The space center published its second five-year plan this month.  The faculty members of the space center have identified fifteen goals for its second five-years:  five concern research, three concern education programs and seven concern the creation of central facilities.

The goals are:  1. The Hera mission selected; 2. Champion sample return from the Moon, asteroids and Mars; 3. Establish a national facility for the analysis of returned samples; 4. Build-up a national center for space and planetary simulations; 5. Establish a capability to build flight hardware; 6. Reach fifty students in the graduate programs; 7. Increase participation of undergraduates in the center; 8. Create a vibrant EPO program; 9. Sustain a long-term funding base for center programs; 10. The level of grant support obtained by space center faculty members should be increased; 11. Strengthen interactions with other centers in the university and outside; 12. Increase interactions with industrial partners; 13. Raise the diversity of the space center; 14. Establish permanent physical plant; 15. Establish strong infrastructure to support  space center programs.

It is customary to scoff at five-year plans that take years to write, unveiled with much noise and fanfare, and then end up in a drawer, long forgotten.  But for the space center, this has not proved to be the case.  The space center’s first-five year plan, published in July 2002, has been very effective in focusing efforts and garnering support.  However, after three years it was clear that it needed revamping and updating, and after discussions with the center’s external advisory board and a retreat in Eureka Springs, space center faculty have come up with the present document.

The means of achieving these five-year goals are documented in detail within the plan and in many instances we have already begun to move towards those goals. These developments at the space center are exciting and energising, particularly in the light of the president’s new vision for NASA.

Derek Sears
Center Director

A copy of the five year plan is posted at the space center Web site or may be obtained from the space center offices.

After one week of school, the graduate students of the space center abandoned their classes for a field trip to western Oklahoma.  The trip, to study geological features similar to those found on Mars, was led by Dr. John Dixon of the space center.  Ten students with a variety of scientific backgrounds participated.  We left Fayetteville around 3:00 pm and arrived in Enid, Oklahoma that night.  Before turning in, we discussed the sites we would be visiting the next day.

Our first stop was Glass Mountain State Park.  We studied the sedimentary rock and gypsum beds, comparing the features to similar ones on Mars.  Most of us hiked up to the top of a butte, and enjoyed a gorgeous view.  In one direction it looked very similar to martian landscapes, except for the port-a-potties!

Afterwards we headed further west to Little Sahara State Park.  There, we observed asymmetrical windblown sand dunes.  This stop would have been quicker had the van not gotten stuck in the sand!

Next was Alabaster Cavern State Park.  This cavern is made of alabaster, fine-grained gypsum, which may be similar to caves on Mars.  The adventure really began when the caves lighting system went out, making it feel more like we were going spelunking than on a tour.

Unfortunately by the time we reached the Great Salt Plains (there are salt deposits at the Opportunity site on Mars), it was too late in the day.  Instead we went star gazing later that night.  It was fun seeing some of our fellow students put their prior knowledge to good use by naming constellations.  The fun was cut short when a resident came out with a flashlight and a shotgun, but I think we scared him off. 

The trip was also a great opportunity to get to know one another.  This was aided by our transport - a crowded fifteen-seater van!  Oh, and we did get a fun introduction to Mars-like geology.

Katie Bryson
Space Center Graduate Student

Vincent Chevrier joins Dr. Sears’ water -on-Mars group as a Post Doctoral Fellow.  He completed his doctoral dissertation and defense in December of 2004 at the Centre European de Recherche et d’Enseignement en Geosciences de l’Environnement (CEREGE) in Aix-en-Provence, France.  His Ph.D. research focused on martian weathering processes.

Vincent will be conducting his post doctoral research on the stability of water on Mars working with graduate students, Julie Chittenden and Shauntae Moore.  This research is funded by the W. M. Keck Foundation.

John Sakon participated in the space center REU program in both 2003 and 2004, working on potential photosynthetic life on Mars, while he was an undergraduate at the College of William and Mary.

He recently contacted us to appreciate our efforts and let us know that he is heading to graduate school at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.  John attributes his strong interest in research in large part to his REU experience.  We would like to wish him well in his future studies.

The summer REU program for the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences at the University of Arkansas has just completed its fourth year.  Some 50 undergraduates with a variety of scientific backgrounds from all around the country have participated in the program thus far.

Until now there has been no organized method for former participants to keep in touch and up-to-date on what other participants are doing.  This is why at the end of the 2005 summer REU program, Jesse Buffington, a 2004 REU participant and undergraduate student at the University of Arkansas, proposed the creation of a space center REU Alumni Association.

This idea was quickly accepted, and the task of filling officer positions began.  Impromptu elections were held, and the results were:  Brian Fleming (Illinois Institute of Technology) is President, Lucija Rakocevic (University of Arkansas) is Vice President, Mona Houcheime (San Jose State University) is Secretary, and I am Treasurer.  A month and a half after the end of the REU program, the Alumni Association is slowly but surely making progress into an actual functioning organization. The goal of the organization has been established as simply providing a means in which REU participants can keep in touch and remain aware of what past and future participants are doing and where they are.  Plans for a web site and periodic newsletter are in the works as a means to easily distribute the information.  As the organization gets started it may take on more functions, such as organizing REU reunion events (a reunion is held each March at the annual Lunar and Planetary Science conference in Houston, Texas).

Jason Kramb
Space Center REU Alumni, 2005
University of Dayton, Ohio

FREE - Poultry Science Auditorium - 7:00 pm

“The Origins of Flight”
Dr. Larry Roe, UArk
Mechanical Engineering Dept.
October 5, 2005

"The Cassini/Huygens Mission and the Saturn System"
Barringer Lecture Series
Dr. Robert M. Nelson
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
November 8, 2005

“The Star of Bethlehem”
Dr. Claud Lacy, UArk
Physics Department
November 16, 2005