ICON at Cal Day, UC Berkeley's Open House

Life-size payload model popular with public

PI with ICON model

Principal Investigator Dr. Thomas Immel shows off the life-size ICON payload model.

On April 22, 2017, members of the ICON team showed off a life-size 3D-printed ICON payload mock-up built by Space Dynamics Lab   at Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) for Cal Day, UC Berkeley’s all-day Open House. PI Thomas Immel was on hand to answer questions. Nearly 1500 visitors, primarily families, made the extra trip up the hill from campus (where most activities were happening) to LHS and through the main hall, where the life-size model and other ICON outreach activities were featured.

The models and visualizations triggered interest and curiosity from all ages. Visitors were excited to meet the PI, and to know that ICON would soon be launching and they could follow the mission’s progress. Kids of all ages stayed busy finding ICON in Earth’s atmosphere in the “Where’s ICON” simulation, watching other visualizations, including footage taken from the International Space Station, and exploring a MIGHTI instrument mock-up.