AARNet celebrates 40th anniversary of the moon landing with live video conference from NASA to CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope & Questacon

Visitors to Parkes Observatory Open Day and Questacon get first-hand experiences from experts who worked for NASA in 1969

Canberra, AUSTRALIA – 17 July 2009 – AARNet, Australia’s Academic and Research Network, will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first manned moon landing by streaming a series of live high-definition videoconferences direct from NASA’s Johnson Space Centre, USA, into the CSIRO’s Parkes Radio Telescope and the Questacon National Science and Technology Centre in Canberra on July 18. 

The events will see former collaborators of the original lunar landing brought together via AARNet’s National Video Conferencing Service (NVCS).  On Saturday, July 18, visitors to the Parkes Observatory Open Day and Questacon Canberra can experience live, exclusive interviews from the 1969 NASA team and a range of informative talks by astronomers and expert speakers.

Speaking about lunar geology live from Johnson Space Centre, via video conference to both Parkes Observatory and Questacon Canberra, will be Dr Everett Gibson from NASA, who was involved in analysing the first set of lunar samples 40 years ago.

Questacon Canberra speakers who will be involved in the video conference include Professor Ross Taylor from Australian National University, who worked on the original moon program and studied lunar samples, and Marc Norman from Australian National University, who is currently researching the history of the early solar system.

Chris Hancock, CEO of AARNet, said, “We are thrilled to be able to help Australians relive this amazing moment in history and see and hear first-hand the experiences of those who were involved.  We are pleased that AARNet can help bring these original collaborators together through live, high-definition video, to speak to the local audience,” Chris Hancock said.

After the formal presentation at Questacon, audiences will be taken into the GeoDome - an inflatable, high-definition, immersive 3D theatre – for a virtual tour of the moon, with topology data streamed live from NASA’s geo-database.

AARNet’s National Video Conferencing Service is a standard and high definition video conferencing service for AARNet members.  Features include:

• Live streaming video for participants who wish to view the conference from a web browser
• Real time transcoding and rate matching of video conferences from standard to high definition
• ISDN Video conferencing multipoint bridging for mixed ISDN/IP environments
• Content inclusion using H239 standards for PowerPoint or VNC screen sharing sessions
• Recording and archival of video conferences allowing playback of content at a later date.

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About AARNet
AARNet Pty Ltd (APL) is the company that operates Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNet). It is a not-for-profit company limited by shares. The shareholders are 37 Australian universities and the CSIRO. AARNet provides high-capacity leading edge Internet services for the tertiary education and research sector communities and their research partners. AARNet serves more than one million end users who access the network through local area networks at member institutions. For further information, please visit: www.aarnet.edu.au.

For further information, please contact:

Almira Anthony
Max Australia
+61 2 9954 3492
almira.anthony@maxaustralia.com.au