The Space Center had its fifth general meeting on September 28th with faculty, students, staff, and four members of the External Advisory Board participating. The program consisted of a breakfast briefing of the board by the director and manager, a building tour, graduate student presentations, lunch, more graduate student presentations, a general round table discussion, and an evening reception.

All but one of the students in the space and planetary sciences graduate program made oral presentations based on their current research; students in their first semester presenting work from other programs or their SPAC lab projects.  The quality of the talks and the associated discussions was very high.  These discussions were continued during a catered lunch in the library, after which a keynote address was given by Dr. Daniel Kennefick on a rejected paper by Albert Einstein.  Einstein was caught by surprise that his paper had been reviewed and never again submitted papers to that journal, these being the times when peer review was not widespread.  The incident enabled Dan to uncover interesting details about the nature of the competition and the relationships and roles of various individuals in early stages of work on the nature of gravity.

The round table discussion identified several mechanisms by which the Space Center can develop, such as the use of suborbital and balloon payloads, microsats and cubesats, and remote sensing in Earth orbit, and it was suggested that we consider ways to strengthen our activities in planetary atmospheres.  However, the board will prepare a formal written report in the near future.

Members of the External Advisory Board in attendance at the Fifth Annual General Meeting, Rich Dissley (Ball Aerospace), Alan Howard (University of Virginia), Steve Saunders (NASA JPL retired and chair of the board), Bill Cochran (University of Texas, Austin).	Walter Graupner shows the new ICPMS instrument to the board during their building tour.

A group of graduate students and faculty recently attended a Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR)  seminar hosted by Thermo Scientific in Little Rock. 

At the seminar, the attendees learned typical components of FT-IR spec-trometer, applications of FT-IR, efficient background calibration and data collection, and features of the OMNIC software for data acquisition and analysis.  Different wavelengths within the IR spectrum are absorbed or reflected depending on composition of the material being measured.  IR Spectroscopy is therefore used to characterize the composition of materials (solids, liquids, gases).  The interferogram sends out time domain signals spread over the IR frequencies.  Signal processing is done by the detector to transform the interferogram signal into a spectrum by Fourier Transform.   At this seminar, they displayed Attenuated Total Reflectance, Transmittance, Diffuses, and talked more about Raman Spectroscopy, FT-IR Spectroscopy.   Also, demonstrations of equipment were performed by measuring samples that were brought in by attendants from industry.  The OMNIC software has a spectrum database of several known chemicals/molecules.  The obtained spectra were compared to the database to find the compounds in the samples. 

The diffuse reflectance sampling techniques and knowledge on proper use of equipment was helpful and can be utilized while doing our experiments in the W.M. Keck Laboratory for Space Simulation at the Space Center.

Obadiah Kegege
Space Center graduate student

Space Center faculty, students and staff recently attended the American Astronomical Society’s Division of Planetary Sciences (DPS) meeting in Orlando, Florida.  The Space Center made a strong showing, with five talks presented at the conference on behalf of the Space Center.

Patricia Gavin, an alumnus of the Space Center REU program, was the first person representing the Center to present an oral entitled “Impact and Thermal Treatment of Clays: Impli-cations for the Surface Properties of Mars.” In the subsequent session, three Space Center orals were back to back.  Vincent Chevrier, a post-doctoral fellow of the Space Center, presented an oral entitled “Experimental Study of the Effect of Wind on the Stability of Water Ice on Mars.”  This second oral was given by Katie Bryson, a Space Center graduate student, and was titled “An Experimental Study of the Behavior of Ice Under a Basalt Regolith: Implications for the Stability of Water on Mars.”  Derek Sears, the director of the Space Center and a faculty member in the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, presented the third oral entitled “The Sublimation Rate of Solid CO2 Under Simulated Mars Conditions and Possible Implications.”  In contrast to the Mars presentations, Kathy Gietzen, a Space Center graduate student, presented an oral on the “Abundant Clinopyroxene on the S Asteroids and Implications for Meteorites and Asteroid History and the Asteroid-meteorite Relationship,” that stimulated much interest.

Katie Bryson
Space Center graduate student

The Chronology of Meteorites and the Early Solar System
November 5-7, 2007
Lunar and Planetary Institute
Kauai, Hawai’i
Abstract Deadline: 08/03/07

Workshop on Martian Gullies: Theories and Tests
February 4-5, 2008
Lunar and Planetary Institute
Houston, TX
Abstract Deadline: 11/13/07

Public lectures will be held in the Space Center Auditorium (MUSE 201) at 7:00 pm.  Admission is FREE.  Receptions will follow each lecture.

"Formation and Evolution of the Surface of Mars"
Dr. Vincent Chevrier
UArk, Space Center Post Doctoral Fellow
November 14, 2007