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Students
At Pomona College Get Rare Opportunity Involving a Mars
Spacecraft
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Students in a Pomona College Planetary Geology class are in
the midst of an opportunity that many planetary scientists
only dream about. On April 19, they ordered photographs of
specific geologic features on Mars to be taken by NASA’s
Mars Odyssey orbiter for their own student-designed research
projects. They’ll receive the beautiful photos by April 26,
if all goes as planned.
The photos from Mars Odyssey’s thermal emission imaging
system (THEMIS) will be used by the students to investigate
aeolian (wind-blown) processes, a potential ocean shoreline,
outflow channels and the complex interplay between
subsurface ice and impact craters.
According to Professor Eric Grosfils, who teaches Planetary
Geology, the Pomona students, who are primarily freshmen and
sophomores, will be one of the first college classes to have
this type of opportunity. To date most of the Mars Student
Imaging Project (MSIP) education outreach effort has focused
on K-12.
“For that matter,” says Grosfils, “I’ve never gotten to
target a Mars spacecraft to have it collect a particular
image in my 15 years in geology. It’s incredible that my
introductory students have this opportunity.”
In early April, that opportunity almost slipped through
their fingers when a problem with the spacecraft caused the
orbiter to go silent. NASA fixed the problem within a week
but Grosfils and his students had to decide if there was
still enough time to complete the student projects before
semester grades were due. Taking a deep breath, the class
decided to continue. “The students are excited,” Grosfils
reports, “a little panicked too but definitely excited.”
“I think its freaking amazing!,” says Bradley Markle ’08,
who is leaning toward a geology major because of the class.
“I never would have thought I’d be able to do this. Its
especially cool because the area we want to photograph has
never had these kinds of pictures taken of it. … I’m on the
aeolian processes project, measuring the wavelengths of sand
dune fields in craters. [Our Mars photograph] will give us a
look at a crater that has never had a [THEMIS] picture of it
taken before. We're hoping and have some reason to think
that there will be sand dunes in it.”
Classmate Nathan Porter ’08 sees working with a satellite
“possibly a once in a lifetime opportunity.” A member of the
outflow channel team, he believes that, “Of all the
geological processes on Mars, the study of past surface
water has the greatest weight in the potential discovery of
ancient life.” Porter is deciding between geology and
economics as a possible major.
Students began designing five team projects in March and
submitted their research proposals to the MSIP team. All
five projects were approved, to the surprise of the students
who then began work on their photo requests, both a top
choice and a back-up. (See photo samples at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/technology/themis.html.)
To answer their research questions, students will use both
these new images along with images and data already
published or available online. Final projects are due May 4.
Rocco Addante ‘08, another member of the outflow channel
team, notes that the class projects are “a great way to show
students that what they are learning in class can be applied
to the real world and used to address the same questions
that concern professionals.” MSIP is run from Arizona State
University under the direction of Dr. Philip Christensen,
the principal investigator on THEMIS.
# # #
Mars Student Imaging Project (MSIP)
http://msip.asu.edu/
Mars Odyssey Orbiter Information:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/technology/themis.html
THEMIS photo samples can be viewed at: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/technology/themis.html
Students will be using “visible” images, not the infrared
camera images.
Summary of Class Research Proposals:
Team 1 - Aeolian (wind-blown) Processes. Mars is a dry,
dusty, windy planet. This team will try to determine whether
or not large the geometries of large sand dunes formed in
impact craters in a given region on Mars are affected by the
size and depth of the crater (things that would be expected
to affect the wind moving the sand).
Team 2 - Ocean Shoreline. It has been proposed that Mars may
have once had a northern polar ocean, and various scientists
have conducted tests to see if they can find evidence that
such a large body of water once existed. This team wants to
see if THEMIS imagery can reveal
anything new at a proposed shoreline location. This may
occur at a large crater-occupying body of water instead of
the northern ocean due to constraints on the latitude the
camera can capture during this time of the year.
Team 3 - Outflow Channels. In several locations on Mars,
mega-channels exist that have been a prime focus of study
for many years. Did they form catastrophically (one big
flood event) or via sustained flow? This team will use
THEMIS imagery to ask -- did a major channel, one not as
heavily studied in the past, form in a single burst flood or
as a result of multiple flood events?
Teams 4 & 5 – Subsurface Ground Ice. There is extensive
evidence that water in the form of subsurface ground ice
exists across much of Mars. Impact craters, which punch into
and excavate the subsurface, also have characteristic
depth-to-diameter geometry relationships, and by looking at
the nature of the ejecta thrown out of the crater (when does
it become "mud-puddle" like, forming something called a
rampart crater ejecta) the depth to the water/ice layer can
be estimated.
Team 4 is using this approach to map out depth-to-ice in two
areas near the equator of Mars to see how/if they differ.
Team 5 is examining whether the depth-to-diameter
relationship of rampart craters in two areas actually agrees
with what the relationship between these parameters is
expected to be... Do these craters, punching into
volatile-rich substrate, have different fundamental
geometric properties?
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