Washington, 8 sep (EFE).-Spanish Armengol Torres has been selected by NASA to bring closer to Spanish speakers from around the world the mission GRAIL, that tomorrow will start heading to the Moon in order to measure its gravity.
Scheduled to GRAIL, acronym of “Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory”, left Thursday from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral (Florida), where he has been invited along with 150 others around the world to tell the adventures of this new mission.
But Torres, consultant of telecommunications, and the hundreds of followers of the NASA via Twitter will have to wait until tomorrow, that the launch has been postponed 24 hours due to strong winds.
Notwithstanding the illusion continues because for this Catalan who was born and resides in Barcelona, but has lived in Argentina and Brazil, ensures that this experience “is fulfilled a dream, a personal satisfaction”.
His fondness for the space comes as a boy and his curiosity led him to mount their own electronic devices, as told in an interview with Efe.
“To the 10 years rode with the help of my uncle a telegraph Morse.” “Pushed me the curious to unveil the mysteries of invisible or distant,” noted this Catalan whose desire to know has led to one of the most emblematic centres of NASA
Torres highlighted the work of NASA to bring science to the public through new technologies. “I have been following NASA programs for years, by various means.” With twitter you can be informed from the proximity of wandering asteroids as risks of impending tsunami. It’s wonderful! “.
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Other platforms such as Facebook, used from young to old, allows to find people that share the same interests “as those in this group fabulous enthusiasts”, said of his teammates who will share this experience.
This not is the first time he had tried to participate in one of these NASA activities, known as “Tweetup”. Enrolled in order to view the latest release of a shuttle, Atlantis last July, that the space agency put end to thirty years of their programme star.
“For me the shuttle program is comparable to the Apollo mission,” said the engineer, also expert in the field of the intelligent transport systems (ITS).
With regard to the programme for which it has been selected, GRAIL, is responsible for measuring the gravitational field of the moon to help scientists to know that hides under the structure under the surface, its composition, and above its thermal history.
La Luna captivated an entire generation of children that saw how man arrived on board a spaceship and appears for the first time that large area that illuminates the nights of the Earth.
“To the 10 years my parents gave me a great Atlas which was my primary source of scientific dissemination could understand.” “The solar system and in particular the Moon for its proximity and familiarity me fascinated”, recalls Torres.
He began to build his own telescope, which could not stop because you were missing major components, but at age 12, when he lived with his parents in Buenos Aires, not hesitated to return to your project and recalls how a camera from his father and a makeshift tripod made his first photographs space.
“Remove and I photographs my own photos, thinking that perhaps one day they would have a different meaning for my.” “Now I understand”, it evokes the same enthusiasm with which he recalls as in 1971 earned as a listener for Voice of America with the signatures of the mission Apollo XV. “The illusion continued…”.
Says that he would not mind to repeat the experience at NASA and as an expert in the sector, regrets that Spain is at “serious risk” of losing positions and some positions at the technological forefront “hard achieved through the efforts of many years”. EFE
