The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) and the Grand Rapids Amateur Astronomical Association (GRAAA) announced Dr. Thomas Strikwerda, who managed the design, guidance and control teams responsible for the success of the New Horizons spacecraft to Pluto this past July, will speak about the mission this Thursday, October 15th in a public presentation at Calvin College.

Strikwerda will discuss his personal journey as a key manager. He will also show some of the latest images of Pluto and its satellites and explain what they reveal about the history of this distant and once little known dwarf planet. According to Strikwerda, “Already we have learned that Pluto is a different type object, not just another pock-marked moon or Mercury.”

Strikwerda’s public presentation, New Horizons, Direct from Pluto will be at Calvin College at 7:30 p.m. in Room 10 in the Science Building. Admission is free to this event, although seating is limited. For more information, visit graaa.org.

In a way, this is a "coming home" for Strikwerda. In the 1960’s, he was a member of the GRAAA and helped construct the Association’s James C. Veen Observatory near Lowell. While obtaining his undergraduate degree from Calvin College, he was a presenter at the GRPM’s Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium.

Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)
Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)
loading...

He has been a key member of the science and engineering team at the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University in Laurel, Maryland since 1981. Much of Strikwerda’s vital role in New Horizon’s success came before the 2006 launch, though he shared in the excitement and relief that came with the return of the first of a treasure-trove of images in July, following the spacecraft’s nine and one half year journey.

 

More From 100.5 FM The River