Feb 222013
 
Senator Martin Heinrich visited the campus of New Mexico Tech today. He was accompanied by three staffers and his engineering background was in evidence as he asked insightful questions about the science of the interferometer. New Mexico Tech President Dr. Daniel Lopez, Vice Presidents Dr. Peter Gerity and Dr. Van Romero as well as MRO’s Program Director Dr. Ifan Payne, Project Scientist Dr. Michelle Creech-Eakman, and Instrument Development Engineer Alisa Shtromberg had the pleasure of presenting a video  overview of Magdalena Ridge Observatory in general and the MRO Interferometer in particular.
The Senator enjoyed lunch while exploring the new engineering smart lab in Cramer where he used the the Samsung surface computer table to examine satellite images of the Observatory following which he was presented with a scale freshly printed 3D model of the telescope.

Senator Heinrich uses the Samsung surface computer to explore satellite images of Magdalena Ridge Observatory and surrounding area.

Senator Heinrich pressure washes a wrench after it was printed out from the 3D printer

From left to right: MRO’s Alisa Shtromberg, Dr. Michelle Creech-Eakman, Dr. Ifan Payne, Senator Martin Heinrich, NMT student Nicolas Castano, Dr. Daniel Lopez, and Dr. Van Romero

Check out the video presentation the Senator watched: