Our Interplanetary Connection

The board of directors at SDCI has much to be thankful for, not the least of which are the dedicated volunteers with DNR's Serpentine Ecosystem Restoration Project (SERP) who spend many winter weekends eradicating invasive plants at Soldiers Delight and preparing brush piles for burning.

Back in 2006, one of our SERP volunteers had to miss a volunteer event because he had a deadline at work. Turns out, it was the final check and initial launch of the New Horizons spacecraft. That was nine years ago!

You may have heard that New Horizons recently flew by our dwarf planet, Pluto. And you may have seen some wow-worthy images sent back from that spacecraft, courtesy of an instrument known as LORRI (Long Range Reconnaissance Imager). That instrument just happens to be the work of longtime SERP volunteer, Frank Morgan, and his team at Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Maryland.  When he is not volunteering with SERP or exploring the Kuiper Belt, Frank serves on the board of directors at Soldiers Delight Conservation, Inc.  For more info on New Horizons and LORRI, click here.

Congratulations Frank, JHUAPL and NASA for your amazing achievement!