Planetary Research Institute?
Chris
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Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
On 3/26/2013 2:21 PM, Marc Fries wrote:
Howdy ladies and gents
The scientists at Galactic Analytics have been working on a project behind the
scenes and the time has come to announce it publicly. GA will stop performing radar
analyses of meteorite falls. The same people will continue working on this project (don't
worry!!), but we are transferring operations from Galactic Analytics to the Planetary
Research Institute, a nonprofit research institution. We will continue to perform
analyses, but they will appear on a PSI web page, and the "old" events will be
transferred to the PSI website as well. PSI will also offer rapid, affordable meteorite
classification services as well, picking up GA's efforts in that direction.
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WHAT THIS MEANS TO SUBSCRIPTION HOLDERS:
GA has suspended the sale of annual subscriptions ahead of transferring
to PSI. The goal is to do away with subscriptions entirely and make the radar
data openly available to the public. This will take some time, however, as
alternative funding efforts are underway. Since PSI is a nonprofit research
institution, they can accept private donations, NASA and other government
funding, and other sources of funding that were not available to GA. This will
be used to continue operations.
Your subscription will still be honored! Existing one-year
subscriptions will be allowed to expire over the course of the ~one-year
transition period. In the meanwhile, all data will be available on the
single-event basis to those without annual subscriptions. The three-day wait
for the single-event subscriptions will no longer be used. At the end of the
coming one-year period, other funding should be in place and radar data will be
openly available.
GA's website will be transferred to PSI's servers soon, but there
should be no interruption in service. You'll have to update your browser links,
but that is all.
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ABOUT PSI:
The Planetary Research Institute (http://www.psi.edu) is a widely
respected research institute based in Tucson, AZ that has been actively engaged
in planetary science and public outreach since 1972. Roughly half of PSI's
scientists live and work in Tucson, and the rest are scattered across the US
and around the world. PSI is a flexible, responsive organization composed of
dedicated and motivated science professionals. At a time when most research
institutes are cutting back under budgetary pressures, PSI has continued to
grow:
http://tucsoncitizen.com/press-releases/2013/03/01/planetary-science-institute-opens-new-tucson-conference-center/
PSI scientists perform research in a broad range of planetary science
and astronomy, and near-term plans include manned suborbital spaceflight for
astronomical observations:
http://www.psi.edu/atsa
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METEORITE CLASSIFICATION:
PSI will pick up GA's efforts to offer a rapid, affordable meteorite
classification service. A great deal of progress has been made in this effort,
and we anticipate that the service will commence in the coming months although
we do not have a solid date yet. Please stay tuned.
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OTHER STUFF
Dr. Marc Fries has accepted a job offer with NASA, working at the
meteorite curation office in Houston, TX. Dr. Fries will still work on radar
analyses on a part-time basis and has begun training PSI personnel to join in
the effort. In the end, there will be more analysts working on locating
meteorite falls, which means more meteorites! PSI's personnel and expertise
resources will be brought to bear, allowing the project to grow more than it
could under Galactic Analytics. Dr. Vishnu Reddy and Dr. Lucille LeCorre of PSI
will take leading roles in the new effort.
This is going to be a good thing. We get to carry on with a new period of growth,
training more analysts and getting more people involved. The meteorite analysis effort
will grow into an expansive, self-supporting entity that truly does bring planetary
science "down to Earth" into schools, museums and collections. We hope to
expand meteorite recovery into a multifaceted science experience, with outreach efforts
in the communities where meteorite falls occur, in-house analytical services at PSI, and
inclusive research and recovery efforts that include scientists, meteorite hunters,
hobbyists, and the general public.
This is going to be fun!
Cheers!
Galactic Analytics LLC
Please direct any questions at [email protected]
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