Saturn cut from Susan's Luminaria

Luminaria for Mojo (that's a cutout galaxy which was super difficult to cut out)

I started writing this just after Susan died, but couldn’t bring myself to finish it. Today is the one year anniversary of [...]]]>

2012 Monrovia Relay for Life Luminaria in honor of Susan Niebur, @whymommy

Saturn cut from Susan's Luminaria

Luminaria for Mojo (that's a cutout galaxy which was super difficult to cut out)

I started writing this just after Susan died, but couldn’t bring myself to finish it. Today is the one year anniversary of her death on February 6, 2012. Today is the day to finish, add, publish. Today, like every day, I am missing Susan.

“All that survives after our death are publications and people. So look carefully after the words you write, the thoughts and publications you create, and how you love others. For these are the only things that will remain.” –Susan Niebur

A year ago I was reminiscing back to the day I met Susan and jotted down the next few paragraphs.

“I follow you on Twitter” she said as she looked down to my name badge at March 2010′s, 41st Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference, near Houston TX. I looked at her name badge, and my eyes popped out a little. I was talking to @womenplanetsci! Susan Niebur!

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning at the Women in Planetary Sciences networking breakfast, won’t I”? and before I could open my mouth to form the word of my reply, she was gone. She was down the hall inviting another woman she didn’t know to the networking breakfast.

On the day after that memorable and inspiring 2010 breakfast, I was in the conference hotel elevator with Susan and her husband Curt, who I knew from my work on the Cassini Mission to Saturn at JPL. Susan was rushing home, due to illness, I overheard in hushed elevator-abbreviated spouse-speak. I didn’t know anything about her cancer. All I knew about Susan was her science and her amazing personal presence. If you are lucky enough to meet someone in your lifetime with this electric aura, you’ll know it in an instant. I knew it. I knew she was a super-star the moment we met.

When I got home from that conference, I followed @whymommy in addition to @womenplanetsci on Twitter, found Susan’s Toddler Planet blog, and her Mothers with Cancer website. I read through several years of posts non-stop. I was sucker-punched with the news of her cancer, her cancer and science outreach, advocacy, and her fierce love for her family. My own sister Wendy had just completed breast cancer surgery and was about to start radiation at exactly the same time I met Susan. And at the same time my darling beloved husband Mojo was recovering from prostate cancer surgery, and had yet to receive his first post-op PSA. (Both are now three years cancer free.)

I was so very sad (heartbroken actually) to have missed the 2012 LPSC conference, held shortly after Susan died. Mostly, I wanted to feel Susan’s spirit there at the Women in Planetary Science luncheon, and share remembrances, laughs and tears with colleagues.

Oh, I miss her so.

I added this today: Four months after Susan died, it was time for our local Monrovia CA Relay for Life event. The cancer survivors take the first lap around the park, walking through and past hundreds of luminaria – hand decorated white paper lunch bags illuminated with a glow stick (no candles allowed, fire marshall regulations) inside – each remembering a loved one or thanking a caregiver.

Each year, the walkers stop and look at the moon or planets through our Sidewalk Astronomy club telescopes. This year, in addition to sharing the night sky with the crowds at my telescope, I made three luminaria. One was for my sister Wendy who is breast cancer free since 2010. One was for my hubby Mojo – who is prostate cancer free since 2010. The luminaria I made for Susan had a cutout of the planet Saturn for the light to shine through. I observed Saturn through my telescope, and thought of Susan, then colored the bits of luminaria cutouts to match the planet’s golden yellow hue, and made this special view of Saturn. I dedicated it to this amazing woman whose light and inspiration continues to shine on so many of us every single day.

Here are a few links I haven’t seen mentioned in other blogs:

But first, I really missed Susan’s DC Mom friends blog & Twitter posts. Getting a little caught up today.

Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) announcement

Dr Jim Green presents Susan with the NASA Planetary Science Public Service Award (video)

Susan speaking about Women in Planetary Science and leading NASA Missions (video)

NASA Solar System Exploration Susan Niebur’s NASA Solar System Exploration “people” page with great links!

