A generator in space, 150 million km away, heats the Earth, structures its atmosphere, and organizes the surrounding space environment. The Sun's energy output exhibits pronounced variability on all time scales, from minutes to 11-year cycles and longer, with myriad Earthly consequences all the way from its surrounding space environment, to the surface. How might the Sun affect navigation, communication, and Earth-orbiting objects that can impact economic and security operations? How much of atmospheric ozone depletion and surface warming is solar rather than human-induced? How well can we forecast future changes in Earth's extended environment for societal, economic, and security applications? Scientific curiosity and societal utility both call for a robust understanding of the Sun-Earth system-our home in space that extends well beyond the surface where we live.

Event Date: 4/3/2013

ALAN BEAN has a magnificent obsession, “I want to record, in fine art, paintings that will tell future generations of humankind's first exploration of another world.”

Event Date: 3/21/2013

Frontiers are interesting places; they offer the possibility to make observations outside our normal range of experience. The International Space Station is such a frontier offering a local reduction in acceleration forces by nearly a factor of a million. This allows the observation of subtle phenomena that are typically masked on Earth. This orbital vantage also allows observation of Earth phenomena on the length scale of half a continent. A smattering of my observations will be presented. There will be many questions and few answers which of course is a characteristic of being on a frontier and why we venture there.

Event Date: 1/19/2013