NASA Scientists Visit Cal Poly for a Day of Community Fun and Education

Dr. Craig DeForest speaks to the public at a special astronomy event at Cal Poly in advance of a NASA launch. DeForest is the principal investigator of the PUNCH mission administered by NASA. Photo by Alexis Kovacevic.

March 2025 / NEWS STORY
by Angelina Benyamin Rodriguez

In a special treat for the Cal Poly community and the public, NASA mission officials came to campus in late February for an afternoon to host a series of astronomy presentations and activities in advance of a scheduled PUNCH mission launch at Vandenberg Space Force Base in Lompoc, California.

About 50 community members and guests attended the special event on Sunday, Feb. 23 in the Advanced Technology Building (Bldg. 7). Co-organized by physics Professor Dr. Jodi Christansen and astronomy Professor Dr. David Mitchell, the event also allowed interested students to learn more about the launch and interact with NASA scientists.

The principal investigator of The PUNCH mission, Dr. Craig DeForest, and NASA Project Scientist, Dr. Nicholeen Viall, hosted separate presentations detailing the PUNCH mission and its goals. 

PUNCH, which stands for Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere, was planned to send four small satellites to space from the Vandenberg Space Force, located about an hour south of Cal Poly. The mission was designed to launch 88-pound satellites to track the sun’s coronal mass ejections (a significant mass ejection of plasma into the solar system’s heliosphere) and capture 3D images of solar wind.  

The PUNCH images will help scientists deduce how potentially disruptive solar flares and coronal mass ejections form and evolve. Coronal mass ejections have the ability to disrupt power grids, radio communications, satellites and navigational systems, among other impacts. 

“We need to explore our environment in order to survive and grow,” DeForest said during his talk. 

After the talk, individuals engaged in activities related to learning about the launch. Attendees observed the sun and its flares through a telescope activity run by sophomore aerospace engineer Riley Harsey.

An event participant peers through a solar telescope.     
Photo by Alexis Kovacevic.

Harsey said she had the most fun being able to teach small kids how to look through the telescope. 

Other activities run by student volunteers included a demo of pinhole projection to safely view the sun through plastic cards, tactile-art representations of solar eclipses and a guided movement activity where attendees were “Dancing Up a Solar Storm” with the help of colored scarves to represent the flow of solar particles. 

Yesenia Ulivarria, a Santa Maria resident, accompanied her son, Matteo Villanueva, who has an interest in studying engineering at Cal Poly. Ulivarria said the opportunity to learn from NASA mission officials motivated them to visit.

The event offered a special opportunity “just to be able to get information, and be so local to it, and inspire (Matteo’s) growing mind,” Ulivarria said.

Mitchell said that interested students were able to tour Vandenberg Space Force Base before the community event. Students have also been invited to attend PUNCH team mission meetings in advance of the launch. 

“So if there's students that want to be astronomers or aerospace engineers, they get to actually see what is really happening right before a launch from the actual scientists and engineers doing it, which I think is a really great opportunity to have on campus,” Mitchell stated. 

The event included family-friend activities to inspire enthusiasm and education about astronomy. Photo by Alexis Kovacevic