[meteorite-list] Galactic Analytics Announcement

[Sterling K. Webb]

List, Chris,

I suspect the "Planetary Science Institute"
is meant, rather than the "Planetary Research
Institute." My suspicions were aroused by
going to the website of the Planetary Science
Institute and seeing a picture of Marc Fries
there.

http://www.psi.edu/



Sterling K. Webb.
-----------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Peterson" <clp at alumni.caltech.edu>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 3:52 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Galactic Analytics Announcement


> Planetary Research Institute?
>
> Chris
>
> *******************************
> Chris L Peterson
> Cloudbait Observatory
> http://www.cloudbait.com
>
> On 3/26/2013 2:21 PM, Marc Fries wrote:
>> Howdy ladies and gents
>>
>> The scientists at Galactic Analytics have been working on a project 
>> behind the scenes and the time has come to announce it publicly.  GA 
>> will stop performing radar analyses of meteorite falls. The same 
>> people will continue working on this project (don't worry!!), but we 
>> are transferring operations from Galactic Analytics to the Planetary 
>> Research Institute, a nonprofit research institution. We will 
>> continue to perform analyses, but they will appear on a PSI web page, 
>> and the "old" events will be transferred to the PSI website as well. 
>> PSI will also offer rapid, affordable meteorite classification 
>> services as well, picking up GA's efforts in that direction.
>>
>> -------
>>
>> WHAT THIS MEANS TO SUBSCRIPTION HOLDERS:
>>
>> GA has suspended the sale of annual subscriptions ahead of 
>> transferring to PSI. The goal is to do away with subscriptions 
>> entirely and make the radar data openly available to the public. 
>> This will take some time, however, as alternative funding efforts are 
>> underway. Since PSI is a nonprofit research institution, they can 
>> accept private donations, NASA and other government funding, and 
>> other sources of funding that were not available to GA. This will be 
>> used to continue operations.
>> Your subscription will still be honored! Existing one-year 
>> subscriptions will be allowed to expire over the course of the 
>> ~one-year transition period. In the meanwhile, all data will be 
>> available on the single-event basis to those without annual 
>> subscriptions. The three-day wait for the single-event subscriptions 
>> will no longer be used. At the end of the coming one-year period, 
>> other funding should be in place and radar data will be openly 
>> available.
>> GA's website will be transferred to PSI's servers soon, but there 
>> should be no interruption in service. You'll have to update your 
>> browser links, but that is all.
>>
>> -------
>>
>> ABOUT PSI:
>>
>> The Planetary Research Institute (http://www.psi.edu) is a widely 
>> respected research institute based in Tucson, AZ that has been 
>> actively engaged in planetary science and public outreach since 1972. 
>> Roughly half of PSI's scientists live and work in Tucson, and the 
>> rest are scattered across the US and around the world. PSI is a 
>> flexible, responsive organization composed of dedicated and motivated 
>> science professionals. At a time when most research institutes are 
>> cutting back under budgetary pressures, PSI has continued to grow:
>>
>> http://tucsoncitizen.com/press-releases/2013/03/01/planetary-science-institute-opens-new-tucson-conference-center/
>>
>> PSI scientists perform research in a broad range of planetary science 
>> and astronomy, and near-term plans include manned suborbital 
>> spaceflight for astronomical observations:
>>
>> http://www.psi.edu/atsa
>>
>> --------
>>
>> METEORITE CLASSIFICATION:
>>
>> PSI will pick up GA's efforts to offer a rapid, affordable meteorite 
>> classification service.  A great deal of progress has been made in 
>> this effort, and we anticipate that the service will commence in the 
>> coming months although we do not have a solid date yet. Please stay 
>> tuned.
>>
>> --------
>>
>> OTHER STUFF
>>
>> Dr. Marc Fries has accepted a job offer with NASA, working at the 
>> meteorite curation office in Houston, TX. Dr. Fries will still work 
>> on radar analyses on a part-time basis and has begun training PSI 
>> personnel to join in the effort. In the end, there will be more 
>> analysts working on locating meteorite falls, which means more 
>> meteorites! PSI's personnel and expertise resources will be brought 
>> to bear, allowing the project to grow more than it could under 
>> Galactic Analytics. Dr. Vishnu Reddy and Dr. Lucille LeCorre of PSI 
>> will take leading roles in the new effort.
>>
>> This is going to be a good thing. We get to carry on with a new 
>> period of growth, training more analysts and getting more people 
>> involved. The meteorite analysis effort will grow into an expansive, 
>> self-supporting entity that truly does bring planetary science "down 
>> to Earth" into schools, museums and collections. We hope to expand 
>> meteorite recovery into a multifaceted science experience, with 
>> outreach efforts in the communities where meteorite falls occur, 
>> in-house analytical services at PSI, and inclusive research and 
>> recovery efforts that include scientists, meteorite hunters, 
>> hobbyists, and the general public.
>>
>> This is going to be fun!
>>
>> Cheers!
>> Galactic Analytics LLC
>>
>> Please direct any questions at chief_scientist at galacticanalytics.com
>
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