SPARTAN 201 CU-SeeMe Video Conferences:
Ask the Astronomers (and Space Physicists)

Thanks to all who participated, especially the folks at the Museumin Houston and the California Academy of Sciences! And special thanks to all the reflector operators who helped make it all possible.

Anyone with a Macintosh (including Power Macintoshes) or Windows PC can download the CU-SeeMe application from the the CU-SeeMe Project's server at Cornell. The latest version of the Windows application now supports audio, as do both the "68k" and PowerPC Macintosh versions.

In order to communicate with the SPARTAN and Ulysses scientists over a modem (CU-SeeMe audio doesn't do too well over low-bandwidth connctions), you will also need the "CU-SeeMe Talk" application, available via anonymous ftp for in MacBinary II form, which requires the MacBinary II+ application or a similar translator to convert upon download.

Current CU-SeeMe conference schedule:

OK, I have CU-SeeMe. How do I connect to the conferences?

• Launch CU-SeeMe and pulldown the "Edit" menu.

• You will need to "Edit Nicknames" to create a nickname for the conference (e.g.SPARTAN 201) and enter the IP address of the reflector.

• Pull down the "Conference" menu to "Connect" and pull across to the list of conferences; select SPARTAN 201 (or whatever you decided to nickname the conference).

• Pull down the "Participants" menu and make certain that you select at least the SPARTAN 201 window.

• If you have a "Talk" menu item, pull it down to "Show Talk Window" and type in a question for the scientists. (Note: The "Talk" typing window appears to be available only for the Macintosh implementation of CU-SeeMe, and is a separate application ("CU-SeeMe Talk") available from the Cornell CU-SeeMe anonymous ftp server in MacBinary format.

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  Are there any "ground rules?"

  • To limit the bandwidth, and keep the conference from degenerating into a cacophony, if you have the "Talk" capability (see above), please use the "Talk" window to enter questions, rather than using audio. If bandwidth allows, the conference moderator will let you know if you can start sending audio.

  • Please let the astronomers/space physcists finish their answers before asking another question.

  • Common courtesy to all involved

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  Who's there to talk to?

  plus a Ulysses draft pick to be named later

  The SPARTAN and Ulysses scientists who are already available for e-mail questions about the missions will be available in person, at either NASA Johnson Space Center Mission Control or NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Solar Data Analysis Center, for video questions and answers.

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  What should I ask?

  Ask the scientists:
  • why they like to do what they do

  • about the significance of the SPARTAN and Ulysses missions

  • what it's like to work at Mission Control

  • why the taxpayers' hard-earned money should be spent this way

  • what's ahead in space physics

  • whether they would advise their own kids to pursue a career in space physics

  • or whatever....

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  What does a CU-SeeMe video conference look like on my monitor?

  Take a look at dry run for the SPARTAN video conference where we were ironing out some of our ignorance. CU-SeeMe's pretty new to most of us, too.

  ....And it's changing pretty fast, too: the 0.83b1 version of CU-SeeMe for the Macintosh became available on September 8, the day of our first video conference. It has many interface improvements.

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  This is the access to this page since September 7, 1995.

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  Return to the SPARTAN 201 home page.