Members of the Space Center, including faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students, recently attended the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston.

The members of the Space Center had nine oral presentations and twelve poster presentations, titles of which are below with first author listed.

Oral presentations:

Spectral Features in C and C-Like Asteroids and the Possible Presence of Phyllosilicates.  Dan Ostrowski.

The Touch-and-Go-Impregnable Pad (TGIP) for Lunar Exploration. Derek Sears.

Simulation of Martian Gullies Using Water/Ice Slush. Kate Coleman.

Analysis of Reflectance Spectra of Ordinary Chondrites: Implications for Asteroids. Kathy Gietzen.

Sublimation Kinetics of CO2 Ice on the Surface of Mars. Krista White.

Effect of Impact and Heating on the Spectral Properties of Clays on Mars. Patricia Gavin.

Temperature Fields at Mars Landing Sites: Implications for Subsurface Biology. Rick Ulrich.

Low-Pressure Dessication Effects on Methane Production by Methanogens. Travis Altheide.

Low-Temperature Aqueous Fluids on Mars. Vincent Chevrier.

Poster presentations:

Penetration Testing of the OPRA Regolith Penetrator. Ahmed El Shafie.

Glimmerings from the Past: Thermoluminescence Studies of Samples of the Moon. Derek Sears.

Iion Isotope Fractionation of CAI-Like Liquids by Evaporation in Low Pressure H2. Fang-Zhen Teng.

A Study of the Thermal History of Antarctic Micrometeorites by Thermoluminescence: A First Look. Fata Sedaghatpour.

Martian “Gullies”: Unfortunate use of a Terrestrial Term!. John Dixon.

The Nature and Origin of Semarkona Fine Grained Matrix: An Induced Thermoluminescence Study. Jon Craig.

Adsorption Kinetics in Martian Regolith Analogs. Katie Bryson.

Understanding Martian Gullies. Kelly Howe.

Drag Forces on Boulders in Martian Gullies from Flow of Viscous Concentrated Salt Solutions. Rick Ulrich.

Optical Design of OPRA: Optical Probe for Regolith Analysis. Rob Pilgrim.

Evaporation Kinetics of Liquid Magnesium Sulfate Brines Under Simulated Martian Surface Pressure. Travis Altheide.

Thermally Treated Nontronite as a Model for a Component in the Magnetic Red Dust on the Surface of Mars. Vincent Chevrier.

Dan Kennefick, a member of the Space Center and a faculty member in the department of Physics, has recently received mention in an article published on the Scientific American Web site. The article is titled, “Did Researchers Cook Data from the First Test of General Relativity.” 

Alan Mantooth, a member of the Space Center and a faculty member in the department of Electrical Engi-neering, recently gave the second of two Space Center public lectures of the semester.  The title of his talk was “Returning to the Moon and Mars Using 21st Century Technology”  The talk was well-attended by members of the university community, the Space Center, and the public.

Brian Fleming, a former Space Center REU student, recently wrote to us to let us know how he is doing.  He did his undergraduate work in aerospace engineering and physics at the Illinois Institute of Technology.  Currently, he is a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University in the Physics and Astronomy department, where he is part of the Sounding Rocket Program. The group specializes in the development of Ultraviolet (UV) instrumentation and observation of targets in the 900-2000 A wavelength range.