[meteorite-list] Galactic Analytics Announcement

From: Marc Fries <chief_scientist_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:21:04 -0700
Message-ID: <2AE2A4F0-374E-4213-8177-EC4F1FBDF4E2_at_galacticanalytics.com>

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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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
Received on Tue 26 Mar 2013 04:21:04 PM PDT