Travis Altheide, Southwest Missouri State University
Mentor: Tim Kral
"Determining the sens-itivity of PCR to detect methanogens"

Siham Azouggagh-Mcbride, University of Texas
Mentor: Larry Roe
"Earth impact study for the Hera mission"

Jesse Buffington, University of Arkansas
Mentor: Larry Roe
"Simulation of extraterrestrial sample collection"

Joshua Coltrane, North Carolina State University
Mentor: Andy Arena
"Computational fluid dynamics modelling of NASA's Ares platform"

Jonathan Craig, University of S. Illinois
Mentor: Derek Sears
"Albedo study of the depositional fans associated with martian gullies"

Ryan Davidson, University of Missouri
Mentor: Glen Mattioli
"Continuing ground deformation studies of Dominica using GPS geodesy"

Jason Lee, University of Arkansas
Mentor: Surinder Sahai
"Ground penetrating radar in sedimentary rocks"

Nick Phillips, Delta State University
Mentor: Rick Ulrich
"Drifts on mineral additions to martian soil simulants"

Liz Roberts, University of Hawaii
Mentor: Pamela Jansma
"Geomorphic comparisons of volcanoes on Earth and Mars"

John Sakon, College of William and Mary
Mentor: Robert Burnap
"Further analysis of potential photosynthetic life on Mars"

Elizabeth Venechuk, Scripps College
Mentor: Derek Sears
"Effect of radiation on silicon vacuum grease"

Kelli Wakefield, Tarleton State University
Mentor: Liz Catlos
"Oddanchatram anorthosite, Southern India: A lunar analog"

Shelby Walters, Benedictine College
Mentor: Claud Lacy
"The properties of the eclipsing binary CV BOO"

We have been in touch with several REU students from previous years lately, and with their permission publish their news here.  We thought their friends and colleagues might like to keep in touch.  We welcome information from all our students.

Justin Thompson, REU 2002
I received an extension here at the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the following year.  We proposed our instrument for the Mars Science Laboratory Instrument Suite to NASA last month, and are optimistic.

Kathryn Brutlag, REU 2003
I graduated from Middlebury College in May and in September start a Fulbright grant to study x-ray and cosmic ray astronomy with Professor Katsuji Koyama of Kyoto University.

Jessica White, REU 2002
I graduated July 2003 with a degree in Chemistry and Physics.  I am currently working as a peptide chemist in the quality control department at Tyco Healthcare.

Aisha Garel, REU 2003
I graduated in December of 2003 and now I am working with United Space Alliance in Houston.  I plan on going to graduate school at the University of Houston in January to study orbital mechanics.

The NASA philosophy for finding life on Mars is simple:  follow the water.

A $500,000 challenge grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation of Los Angeles will enable Derek Sears and his students and colleagues to investigate how liquid water forms on Mars and examine the existence of considerable amounts of near-surface ice all over the planet.  They also will study how slight changes in pressure and temperature could transform Mars into a wet planet hospitable to simple life forms.

The W.M. Keck Foundation, established in 1954 in Los Angeles by William Myron Keck, is one of the nation's largest philanthropic organizations.  For half a century, the foundation has supported pioneering discoveries in science, engineering and medical research.  The name is associated with some of the most innovative research programs and facilities in the country.

The researchers will employ a large stainless steel environmental chamber, dubbed Andromeda that is used for various planetary simulation studies.  Andromeda can hold up to a half ton of Hawaiian volcanic dust.  This dust shares chemical characteristics with Martian soil.  The chamber can replicate most properties of Martian atmosphere, surface pressure, temperature and radiation.

The team will investigate five problems key to understanding the existence of water on Mars:  the evaporation rates of water under a variety of conditions, today and in past epochs; the evaporation rate of various brine solutions, linked by some to the famous gullies on the planet; the melting and evaporation rates of both water and ice from sun-warmed surfaces in cold atmospheres; the lateral transfer of water and ice by sublimation; and the behavior of ice under a layer of dust.

The last investigation, and the most ambitious, offers the greatest potential for finally demonstrating that liquid water has existed or still does exist on Mars.  Frozen water makes up as much as 10 percent of the top three feet of land in some regions close to Mars' equator.  The dust may be acting as an insulator for lingering ice.

"People have always been fascinated by the prospect of life on Mars," said Sears, a professor of chemistry in the Fulbright College and director of the Arkansas-Oklahoma Center for Space and Planetary Sciences, "With the support of a high-profile foundation such as Keck, I am confident that we'll find the additional funding we need to match the award and fully realize the potential of our research."

The laboratory used by Sears that houses Andromeda will be renovated and named the W.M. Keck Laboratory for Space Simulation at the University of Arkansas.  This gift counts toward the $300 Million Challenge, the campaign-within the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century at the University of Arkansas.

Lynn Fisher, Fulbright College

With the construction crews arriving to rennovate the chemistry building, the planetary simulations laboratory of the space center and the center administrative offices have moved into the old university museum originally built as a men's gym.  The building is at the heart of campus, between the Arkansas Union and Silas H. Hunt Hall.  It is a building of considerable historic interest and is listed with the U.S. Department of the Interior as a building of national historic interest. The space center offices are located in rooms 202 and 203, and professor Sears' research laboratories that were also located in the chemistry building are located in rooms 105, 109, and 123.