The College of the Canyons Canyon Country Campus held its 2024 Star Party near the Don Takeda Science Center on Friday with guest speaker J. (Bob) Balaram, an inventor and retired chief engineer of the Mars Ingenuity Project at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The free, open-to-the-public event was a haven for science enthusiasts where they could speak to 15 different clubs and organizations on campus about their work ranging from astronomy and physics to engineering and coding.
The star party was comprised of various components. The first portion was a science showcase where student groups presented what they are currently working on with the campus organizations and clubs they are a part of. The second part, which was the science talks series, featured Balaram, the originator of the concept that became the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars. He served as chief engineer during the helicopter’s development.
The NASA Mars Ingenuity Helicopter is the first aircraft to achieve powered controlled flight on the planet of Mars and has completed 72 flights since its sendoff to the Red planet on April 19, 2021, said Balaram.
Throughout his presentation, attendees sat under the night sky in the amphitheater, some of whom were cold from the low 50-degree weather.
“Is is cold out here tonight?” Balaram asked. “I was looking at the weather in the Jezero crater on Mars, which is where Ingenuity still is and functioning. It’s day 1190 and these are Martian days, so that’s how long the Ingenuity has been on the surface of Mars … and I checked the weather report from Perseverance from a couple of days ago and it was -110 degrees at night … So compared to that, we’re very warm,” he said humorously.
Balaram shared insights on how his ideas came to be and the journey he went through to successfully send a drone-like device to the fourth planet of the solar system, the first of its kind that flies in a different atmosphere from Earth.
A decades-long effort came to fruition with the help of funding a team highly trained in engineering and other focuses such as avionics, he said.
Balaram also discussed some challenges faced throughout the process, such as making a functional flying device that would be able to adapt to the atmosphere of Mars, he said. Creating the Ingenuity helicopter to be light in weight but also rugged and strong like a spacecraft to survive the send-off were among the obstacles that eventually he and his team overcame, he said.
During his presentation, he also described the historical moment that it took its first flight, bringing joy to the team members who worked on making NASA’s Mars Ingenuity Helicopter.
Approximately 300 students and community members were in attendance for the much-anticipated event, said COC Campus Vice President Ryan Theule.
“We use it as a chance to get people to visit the campus, learn about what’s going on here, and [have them] maybe even consider signing up for classes,” he said.
The Star Party made its debut in 2010 and focused on astronomy, but in recent years has “zoomed out” to focus on other disciplines, Theule added.
One of the main highlights of the event every season, the star viewing segment, had to be canceled due to the cloudy weather and the risk of rain. The large telescopes were planned to be provided by The Local Group Astronomy Club of Santa Clarita Valley.
“It’s really tough to get the [rain] water out of the telescopes,” said Dave Flynn, member of the astronomy club. Members of the local astronomy club have been attending the star parties since the parties’ debut, and it was the first time the club couldn’t bring out their telescopes due to the weather, Flynn said.