Susan’s blog Turning awareness to action: donate, educate, advocate, volunteer

My cancer blogs with tips from Susan to Donate, Educate, Advocate, Volunteer

Here’s Emily Lakdawalla’s February 2012 Planetary Society blog about Susan.

I'm putting my hands inside the neophrene gloves, which are now filled with nitrogen

Jane and JPL outreach colleagues give 3 lunar samples a thumbs up.

While attending the 41st Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference in The Woodlands, TX (a suburb of Houston) in early March 2010, I was lucky enough to visit the Johnson [...]]]>

I'm putting my hands inside the neophrene gloves, which are now filled with nitrogen

Jane and JPL outreach colleagues give 3 lunar samples a thumbs up.

While attending the 41st Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference in The Woodlands, TX (a suburb of Houston) in early March 2010, I was lucky enough to visit the Johnson Space Center’s famous Lunar Sample Processing Facility. Most of the time during my one week stay, I was setting up, staffing, and taking down an exhibit focusing on NASA/ESA missions to the Outer Planets.

After packing the exhibit Thursday night we got a good night’s sleep and headed to Johnson Space Center, about an hour’s distance away the next morning. Every space enthusiast can visit JSC, and have a great tour. But we had a specific destination in mind — the Lunar Sample Processing Facility. How appropriate a visit, especially after a week at the Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference!

First, we stopped for lunch at astronaut Jose Hernandez’s family restaurant Tierra Luna Grill.

After lunch we (we being my JPL outreach colleagues Preston Dyches, Eddie Gonzales and I) parked outside Building 31N, and walked upstairs. We donned booties to cover our shoes, and put on head-to toe white bunny suits, gloves and head covering, after removing any gold jewelry. Why? Gold and silver alloys (even 24K gold) have trace amounts of lead and lead is not allowed in the laboratory. Our cameras and cell phones were wiped down to reduce dust, and placed in an airlock. Then we entered the air shower, where any dust remaining on our bunny suits was gently filtered off, and a minute later, we walked into the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility.

We entered the room, filled with monochrome cabinets and tools made of steel and teflon. White clad space geeks listened intently as our tour guide, Charles Galindo, principal scientist and astrobiology lab manager (he’s very active in educational outreach) took us from cabinet to cabinet, peeling back the years of history, to reveal the why and the how behind the wow!

Soon we were inserting our hands into the huge and awkward neophrene gloves, and touching hammers that touched real lunar samples! We walked around the room, and into the corridors, past the locked steel vault holding priceless samples collected from the surface of the moon. At one end of the room was a large case with three large lunar samples. I’ll end my little tale with a short description of these three samples.

Lunar Sample 61016.7 was collected from Plum Crater on the Apollo 16 mission. This sample is nicknamed Big Mulie in honor of UT geologist Bill Muehlberger, and is the largest rock (11.7 kg) collected on the Apollo Missions. The sample contained 4 rock types, including anorthosite from the ancient lunar crust, age: 4.5 billlion years.

Lunar Sample 15459 was collected from Spur Crater on the Apollo 15 mission. It is a large dense regolith breccia which contains a mineral, glass and chemical composition like that of the local soil. Here are a couple In Situ images!

Lunar Sample 15556.0 is medium grained vesticular basalt from Apollo 15. Here are many images including thin sections. This sample was collected 60 m NE of the rim of Hadley Rille!

When I am out with my telescopes showing the moon to my sidewalk astronomy audiences, I carry a lunar landing site map exactly like this one. The Apollo 15 landing site is easy to point out to my audiences, especially near the first quarter moon phase. It’s near the familiar lunar landmarks like the Appenines, right on the rim of the great Imbrium Impact basin.

Hadley Rille is an observing mecca for lunatics like me. It draws me in to it, and then with a nod to space history and Apollo 15 recollections, I can’t help but try to see some of the tiny craters near the landing site. Peering through an eyepiece at the areas where men landed and walked on the moon adds a dimension to amateur astronomy which I find compelling. You will too, I’m sure!

My complete photo album, including more site visits at JSC and the exhibit at the Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference 2010 are here. Many thanks to Charles Galindo of JSC for taking us on this amazing adventure and to Eddie Gonzales of JPL for orchestrating the whole visit!