Members of the Space Center, including faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students, recently attended a Workshop on Martian Gullies in Houston.

The purpose of the workshop was to provide a venue for scientific interchange on the ideas of gully origins and to formulate tests of these various ideas.

The members of the Space Center had three oral presentations, titles of which are below.

Liquid Water and Ferric Sulphate on Mars. Vincent Chevrier (Space Center Post Doctoral Researcher) and Travis Altheide (Space Center graduate student).

Drag Forces from Concentrated Salt Solutions in Martian Gullies. Rick Ulrich (Space Center Deputy Director), Vincent Chevrier, Kate Coleman (Space Center graduate student), John Dixon (Space Center faculty member).

Simulation Experiments of Mars’ Gullies. John Dixon, Kate Coleman, Kelly Howe (former Space Center REU student).

Shaoxiong Huang and Yanghong Zhang, former Ph.D. students in the Cosmochemistry group, recently wrote to the Space Center to let us know what they are currently doing. Derek Sears, the director of the Space Center, was their mentor. 

Huang has been in the pharmaceutical industry for over ten years. He is currently working at Mallinckrodt as a chemist to conduct analytical research in support of the company’s drug development and product launches.

Zhang is the lab manager at the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center, which conducts research involving making ethanol out of corn and its byproducts.

Photo caption: Yanghong Zhang (left) and Shaoxiong Huang (right) with their family

George W. Cooper from NASA Ames Research Center recently delivered the Barringer Lecture at the Space Center. The title of his talk was “Meteorites, Comets, and the Origins of Life on Earth.”  The talk was well-attended by members of the university community, the Space Center, and the public.

The Barringer Lectures at the University of Arkansas are held each semester using funds provided by the Barringer Crater Company.  The Space Center has been holding the Barringer Lecture Series since 1991 and we are grateful for the support of the Barringer Crater Company.

Bob Gawley, a member of the Space Center and a faculty member in the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Arkansas, recently gave the first of two Space Center public lectures of the semester.  The title of his talk was “Why Did Alice Say to Kitty ‘Perhaps Looking-Glass Milk Isn’t Good to Drink?’. A Brief Explanation of Handedness, From Weak Bosons to the Double Helix.”  The talk was well-attended by members of the university community, the Space Center, and the public.

Upcoming missions

The 13 flights planned before NASA retires the shuttle October 1, 2010:

Purpose Date

1.  Add Japanese store room to station - No earlier than February
2.  Add Japanese lab to station - April
3.  Repair Hubble Space Telescope - August
4.  Take supplies to station - September
5.  Add final solar panels to station - Not set
6.  Add Japanese science platforms to station - Not set
7.  Add kitchen and three bedrooms to station - Not set
8.  Take supplies to station - Not set
9.  Take supplies to station - Not set
10.  Take supplies to station - Not set
11.  Add observatory to station - Not set
12.  Take supplies to station - Not set

Source: NASA

Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
March 10-14, 2008
League City, TX