Congratulations, Sharon Hooven and Guy McArthur!

Sharon Hooven is the recipient of the 2018 LPL Outstanding Classified Staff Award.

Sharon joined LPL in August 2011 as a Senior Business Manager for OSIRIS-REx. She is responsible for ensuring compliance for mission contract requirements, which often requires long hours, including late evenings and weekends, to ensure deadlines are met and urgent subcontract modifications are completed. She has generated dozens of subcontracts and works with University of Arizona (UA) contracting office to ensure that university policies are also compliant, which benefits all UA contracts, not just those for OSIRIS-REx. Sharon was instrumental in establishing the Earned Value Management system required by the OREx contract. She is cited for her dedication, attention to detail, and outstanding service to students, staff, and faculty. Sharon plans to retire sometime in the fall (2018) and looks forward to traveling and catching up with friends and family.

Guy McArthur is the recipient of the 2018 LPL Appointed Personnel Award.

Guy is a Data Applications Developer with HiRISE. He was first hired as a student in 1993, transitioning to staff in 2001 as a Systems Programmer. Guy is responsible for HiRISE web applications, including HiReport, the web-based front end for all the data access and reporting needs of the science team, and HiWish, the public target suggestion system. He is currently developing a similar system for the team operating the University of Bern’s CaSSIS instrument aboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, part of ESA’s Mars exploration program.  HiReport and HiWish are highly valued by the science team and the public. Guy is committed to being at the forefront of software development technology and practices, improving overall efficiency by introducing industry standards and tools for project management and software issue tracking (e.g., git, Java build and distribution systems) that expedite the building, testing, and release of software. Being ahead of the curve means that Guy proactively researches and communicates new technologies permitting "drop-in" solutions.  Guy’s nominators describe him as a quiet and unassuming team member, but one who is highly deserving of recognition for his outstanding work.

The PTYS 554 class (Evolution of Planetary Surfaces) explored the geology of northern Arizona.

LPL's planetary geology class conquers S P Crater, a 50,000 year old cinder cone north of Flagstaff (photo: Shane Byrne)

How would the world respond to the late discovery that an object was on a possible collision course with the Earth? How rapidly could we confirm its orbit to assess the likelihood of a collision and range of locations where it may occur? Could we determine its size, rotation state, and composition in order to quantify the threat posed? Would we have enough time to develop a response on the ground to minimize the threat to life and other assets? Students in this semester's offering of PTYS 416/516 (Asteroids, Comets and Kuiper Belt Objects) had the opportunity to consider these questions and to participate in the TC4 Observational Campaign, a global effort sponsored by the NASA Planetary Defense Coordination Office. 

Beginning last July, a global consortium of astronomers began tracking the asteroid 2012 TC4, a small asteroid predicted to have a close encounter with Earth on October 12, 2017. The LPL member of the TC4 project, Assistant Professor Vishnu Reddy, was tasked with obtaining spectral information from TC4 during the close approach period using the NASA IRTF. Recognizing the wider opportunity this event provided, he teamed with Associate Professor Walt Harris, with whom he was co-teaching the 416/516 course, to put together a class project related to this event. For this, the class was divided into two groups with separate responsibilities. The undergraduates in the course were given the task of following TC4 using the new RAPTORS telescope on the roof of the Kuiper Building. The graduate students, accompanied by professors Harris and Reddy, would travel to the big Island of Hawaii, where they would be directly involved in the IRTF observations, a trip underwritten by the LPL External Board of Advisors.

On October 7, the graduate team of 11 students arrived in Hilo, Hawaii, for the IRTF observations. On their way to Mauna Kea, they made a side trip to Volcanoes National Park, where they toured recent lava flows and were treated to a presentation on the ongoing HI-SEAS Mars mission simulation project. They also were given a guided tour of the observing process by Bobby Bus, the Deputy Director of the IRTF. With his help, the students were able to obtain a precursor spectroscopic measurement of TC4 from the remote observing site at the Institute for Astronomy in Hilo. The next day, they began their ascent of Mauna Kea, stopping first at the Hale Pohak–Onizuka center at an altitude of 9200 ft, where they would spend time adapting to reduced oxygen levels before making a "test" ascent to the IRTF at 13675 ft. During the test run, the students toured the telescope and followed along as the operator managed a nightly target list.

For the evening of the scheduled TC4 observations, the group was divided into two shifts. The first shift went to the summit near sunset with Professor Reddy, where they began making calibration observations. Down at Hale Pohaku, Professor Harris was waiting with a second group scheduled to go to the telescope at 8:30 p.m. where they would manage the second half of the observing program. Just as the second team was assembling to head to the summit, Hale Pohaku, along with every telescope on the mountain, was plunged into darkness by a power outage. The students at the summit quickly became involved in the effort to protect the telescope by closing the mirror covers and the dome. Once power was restored (2 hours later), the operators worked furiously to recover the computer control systems, reset control of the telescope, and to restart the focal plane instruments, but were unable to complete these tasks in the small window of opportunity that remained for observing TC4. During this time, the students were active in documenting the steps taken, providing a valuable record of the event.

