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2007 Annual Science Report

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Reporting  |  JUL 2006 – JUN 2007

New Astrobiology Virtual Conference Facility

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Field Sites

Project Progress

The GCA completed construction of our state-of-the-art virtual conference facility during this reporting year, and commissioning began in July 2006. July 28 saw its inaugural use for NAI-wide activity when GCA Undergraduate Interns gave oral summaries of their summer research projects in the Forum for Astrobiology Research (FAR) Seminar Series. Now in frequent use, the Virtual Conference Facility was designed to support NAI distributed meetings, along with real-time remote astronomical observing and local meetings.

The main meeting room occupies two-thirds of the overall 825 square foot facility, and is separated from the remote observing facility by a moveable wall. The main room seats 20 with 12 seats at a U-shaped conference table, the expanded room seats 40 comfortably. The main room is equipped with dual overhead NEC projectors and 60” wide screens. A Crestron touch-panel is used for intuitive setup and control of conferencing functions from a single location. All equipment can be turned on/off, the screens lowered/raised, and the video source for each projector can be configured using the touch-panel. Typically, one projector is used for WebEx (e.g., slides) while the other is used for Polycom videoconferencing, but a laptop or even NASA TV can be displayed on either projector. Polycom cameras are mounted in the front and back of the room for flexibility. The conference table has a microphone for every two people, and each microphone is individually mixed for maximum audio quality while corner-mounted speakers deliver theatre-quality sound. Wired networking and electrical outlets are available for each participant at the conference table, and wireless networking is also available. A hospitality area (complete with sink) is located in the back of the room.

A multi-use remote observing facility occupies the other one-third of the space, and also can be used as a stand-alone A/V Conference Facility for smaller groups (up to 10 people). It features a separate projection facility and a (smaller) Polycom unit for communicating with remote conferees or with telescope operators and remote observers. This remote observing capability has saved many tens of thousands of dollars in travel expenses (in this year alone), and has permitted GCA researchers and other Goddard astronomers to effectively use shorter window-of-opportunity time allocations.
Our new conference facility was collaboratively designed with Goddard’s Technical Information and Management Services Branch. Project design and construction required coordination among several groups at Goddard, including Facilities Management Division personnel (civil service and contract) especially architect Jeff Stier (Parsons, Inc.), Construction Manager Steve Simpson (Parsons, Inc.), Project Manager Ron Brandan, telecommunications engineers (especially Bob Startzel, INFON, Inc.), and electrical engineers (especially Ben Bakly). Key GCA personnel included Jeff Pedelty (lead scientist & coordinator with A/V engineers), Corinne Eby (accommodations and interior design), and Mike Mumma (overall lead).

  • PROJECT INVESTIGATORS:
    Jeffrey Pedelty
    Co-Investigator
  • RELATED OBJECTIVES: