Seminar
Presenter: Dr. Rick Ulrich, University of Arkansas - Fayetteville.
MUSE 109, 3:00 PM

University of Arkansas researchers, in partnership with a local company will develop a probe for future planetary rovers that will help scientists study the history of the solar system by examining the properties of layers of material beneath the surface of the moon, Mars, comets and other planetary bodies.

Scientists at the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences and officials of Space Photonics Inc. received a $403,000 grant from the Planetary Instrumentation Development branch of NASA, which will allow them to create an optical probe that can be used to determine the composition and amount of ice beneath the surface of a planetary body.

To examine the layers, the researchers will build an Optical Probe for Regolith Analysis, an instrument they refer to as OPRA.

To read more about OPRA, click here.