Opening Up

Alright, so I may have let this slide a bit recently.  However, I've recently met somebody with a "real" online presence and so I've been inspired to return to this adventure.

That said, a lot of what I write (assuming I manage to keep this up) over the next couple of weeks will be retrospective of past events that have transpired since August.  But, hey, they'll be new to you right, so what's the difference?

I'll start when I left off, which is the amazing "Open Campus" (オープン キャンパス) at JAXA.  For two days at the end of July, ISAS/JAXA opens their campus to all visitors.  Granted, it is open to all visitors always (provided they sign in an receive a badge at the entrance), but for this, over 10,000 people descended upon the facility.

Every project and employee -- and I do mean every -- at ISAS was represented with an informational booth describing what they were doing and why.  If you were fortunate, you might find yourself talking to the Project Manager of a mission, or the director of the lab!  I used my time off to explore the rest of the event and learn quite a lot about the many projects JAXA has underway, from planetary to astronomy to lab studies to aeronautics to ....  I say "time off" because I also contributed time to do this public outreach.  Although there was not much more for me to do other than repeat "あかつきの パンフレット ください" ("Please take an Akatsuki pamphlet"), I was grateful for the handful of foreigners who knew even less Japanese than I did.  I was very happy to explain the Akatsuki mission in English to those select few.  I'm also very grateful to my housemates who accepted my invitation to come to the event and learn all about JAXA.  Though, I'm sure some of them got a lot more out of it from my Japanese colleagues than they did from talking to me!

It was a lot of fun, and a great way both of letting the public know what we do here, but also letting the rest of the lab know what else goes on outside each of our little conclaves.  I hope I can convince my institution back in the USA to try something similar.