers with their observations. In addition, he is involved in pulsar research - an exciting field of radio astronomy.

DETAILS & REGISTRATION: https://bit.ly/2Ey36Gt