There was much activity in the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences and its partners - the graduate school, the department of geosciences, and the department of biological sciences in the month of April.

Under the leadership of Dr. Dennis Brewer, Associate Vice Provost for Research, the space center hosted the annual symposium of the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium on Friday, April 15.  The Consortium was held in the W. M. Keck Laboratory for Space Simulation in the old museum building.  This event showcased the work of undergraduates from around the state who described their research in a series of oral and poster presentations.  Keynote speaker for the event was Dr. Larry Lebofsky of the University of Arizona, who gave a talk on asteroids, meteorites and the Hera mission.

The space center recently announced twelve research awards for faculty members interested in developing their research interests in space and planetary science.  The competed research awards program is designed to stimulate interdisciplinary research in the space and planetary sciences at the university through collaborations and undergraduate and graduate student involvement.  Research topics include science, engineering and data collection projects on asteroids, Mars, missions and hunting for quasars!  The total funds awarded were almost $410,000 and 9 faculty are current members of the space center and 3 faculty were not.  The proposals will support 12 summer interns and 9 graduate students in the SPAC program.

The space center will host a workshop that will focus on learning about astronomy by doing astronomy.  The Summer Triangle:  Observing, Research, and Inquiry (STORI) is for 20 elementary school teachers of grades 4-8 who want to learn more about basic astronomy concepts, observing, and current exploration of our solar system.  No specific science background is needed, just the willingness to work with others in a learning environment and a commitment to take what they learn back to their schools.  The program includes 30 contact hours during the week-long workshop plus at least an additional 30 hours of on-line discussions during the school year.  STORI is designed to help teachers reach the goals of the Arkansas Science Standards for these grades.  STORI is based on a similar program in Arizona and Ohio and allows participants to become a part of a growing community of teachers around the U.S. who are participating in these programs.  The project staff are Dr. Larry Lebofsky, a planetary scientist and educator from the University of Arizona; Nancy Lebofsky, an instructional specialist now working with the Science Center of Inquiry; and Dr. Derek Sears, director of the space center.  Participating teachers will receive a telescope for their personal use during the school year and a subscription to Night Sky magazine.

Space Center faculty member Tim Kral and his wife Connie recently had an exhibit of their lithographs and etchings called "20th Century Modernes" in Mullins Library.

Amber Straughn graduated from the university with a BS in Physics in 2003.  She was involved in undergraduate research with space center director Derek Sears; Amber participated in micro-gravity experiments aboard NASA's KC-135.  She recently wrote to Dr. Lin Oliver, chair of physics:  "I was recently offered a 3-year NASA Fellowship to support me in graduate school at Arizona State University.  Thanks so much for your support and willingness to write letters.  Graduate school is going great; my current research is in galaxy evolution/merging into the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (long exposure) images.

I am also working with the proposed DESTINY Dark Energy Mission. The PI is here at ASU."

Space center director Derek Sears, with Tom Zurbuchen of the University of Michigan, was recently invited to make a presentation to staffers on Capital Hill as part of the Science Coalitions Science 101 series of lectures.  The presentation stressed the importance of science to the President's New Vision for solar system exploration in which humans return to the Moon by 2020 and thereafter to Mars and beyond.

Laurie Darling, a graduate student in the SPAC MS program, recently gave a seminar on her work at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) and proposed thesis topic on rendezvous concepts and operations of the International Space Station.  Laurie is working with Dr. Larry Roe in Mechanical Engineering.  She spoke specifically about non-shuttle vehicles such as the Russian Soyuz and Progress, the European Automated Transfer Vehicle, and the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle.  Her group at JSC supports all of these vehicles; however Laurie is specifically assigned to the Japanese vehicle as the co-lead of the rendezvous operations group.  Laurie also discussed rendezvous with an uncontrolled dynamic body, like the rendezvous required by the proposed Hera mission that the university is proposing, where a spacecraft will visit an asteroid and collect three 100-gram samples from three distinct sites and return the samples to Earth.  Laurie will study the aspects of an autonomous rendezvous, guidance, navigation and control, collision avoidance system, ranging systems, etc.  This technology can also be applied at NASA to areas such as shuttle docking with the Space Station if the station has a loss of altitude control, retrieval/recovery of a satellite, and in-space assembly of a Mars or lunar lander, etc.

Space center faculty recently met at the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs to plan the next few years of the space center.  The primary objective of the retreat was to define objectives and strategies for the second five year plan for the space center.  The center will continue to strengthen and expand its undergraduate and graduate education programs.  Research developments will include hirings and major instrument acquisitions to strengthen our position as a national facility for sample analysis.  The detailed plan should be released during the summer.