Dan Baker is Director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado – Boulder Campus. He is also Distinguished Professor of Planetary and Space Physics at CU. He currently is lead investigator on several NASA space missions including the NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, the NASA Radiation Belt Storm Probes (Van Allen Probes) mission, and the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP). He was a member of the 2006 Decadal Review of the U.S. National Space Weather Program and chaired the National Research Council’s 2013-2022 Decadal Survey in Solar and Space Physics.
keywords
space weather, Van Allen radiation belts, planetary science, space technology, hardware design, space policy, data analysis methods
ASTR 4800 - Space Science: Practice and Policy
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2021
Exposes students to current controversies in science that illustrate the scientific method and the interplay of observation, theory, and science policy. Students research and debate both sides of the issues, which include strategies and spin-offs of space exploration, funding of science, big vs. small science, and scientific heresy and fraud. Recommended prerequisite: one year of college level astronomy or physics.
