Astronaut returns for Purdue events

By Virginia You
Staff Writer

Since the announcement that Janice Voss, an astronaut who graduated from Purdue’s engineering program in 1975, will visit Purdue this weekend, various organizations have pounced on the opportunity to invite her to speak at their events.

The series of events, which are held by Women in Science Programs, will start tonight with a dinner and a speech at Earhart Hall with the astronaut, who has traveled 18.8 million miles in 779 Earth orbits from five space missions.

"Janice Voss will talk about herself as a person and her profession as an astronaut," said Janine Reklaitis, associate director of Women in Engineering. "She will give students insights to both her success and to the challenges she faced."

Dinner will last from 5:30 to 6:15 p.m. and lead into a talk about Voss’ experiences throughout her space career.

Since the Women in Science Programs has a dinner every month, Earhart’s assistant manager, Debbie Anderson, asked permission for Earhart’s women to have the chance to be involved in this hour-long speech.

"When we met with the (Women in Science Programs') staff in August, they mentioned that Dr. Voss was one of their speakers, and we asked if she could speak to anyone from Earhart who wanted to attend and not just (Women in Science Programs members)," said Anderson. "They agreed and we set up the program for Earhart."

The last day for dinner reservations was Monday, but the talk, which will be held directly after the dinner in Earhart Hall’s recreational lounge, is open to the general public.

Voss will also speak to Reklaitis’ classes, ENGR 194, "Women in Engineering," today. Voss will have lunch with students from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in the John Purdue Room in Stone Hall.

"It is important to give females role models and high achievers such as Janice Voss," said Reklaitis.

Friday, Voss will begin the day with more speeches. This time, the general pubic will be able to listen to her give a talk on the Shuttle Transportation System `99 at 8 p.m. in Stewart Center, Room 218.

This hour-long seminar will consist of a talk, a video and a question and answer session that will go over Voss’ space career. The video will discuss Voss’ last mission, which ran from Feb. 11 to 22, 2000 and used two giant radars to map 80 percent of the world.

"She returned with the most accurate map ... we now know the elevation of the earth’s surface by a few feet," said Nick Saadah, a senior in Schools of Engineering.

Voss' stay does not end after providing events for the students. On Saturday, Voss will take part in the annual Fall Space Day. On this day more than 200 kids, ranging from grades 3 to 8 and coming from as far as a 50-mile radius, will learn about space exploration and engineering. Voss will give a simplified talk in the morning.

The kids will be split into groups by age, and each group will be given the opportunity to perform three activities, such as the edible space station. The day should take about six hours.

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