The university has admitted its first engineer into its graduate program in space and planetary sciences.  Laurie Darling will study for the M.S. in space and planetary sciences; she will be a member of the mechanical engineering department.  Laurie works for the space dynamics group at the Johnson Space Center and has taken a one-year leave of absence, supported by a prestigious NASA fellowship, to take the class work require by the program after which she will return to JSC to complete her degree research.  Laurie will have Larry Roe of mechanical engineering as her mentor and she will study the orbital mechanics of spacecraft in the proximitry of small asteroids during sample collection.

Laurie is the third student to be admitted the program, the others being Melissa Franzen in chemistry and biochemistry and Henry Turner in geosciences.  We expect to soon announce several other new students in the program as their registrations are formally approved.

A member of the Space Center, Claud H. Sandberg Lacy of the Physics faculty, has begun an observational program based on the SpeX infrared spectrometer of the IRTF telescope on Mauna Kea, HI.  Three observing runs have been granted so far as a result of competitive proposals submitted to the NASA observatory.  Results of the first observing run on Aug. 5, 2004 have now been analyzed.  They show the spectrum of the NEO 54509 from 0.9 to 2.5 microns in the infrared part of the spectrum.  A strong absorption band due to silicates is seen at 0.9 microns.  The spectrum has been classified as class V (Vestoid, i.e., similar to the asteroid Vesta).  This object is a potential target for the HERA mission for asteroid sample return proposed by the space center.  The spectrogram was obtained in difficult observing conditions (cirrus) and was near the limit of the instrument.  In fact, the observer never actually saw the asteroid because all the light was going down the slit of the spectrometer!  It was only during analysis that it became clear that a usable signal had been obtained.

The Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences invites the submission of proposals in the area of space and planetary sciences from faculty members at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.  The purpose of these awards is to strengthen interdisciplinary research in space and planetary sciences at the University.

In order to stimulate inter-disciplinary collaborations, the space center research grants require that all proposers identify a collaborator in another academic department in the University or at other universities, companies, NASA Centers, or government laboratories.  It is important to recognize that SPAC support cannot provide sustained resources, and proposers likely to write follow-on grant proposals will be considered more favorably.  A progress report at six months and twelve months will be required.

The total amount of funding available for this program is approximately $0.35M and we expect to make about 12 awards in the range of $15k to $43k.  Proposals may typically cover some summer support for a faculty member who is interested in exploring their interests in space and planetary science, perhaps in association with a space center REU (Research Experience for Under-graduates) student.  Alternatively proposals may cover some summer support and, perhaps, a graduate assistant (preferably in the SPAC program) for faculty members who are able to work on a space and planetary science topic throughout the year. [Space center REU students are under-graduates who hold summer internships in the University performing research in the space and planetary sciences.  SPAC students are graduate students enrolled in the space and planetary sciences graduate degree programs.]

Proposals must be submitted by 5 pm CST on Tuesday, March 1st, 2005, using the template provided, in accordance with the procedure below.  Details of proposal requirements are provided in the template.

1. The electronic copy of the proposal template is available from the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences by sending an e-mail to csaps@uark.edu.

2. The proposal must be endorsed by your departmental Chair (by e-mail is acceptable).

3. The completed proposal must be submitted as an e-mail attachment to csaps@uark.edu and must be readable in Microsoft Word. The file size must not exceed 5 MB.  The author is responsible for assuring the readability of the document.

LATE SUBMISSIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED - NO EXCEPTIONS.

Reviewing of proposals will be conducted by the External Advisory Board of the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences and awards and their level will be made on the basis of their reports.  [The members of the External Advisory Board are listed on the space center's web site at www.uark.edu/csaps.].

For further information contact Derek Sears (dsears@uark.edu).

Important dates:

Due March 1st by 5 pm CST

Decisions will be announced around April 1st

Funding will begin on May 1st 2005

Professor Susan Ziegler of the biological sciences department recently received a grant from the National Science Foundation to study nutrients, sunlight and microbial activity in two tributaries of the Mississippi River using stable isotope measurements.  While essentially directed at understanding the processes occurring in Arkansas rivers, her work has relevance to the origins of life on Earth and the possibility of life on Europa.

For one year starting on February 14, 2000, NASA's NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft orbited the asteroid Eros and returned an enormous bounty of scientific data.  Like other near-earth asteroids, Eros has an orbit that brings it within the orbit of Mars, coming much closer to Earth than do the vast majority of asteroids.  The NEAR mission provided the first close-up and detailed view of the geology, mineralogy and composition of a near-earth asteroid, providing key information on the nature of small bodies in the early Solar System, as well as their history and evolution and relationship to meteorites found on Earth.  This talk will review the major scientific results of the NEAR mission to Eros.

Larry R. Nittler is a Staff Scientist in the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism (DTM) of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Washington, D.C.  He develops and uses laboratory microanalytical techniques to study chemical and isotopic variations in extraterrestrial materials and remote-sensing techniques to determine elemental compositions of planetary surfaces.  In 2001, he received the Alfred O. Nier Prize of the Meteoritical Society and in 2002 was honored by the International Astronomical Union in having asteroid 5992 Nittler named for him.