Hi, If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, you may be interested in an event that I have organized. You and a guest are invited to a special event that will recognize one of the successes of the Apollo 11 mission: the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment (LURE), in which the first Earth-to-Moon distance measurement with centimeter accuracy took place. The LURE made use of a special device left on the lunar surface by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, as well as a weapons-grade ruby laser system that was operated by Dr. Hal Walker at Lick Observatory in the hills above San Jose. You will learn how the LURE took place during an interview of Dr. Walker by SETI’s Dr. Seth Shostak, as well as the interesting back story that involves the Cold War of 50 years ago. You will also learn from Dennis Wingo about how analysis of the moon rocks collected by the Apollo astronauts will soon result in tele-operation of robots on the lunar surface by scientists on Earth. The evening will conclude with the dedication of an IEEE Milestone bronze plaque in recognition of the 1969 success of the LURE. A brief TV interview of Dr. Walker that took place earlier this month is available here: https://wjla.com/features/good-morning-washington/celebrating-apollo-11-form... There will be a reception at 6pm, and the program will start at 7pm, on Thursday, Aug. 1, at the Texas Instruments Silicon Valley Auditorium, 2900 Semiconductor Dr, Santa Clara, CA. Event sponsors include the IEEE Foundation, the IEEE Santa Clara Valley Section, and Berg Software Design. Thanks to Viodi for videography support, and to TI for use of their facility. To attend, please fill out the registration form at the webpage shown below for yourself and potentially one guest. Registration is on a first come, first served basis due to limited space, but please register ONLY if you indeed plan to attend. You will need to enter this password to gain access to the webpage: *LunarMilestone* https://californiaconsultants.org/event/apollo-11-ieee-milestone-lunar-laser... You will also need to enter this special Invitation Code to secure your registration: *33-SIGCIS* You can ignore the ticket and login information that appears after you have completed your registration as you will be all set at that point. *Please don't forward this invite without first asking me.* You can find out more about the background of the Milestone by viewing my proposal here <http://ieeemilestones.ethw.org/Milestone-Proposal:Apollo_11_Lunar_Ranging_Experiment_(LURE)>, including the documents linked at the end of that page. The citation of the bronze plaque that will be dedicated reads as follows: *On 1 August 1969, Lick Observatory made the first Earth-to-Moon distance measurement with centimeter accuracy. The researchers fired a gigawatt ruby laser at a retro-reflector array placed on the Moon by Apollo 11 astronauts, and measured the time delay in detecting the reflected pulse. This was the first experiment using a hand-placed extraterrestrial instrument.* Thank you. _________________________ Brian A. Berg / bberg@StanfordAlumni.org Berg Software Design 14500 Big Basin Way, Suite F, Saratoga, CA 95070 USA Voice: 408.741.5010 / Cell: 408.568.2505 Consulting: Flash Memory/USB/Storage/Patents visit the Storage Cornucopia: www.bswd.com FMS Technical Chair: www.FlashMemorySummit.com <http://www.flashmemorysummit.com/> IEEE Milestone <http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:List_of_IEEE_Milestones> Coordinator and History Chair for Region 6 <http://www.ieee-region6.org/> IEEE SCV Section <http://www.ieee.org/scv/> Past Chair / IEEE-CNSV <http://www.californiaconsultants.org/> Board Director IEEE Silicon Valley Tech History Committee <http://www.siliconvalleyhistory.com/> Chair