Moon Mission Update 2024
By Dr. Suzanne Metlay

The Estes Valley Astronomical Society (EVAS) meeting. In conjunction with the Estes Park Memorial Observatory, EVAS is offering a free public open house and lecture on Saturday, July 27, 2024. EVAS aims to promote amateur astronomy and education in the Estes valley.

As the United States gets closer to sending Artemis 2 astronauts to lunar orbit in 2025, several nations and private companies are working together or on their own to go to the Moon. Let’s look at recent and upcoming non-NASA missions to lunar orbit and the Moon’s surface. The Lunar Gateway space station is underway; find out who’s involved and who gets to walk on the Moon next.

Suzanne Metlay, Ph.D. is full-time faculty in Earth & Space Sciences Teacher Education at Western Governors University, a fully online non-profit university founded in 1997 by 19 governors of western states, including Colorado. Previously, Suzanne taught astronomy and geology at Front Range Community College in Longmont and Fort Collins, was Operations Director for Secure World Foundation in Superior, and served as Education Programs Manager at CU-Boulder’s Fiske Planetarium. Currently, Suzanne is a past President of the Teacher Education Division of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers and serves on the Advocacy Committee.

Suzanne has a BA in History and Science from Harvard University and a PhD in Geology and Planetary Science from the University of Pittsburgh. She was awarded the Antarctica Service Medal from the Department of the Navy and National Science Foundation for fieldwork conducted as a participant in the Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) in 1991.

The observatory is just north of the high school at 1600 Manford Ave. Park in the teacher’s parking lot adjacent to the observatory. The doors will open at 7:00 pm and the meeting will start at 7:30 pm. The presentation, including a question-and-answer period, lasts about an hour.  After the presentation, weather permitting, we will look through the telescope at various celestial objects.