October 17, 2005
Former astronaut Brown to visit Purdue, speak to school children
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue alumnus and NASA veteran Mark N. Brown will give a public presentation on Friday (Oct. 21) to share his experiences as an astronaut and participate in the 10th annual Purdue Fall Space Day.
Brown, a graduate of Purdue's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, will give a one-hour talk and presentation titled "Journey to Space" at 8 p.m. Friday in Stewart Center, Room 314. A brief question-and-answer session will follow Brown's presentation. The public is invited to attend the free talk, and registration is not required.
Brown, who has logged more than 249 hours in space, will speak in conjunction with the 10th annual Purdue Fall Space Day, an educational program for elementary and middle school students that will take place on Saturday (Oct. 22). The program provides an opportunity to learn about aeronautical engineering and space exploration. All student spaces for the program have been filled.
Brown also will give a one-hour talk beginning at 9:30 a.m. Saturday in Loeb Playhouse to an audience of about 400 students in third through eighth grades. The students will participate in hands-on activities dealing with rockets, solar cars, rocket "nanorovers" and other devices used in space exploration. Events will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at several campus locations.
Brown earned a bachelor's degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from Purdue in 1973. Selected by NASA in May 1984, he became an astronaut in June 1985 and qualified for assignment as a mission specialist on future space shuttle flight crews. He flew aboard the shuttle Columbia in August 1989 on STS-28, a five-day defense-related mission that concluded with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base.
He next flew on STS-48 in September 1991 aboard the shuttle Discovery. During the five-day mission, astronauts deployed the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite to gather data on the upper atmosphere's chemistry, winds and energy. The crew also conducted numerous secondary experiments ranging from growing protein crystals to studying how fluids and structures react in weightlessness. The mission was completed during 81 orbits and concluded with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base on Sept. 18, 1991.
Brown left NASA in 1993 to head the Space Division Office of General Research Corp. in Dayton, Ohio.
Fall Space Day is sponsored by the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Indiana Space Grant Consortium, Daimler Chrysler Corp., the Purdue Engineering Student Council and Eli Lilly and Co. Contributions also have been received from former students and past Fall Space Day directors Gina Pieri and Mitch Epstein, who graduated 2002 and 2001, respectively; Pratt & Whitney, a United Technologies Corp. Caterpillar Inc., and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
More information about Fall Space Day is available online, and Brown's biographical information is available.
Writer: Emil Venere, (765) 494-4709, venere@purdue.edu
Sources: Lindsay Gossom, Purdue Fall Space Day student director, (765) 714-3696, lgossom@purdue.edu
Ann Broughton, Purdue Fall Space Day coordinator, (765) 494-5147, broughto@ecn.purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
Note to Journalists: This event will provide photo opportunities of children working on space projects and interacting with Mark Brown on Saturday (Oct. 22). For details, contact Ann Broughton, (765) 494-5147, broughto@ecn.purdue.edu. On Saturday, Broughton can be reached by calling her cell phone at (765) 532-8829. Another media contact is Lindsay Gossom, Purdue Fall Space Day student director, (765) 714-3696, lgossom@purdue.edu.
To the News Service home page