Members Night at the Observatory – Special Guest Speaker: John Sarkissian

Abstract: The CSIRO’s 64-metre Parkes Radio Telescope, Murriyang, was commissioned on 31 October 1961. At the time, it was the most advanced radio telescope in the world, incorporating many new innovative design features that have since become standard in all large, dish antennas. Through its early discoveries it quickly became the leading instrument of its kind in the world. Today, 63 years after it was commissioned, it is still arguably the finest, single-dish radio telescope in the world. It is still doing world-class science and making discoveries that are shaping our understanding of the Universe. But it’s not resting on its laurels. In this talk, we’ll discuss the most recent developments, and peer into the near future to see what lies ahead.

BIO:John Sarkissian OAM is an Operations Scientist at the CSIRO Parkes Radio Observatory. His main responsibilities are the science operations at the radio telescope, and the support of remote astronomers with their observations. In addition, he is involved in pulsar research – an exciting field of radio astronomy.

John is a member of the ATNF Science Operations Team which provides the front-line support for the CSIRO’s Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF) telescopes. Since 2020, John has been the Lead Engineer in CSIRO’s Commercial Ground Station Support Program, helping to deliver CSIRO services to NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) providers.

Since 2003, John has been a member of the small, informal team searching for the missing Apollo 11 slow-scan TV tapes. From 1998-1999, John acted as a technical advisor for the feature film, “The DISH”.

John came to Parkes, in 1996, on an 11-month contract to support NASA’s Galileo Mission to Jupiter. He managed the daily Galileo spacecraft tracking operations at the observatory and performed 1/3 of the daily tracking duties. John has received NASA Group Achievement Awards for his work on “The Parkes Radio Telescope X-band Upgrade Task Team” in 2004, “The Huygens Probe Earth Detection Team” in 2005 and “The DSN-Parkes MSL EDL Support Team” in 2013. John has also received official NASA commendations for his Galileo support in 1997 and for the search of the missing Apollo 11 SSTV tapes, from Neil Armstrong, in 2010. From 2018-19, John managed the Parkes Voyager 2 tracking operations as the spacecraft crossed the heliopause and moved into interstellar space. Earlier this year, John tracked the IM-1 mission, the first successful, commercial lunar lander, helping to save the mission.

In June 2016, John received an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, for “services to astronomy”.

John is now in the 28th year of his 11-month contract.

For more information, visit: http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/people/sar049/