Through much hard work and dedication over the last 12 months, the Andromeda Environmental Chamber is now busy turning out data for a variety of projects related to Mars and asteroid geology led by center graduate students as well as summer REU students (undergraduate interns).

The Mars projects involve determination of evaporation rates of brine and ice under martian conditions.  Julie Chittenden, graduate student, has been performing experiments to determine the evaporation rate of liquid brine solutions in mars conditions.  Eutectic brines are salt waters with a concentration that yields the lowest freezing point, as low as -50 degrees Celsius.  The goal of the project is to determine the relationship between the evaporation rate of the brine solutions and low temperatures.  The first results show, as expected, an exponential decrease of the evaporation rate with decreasing temperature.  Jennifer Hanley, an REU student from Cornell University, has been investigating the evaporation rates of ice under martian surface conditions.  Currently, she is measuring its evaporation rate as a function of soil depth.  A decrease in evaporation rate with increasing soil thickness should indicate the point where liquid water could exist.  This research is both timely and exciting in view of recent findings by Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey with their implications for future missions and for life on Mars.

The other major project currently utilizing the Chamber is a study of the “ponds” (fine-grained dust layers in craters) on the asteroid 433 Eros.  Jessica Haseltine, an REU student from Harding University, and graduate student Melissa Franzen have been running experiments to determine whether fluidization is a possible explanation for these structures.  Ponded craters and particle sorting are among the structures they are attempting to reproduce in the chamber.  Understanding the nature of asteroid surfaces is essential as we plan for asteroid sample return and in understanding a potential earth hazard.

The research conducted this summer will be presented at the Division of Planetary Science Conference of the American Astronomical Society in Cambridge, England, in fall 2005 or the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas, next spring. 

Melissa Franzen, Space Center Graduate Student

Tim Kral, a member of the space center and a faculty member in Biological Sciences, attended three conferences over the last few months, along with some of his students.  Dr. Kral is primarily interested in studying  the possiblity of life on Mars.  What
follows is Dr. Kral’s summary of his recent conference activities.

On May 18th, Dr. Kral attended a “Methane on Mars” workshop at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, CA.  This was a video conference with approximately 35 participants at four sites including NASA Ames.  The other three sites were NASA Goddard, The Astrobiology Institute in Spain, and the Astrobiology Institute in Austrailia.  Mike Mumma presented very convincing data indicating that the methane is probably real and that there are variations in the concentration (from 10 to 30 ppb) at different locations on the planet.  Others talked about possible abiogenic and biogenic sources, including methanogens.

From June 5th through 9th, Dr. Kral together with center graduate students Jennifer Choate, Sammy Grimes and Kathy Prejean attended the American Society for Microbiology Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.  This yearly meeting attracts between 10,000 and 15,000 microbiologists from around the world.  Kral’s group presented two posters, one dealing with the growth of methanogens on carbon monoxide and the other dealing with survival of methanogens at low temperatures.

From June 19th through 24th, Dr. Kral attended the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life conference in Beijing, China.  The venue was at Tsinghua University.  There were 331 officially registered.  Topics ranged from organics in interstellar space to the RNA world, and the first cells to SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence).  One of the space center’s external board members, Benton Clark, of Lockheed Martin Astronautics, did an oral presentation on the findings of Mars Rover Opportunity.  Dr. Kral presented a poster on methane production by methanogens under low pressure, results of which were obtained in the Andromeda Chamber, a major facility at the space center that is used for planetary simulation studies. 

The space center is pleased to announce that Professor Rick Ulrich has agreed to become an Associate Director of the space center.  The associate directors are now: 

Timothy Kral, Biological Sciences
Rick Ulrich, Chemical Engineering
Pamela Jansma, Geosciences
Claud Lacy, Physics
Larry Roe, Mechanical Engineering

Associate Directors are critical in the management of the space center and its interactions with partnering departments.  The number of faculty members who are members of the space center is now 12 and we are hoping to announce several new members soon. 

Well, I have been interning with the Lunar and Planetary Institute for the past few weeks, and, now that I have really gotten my teeth into my project, I thought an update was in order!

I have been in Houston since early June.  Although the intern program is run by LPI, I’m working at JSC since my advisors, Drs. Carl Allen and Dorothy Oehler, both have their offices here.  It’s quite fun to be actually working at JSC.  The center is so large, and has so many employees, but seems to be run smoothly.  All the people I’ve met, from researchers to staff to fellow interns and coops, have been very friendly and welcoming.  It’s kind of funny to be working in building 31, the main (and from what I hear, basically the only!) extraterrestrial material research center on JSC - the people I meet in the halls or at weekly meetings are well-known in their fields, and have been for years!  The Genesis Clean room is down the hall from the intern office, and the lunar sample collection is up a flight of stairs.  It’s exciting!

I have a project to keep me occupied.  I’m sure I talked about it during the spring semster, but I didn’t really have much information on it.  Now, of course, I am well familiar!  In a sentence, I’m photomapping the Arabia Terra, Mars, for sedimentary rocks, bright crater rings, and faults.  The first part of the project, (for which my time is almost halfway up!) involves looking at as many narrow-angle MOC images as I can and identifying the previous features across the region.  The second half will involve getting all the information to present itself on the ArcGIS map, at least, and there are lots of other research activities Carl and Dorothy would like to have done to/with the dataset! 

I’m enjoying the thrust of the project quite a bit, since I’m learning a good deal of practical knowledge about Mars and space programs, as well as the research process.  It’s also interesting to become familiar with a region about the size of Austrailia, so I can see the differences in terrain and types of features, or how the appearance of the same family of features changes across the region.  However, the actual nitty-gritty of sitting in my chair for hours at a time looking at hundreds of MOC images may sometimes get a little tiring.  The landscaped JSC campus is a nice break from a computer screen when I’ve spent too long in one spot!  And of course, for an occasional change of pace, I can start work on putting together the map that I’ll be using in a few weeks. 

In short, I’m having a great summer and I am really enjoying my time here.

Elizabeth Venechuk, Scripps College, CA

The space center REU final oral presentations will be on Thursday, July 29, from 12:30pm to 5:00pm in the Old Museum Building, room 109.  Thank you to all of our students for your hard work this summer and good luck with your studies next year.