UB SEDS Wishes You a Happy New Year

Hopefully everyone's winter break is going well and they are looking forward to the New Year. With the start of this New Year, it's time to get things off to a good kick start. This message has the following announcements: NASA Academy Applications (due January 16th / 26th) Buffalo Museum of Science Outreach Opportunity – Volunteers Needed Contact Brad Cheetham [brad . cheethman @ gmail.com] for more information ASX Symposium in Toronto (January 23rd) If interested in attending, send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it so we can gauge interest NASA Academy As generally this time of year allows us to have time away from the classroom, we have time to fill out forms for internship opportunities. One of the most important summer internship programs has recently been posted online. NASA Academy is a summer program where participants work on individual research with a PI, tours of NASA facilities and Space companies, and a group project put together with other Academies participants. NASA Academy is run at the NASA Ames, Glenn, Goddard, and Marshall Centers. This opportunity is open to Juniors, Seniors, and First and Second year Grad students. The deadline to apply to the NASA Goddard Academy is January 16th, 2009. The hyperlink to the Goddard application is: http://university.gsfc.nasa.gov/application/index.jsp;jsessionid=C81D1C1F249F4F6770E3DF05FAC1672A. The deadline for the other centers is January 26th. The hyperlink to the application can be found here: https://www.academyapp.com/ . In the past, several members from UB SEDS have attended this prestigious program and have greatly benefited from their experiences. Feel free to contact us for more information, or visit the NASA Academy website at http://academy.nasa.gov/. Buffalo Museum of Science Outreach On another note, UB SEDS is pleased to announce that we will be participating in several events at the Buffalo Museum of Science during the month of January to help promote Space Exploration and Development. We will be staffing a SEDS demonstration/learning stand on January 10th, 18th, 24th, and 31st (Saturday, Sunday, Saturday, Saturday). We need members to attend from noon until around 3:30 to 4 based on attendance at the museum. We will be doing the following events: Clay Planets is an activity where participants make the planets and other stellar objects out of clay to the correct Scale. This activity shows the relative sizes of the planets. Also, we can mark out the distances that each planet would be from each other or from earth so participants can get an idea of distances involved. Crater Activity is an activity where we can create simulated moon/mars-dirt and have participants and students drop objects of various sizes and densities from different heights to observe the different types of craters that are formed upon impact. During both of these activities we will also have space coloring pages, info hand-outs, and blank sheets of paper for participants to show what they think the future of Space Exploration and Development will be like. The events will follow the following preliminary schedule: 1/10 Clay Planets for our Solar System theme 1/18 Crater activity for our Moon Madness theme 1/24 Crater activity for Mission Mars theme 1/31 Clay Planets for our Celestial Bodies theme Again, we need volunteers to help out with this event. If you would like to participate, please contact Brad Cheetham at brad . cheethman @ gmail.com. On a side note, the UB-SEDS executive board is going to be highly encouraging the role of Full member this semester. What a full member is can be found on our website, http://www.ubseds.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=44&Itemid=53. We are planning on restructuring the incentives for this semester, so stay tuned for more information. Volunteering for this will be counted towards a required service event. Toronto Symposium Finally, we are excited to announce that we have been contacted by ASX about their 6th annual symposium on the Global Space Age at the University of Toronto. The symposium will take place on Friday, January 23rd at 7 pm. The current speaker list includes Anousheh Ansari, the first private female space explorer, and Laura Lucier, the CSA (Canadian Space Agency) Mission Controller for the Robotics Flight system on the ISS. This event is free for students, and in the past has had attendance as high as 1000 people. As this event is so close in distance, we are currently putting the call out for interest in this event. If you plan on going to this event or have an interest in attending, please contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ASAP so we can gauge interest. ASX has secured a discounted room rate at the Holiday Inn TORONTO-MIDTOWN hotel for around $120.00, which we could work with members to help pay. Therefore, if you would like to attend, please respond to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with 'Night Stay' or 'Drive Back' included in the message so we can see if UBSEDS attendees would rather drive back that Friday night (after the reception gets out at 11ish) or stay the night in Toronto. Also, we will see about getting SA Vans, but as our registered tested drivers are limited, if you would be willing to drive, please also include that in the response. We'll get more information as we get it, but for now you can find information on the event at http://asx.sa.utoronto.ca/symposium/. So, in conclusion, NASA Academy applications are available, and applying is highly recommended (especially at this time of year); UBSEDS will be participating in an event at the Buffalo Museum of Science, contact Brad [brad . cheethman @ gmail.com] for more information and to volunteer; and send This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it an email if you're interested in attending ASX.