University of Arizona counting down to asteroid mission

There are good reasons to attend the annual open house at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory on Saturday.

This year’s theme is “Countdown to Lift-Off” and you can meet the team leading a NASA mission to asteroid Bennu.

You can also swing next door to learn more about asteroids at the Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium.

The planetarium is holding its grand reopening after a renovation this summer. It has new seats, better acoustics and a layout that takes full advantage of the Full-Dome digital projection system installed in 2014.

The renamed “EOS Foundation Theater” will be showing three movies at a discounted price of $3, including one about asteroid exploration that pairs with a film about the OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid Bennu, set to launch on Sept. 8 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The Lunar and Planetary Lab’s “Countdown to Lift-off” event opens at 10 a.m. with a variety of exhibits, workshops, lectures and activities.

At 11 a.m., a panel of mission scientists — Bashar Rizk, Carl Hergenrother and Michael Nolan — will discuss the NASA mission, whose scientific goals were conceived by UA planetary scientists.

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An artistic interpretation of the mission will be presented at 12:30 p.m. by UA Theatre Arts students.

At 1 p.m., Ed Beshore, the deputy principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx, will talk about its history and goals.

At 2 p.m., the literary side of fascination with space will be presented.

Scott Selisker, a UA assistant professor of English, will talk about “Imagining Asteroids in the History of Science Fiction.”

Christopher Cokinos, a UA associate professor of English, will talk about his book, “Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Falling Stars.”

Flandrau Science Center, which has an exhibit about the OSIRIS-REx mission, will offer free admission all day and present three “Full-Dome” shows in its renovated planetarium — “Asteroid: Mission Extreme,” “Mysteries of the Unseen World” and “We Are Stars.”