I arrived at the Marriott next to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center this morning to volunteer as event staff for the "Eight Years of Science with Chandra" conference. When I arrived, I was instructed that I would be the person who loads each PowerPoint presentation before each talk begins. To complicate matters, I needed to switch between Mac and Windows laptops, and ensure that each speaker hooked the small microphone to their clothing and was given the "clicker/pointer" (a remote control that both clicks through slides and acts as a red laser pointer).

I received a printed name tag and a Northrup Grumman tote bag filled with goodies such as a program, a plastic NASA bag, a Chandra folder and informational papers, local Huntsville information, a Chandra t-shirt, a DVD called "Chandra: The X-Ray Universe," and a DVD called "2007 Chandra Highlights." I was amused by the public service flier that gave the definitions of a tornado watch and a tornado warning (we had a tornado watch just last week). I also have my choice of pretty Chandra astrophotography on bookmarks, postcards, and posters. Food is provided, catered by the hotel.

The Chandra Project Scientist (a fellow NSSTC scientist) started the morning off, followed by a brief talk by the Chief Scientist of the MSFC Science & Mission Systems Office (who also works at the NSSTC). I heard the NASA Science Mission Directorate Astrophysics Division Chief give his talk again (see my post on 6/22/07 for details). It still impresses me how much of NASA's budget is dedicated to astrophysics (9%, roughly 1.5 billion dollars), yet scientists are always wanting more. Of course, a large percentage of that budget goes into the large observatories such as the James Webb Space Telescope. He stressed that a balanced portfolio, a mix of large, medium, and small missions over all wavelengths, is best.

The morning talks covered such topics as X-rays from comets, planets, stellar flares, young binary systems, young clusters, and local galaxies. I listened to most of all the talks, and almost caught today's Space Shuttle Discovery launch as well (I saw T-1:00 and T+3:00, but had to load a speaker's presentation during the actual launch).

I had to miss the afternoon talks to attend class and take a mid-term test. Tomorrow is another fun-filled day of X-ray astrophysics talks. Should be interesting!