Laser scattering and absorption can be used to map various properties of the atmosphere in three dimensions, including temperature, humidity, aerosols, and the concentration of various chemical species.

The department of Chemical Engineering and the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences are involved in a joint project to develop LIDAR capabilities for the dual purposes of remote analysis of pollutants in Earth’s atmosphere and trace components in Mars’ atmosphere.

Dr. Rick Ulrich is developing the initial instrument, a zenith-looking laser/telescope combination to perform sounding of atmospheric structure and aerosol distribution.  Pulses of a few ns duration, resulting in a pulse length of a few feet, will be shot straight up and the returns from atmospheric layers will be received at a nearby telescope/detector combination.  Subsequently, the same apparatus will be modified to enable chemical analysis using a differential scheme, where the laser is tuned to an absorption band of the chemical being sought then detuned to provide calibration under the same atmospheric conditions.  The difference in the two return signals indicates the amount of the species present and the return time gives the height to that concentration.

On September 15th, Dr. Alan Mantooth’s research group submitted for fabrication seven different electronic integrated circuits designed to operate in lunar and Mars environments.  The circuits are designed to operate from -230 degrees Celsius to +125 degrees Celsius.  The circuits are being fabricated by IBM and are due back in late December.  The work is part of a multi-institutional effort including Boeing, BAE Systems, JPL, Lynguent, Georgia Tech University, the University of Tennessee, Auburn University, Vanderbilt University, the University of Maryland, and the University of Arkansas.

Dr. Mantooth travelled to California recently to present his group’s advanced modeling tools research at the Custom Integrated Circuits Conference and at the IEEE International Behavioral Modeling and Simulation Workshop.  Then, he gave a one-day tutorial as part of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Distiguished Lecturer Program entitled “Modeling Tools & Techniques for the 21st Century” in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia.

Most recently, Dr. Mantooth presented work on High Temperature Power Converters at the IEEE Industry Applications Society Meeting in Hong Kong.  This work was done in collaboration with Arkansas Power Electronics International, a University of Arkansas start-up company in the Genesis Technology Incubator.

The 37th AAS Division for Planetary Science Meeting was held in Cambridge, England, Sept. 4-9 (myself, fellow graduate student Melissa Franzen, and Jessica Haseltine, an undergraduate from Abilene Christian University who participated in the space center REU 2005 program, and our research advisor, Dr. Derek Sears, attended the conference). 

We arrived on Sunday and promptly took a stroll around the town and got to take a quick peek at the historic colleges, buildings, and marketplace.  Jet lag had set in, but we diligently headed over to the opening reception.  It was great to see our colleagues again, but soon, we headed back to Robinson College for a much-wanted sleep.

Monday, Melissa, Jessica, and Dr. Sears enjoyed the asteroid sessions, where Melissa and Jessica presented their posters on space weathering and asteroid surface processes, respectively.  I bounced back and forth between those and the Cassini-Huygens sessions. 

Tuesday, I set up camp in the Mars sessions.  There were many great talks, and honestly, I don’t think I could pick a favorite.  That evening, I presented my poster on brine water on Mars.

Deep Impact was the main attraction the next day.  While the outcome of the mission was very different from what they had expected, the talks were very interesting.  That evening, while Jessica and Dr. Sears went to the gala dinner, Melissa and I made our way to a pub called “The Eagle.”  If you have a chance, I highly recommend an evening there.  It is the last carriage inn left in Cambridge, and one of the few left in England.  The historic atmosphere was great and the food was wonderful.

Thursday, the group headed out on the town.  After a quick shopping trip to the marketplace, we took a historic walking tour around the main part of the city.  Our stomachs were rumbling all the way to lunch at “The Anchor” beside the River Cam.

It was a beautiful day, and our next mission was to have a punt boat ride.  Dr. Sears did a wonderful job punting while we drifted under the Mathematical Bridge and by King’s College. 

The following morning, we got a quick tour around the Fitzwilliam Museum, followed by the last sessions of the conference.  Once the conference ended, Melissa, Jessica, and I caught a train to London.  All in all, we had a wonderful experience in England and at the conference. 

Julie Chittenden
Space Center Graduate Student

The space center would like to add its appreciation to several recipients of this year’s Employee of the Year Awards.  Scott Kilgore is plant maintenance administrator at Facilities Management who has seen the space center through many construction and renovation projects with a quiet professionalism that has made him a pleasure to work with and resulted in work of the highest quality.  Lisa Frye, secretary in the Geosciences department, works everyday with patience and good humor to ensure that faculty and students associated in our cooperative programs in space and planetary science can function smoothly.

Rick Haley was a journeyman welder, taken from us much too soon, who more than anyone else on campus built the Andromeda Chamber for the W. M. Keck Laboratory for Space Simulation, saw its successful installation in the Chemistry building, and then, with equal professionalism, supervised its removal from the Chemistry building to the old museum where it is now turning out new discoveries and insights on the stability of water on Mars and a host of other projects.  Rick’s qualities as a craftsman were of the highest order, but his qualities as a sensitive and thoughtful colleague were even higher.

Last week Dr. Naseem and I returned from the 19th Space Photovoltaic and Technology Conference (SPRAT) that was held at the Ohio Aerospace Institute in Cleveland.  There, we presented our project results.  The title of our presentation was “Syntheses of poly-silicon thin films on glass substrate using laser initiated metal induced crystallization of amorphous silicon for space power application.”  We also attended the nanotechnology workshop that was held during the conference.  We met with several people who showed interest in doing collaboration with us in terms of making devices from the fabricated films.  We also met the Photovoltaic and Space  Environments Branch Chief, Sheila G. Bailey.  We talked with Ms. Bailey about our method in fabricating silicon nanowires inside amorphous material for making solar cells.

Husam Abu-Safe
University of Arkansas
Department of Electrical Engineering

Dr. Hermann Kochan has recently retired from the German Space Agency, DLR.  He was a founding member of the space center’s external advisory board.  Dr. Kochan has had a long and distinguished career working on cometary simulations.  Recent space and planetary research at DLR has been focused in Berlin.  One group is working on roving vehicles for planetary inspection as well as maritime Rovers.  Another group is developing a melting probe for a possible mission to the icy planetary moons.  

“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

The public lectures are free and start at 7:00 pm in the Poultry Science Auditorium.