Back in Tucson, the undergraduate team had assembled in the roof observatory in the Kuiper building to observe TC4. RAPTORS was not formally part of the global effort, and had only been commissioned a few months earlier. However, the student group was well prepared, having completed several nights of test observations looking at other asteroids. Their goal was to acquire TC4 and obtain a sequence of observations to be used for refining its measured 13-minute rotation period. This was a difficult task given the very low brightness of the object and its rapid motion against the background stars, and it meant that real time confirmation of the presence of the asteroid was not possible in every image they took. Working from a targeting ephemeris, they followed the expected location of the asteroid for more than two hours. Subsequent processing of the images they obtained showed that they were able to detect TC4 and track it across the sky.

The project achieved its goals of giving students the opportunity to be involved in a hands-on research project while also obtaining measurements to be used as part of the wider effort to characterize TC4. While the graduate student team was not able to obtain an IRTF spectrum on the night the students were present at the observatory, the data they obtained during remote observations 2 nights earlier meant that they did not return empty handed. They also gained new insight into the challenges and frustrations that come with groundbased observing, and their assistance during the power outage will be useful for optimizing the IRTF recovery process in the future. The undergraduate team had a successful observing run made possible through their own careful preparation, and provided the side benefit of obtaining observations that will prove useful for characterizing the RAPTORS telescope performance. As Haris Niazi, a member of the graduate student team, summed up the entire experience, “It was wonderful being part of something that takes you out of the familiar confines of a classroom and pits you against a real-world research problem. Observing was quite the experience.”

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The Royal Museums Greenwich web site (Oct. 19, 2017) features a blog post by Adam De Salle, a student at John Roan School (Whitaker's high school). Adam hoped that the post would have coincided not only with the anniversary of Ewen's passing, but also, fittingly, with United Nations World Space Week, Vice President Pence's address to the National Space Council (regarding a return to the Moon), and the 60th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1. Adam writes that, "the primary objective of garnering some hometown recognition of this wonderful man's achievements has been somewhat accomplished." 

by Christopher Hamilton

Field trip participants: Ali Bramson, Laci Brock, Saverio Cambioni, Indujaa Ganesh, Anthony Garnello, Christopher Hamilton (Instructor), Tad Komacek, Daniel Lo, Patrick O'Brien, Sarah Peacock, Kyle Pearson, Laura Seifert, Joe Spitale (co-instructor), Maria Steinrueck, and Adam Sutherland.

During the Late Jurassic (~190 million years ago), what is now Arizona was a part of Pangaea, just as it was beginning to rift apart. At the time, northern Arizona was located near the equator at about 10°N. However, the region was far from being lush. Located in the "rain shadow" of the Central Pangaean Mountains, the region was part of vast "sand sea," called an erg. The erg covered 625,000 square kilometers and was characterized by enormous dunes, similar to those now found within the much smaller Namib Sand Sea, Sahara and Gobi Deserts. Dominantly formed through processes of wind-borne (aeolian) sediment transport, the sand sea developed into a nearly 700 m-thick red cross-bedded sandstone deposit, called the Navajo Sandstone Formation.

For fall 2017, LPL field trip students traveled to the Page region of northern Arizona to obtain a closer look at the Navajo Sandstone Formation, to learn more about their origin, and to discover how they have been modified since the break-up on Pangaea. On October 6, the LPL group drove to Page, via Flagstaff, stopping at the Sunset Crater National Monument and hiking to the top of Lenox Crater to view the San Francisco Peaks. The region includes over 600 volcanoes emplaced over the past 6 million years; the youngest of these volcanoes, Sunset Crater, formed less than 1000 years ago. From there, the group continued on to Page and the field trip focused mainly on exploring the Navajo Sandstone Formation within two cross-sections provided by the Colorado River Gorge and the Water Holes Canyon.

The next day, the LPL group had an opportunity to travel from the Glen Canyon Dam to Lees Ferry by taking a river raft along the Colorado River. From the water, the towering walls of the gorge rose up over 300 m, provided an exceptional view into the stratigraphy as well as tectonic history of the Navajo Sandstone Formation. The rafting trip also enabled students to stop along the way to see Native American petroglyphs carved thousands of years ago into dark "desert varnish" on the rocks. On the drive back to Page, the group stopped at the Horseshoe Bend overlook to present their research on the geologic history of the region and the processes that lead to the formation of the Navajo Sandstone Formation and more recent Colorado River.

With this perspective, students were able to spend the following day exploring the Water Holes Canyon, which serves as an ephemeral tributary to the Colorado River. Much like the famous Antelope Canyon, the Water Holes Canyon trail winds its way through impressive slot canyons carved into the Navajo Sandstone Formation. In this setting, students shared their presentations related to the geological and ecological characteristics of the region as well as eolian and aqueous processes. The group also developed their observational skills by making geological sketches in their field books and measuring the orientations of bedding planes, unconformities, and faults. On the way back to Tucson, late in the afternoon on October 9, the group stopped outside Cameron to see the remains of a reclaimed uranium mine and discuss aspects of economic geology and its effects on the region.

This focused field trip provided a deeper look at the Navajo Sandstone Formation and its place within the "Grand Staircase," which is an exceptional stratigraphic succession exposed through the southwest United States. Additionally, students drew connections to other Earth-like and exotic planetary bodies like Mars and Titan, connecting the processes they observed to those operating on other worlds.

Water Holes Canyon trail providing exposures through Navajo Sandstone Formation (photo: Adam Sutherland)

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Group photo on the Colorado River at Lees Ferry (photo: Christopher Hamilton)

The 2017 Lunar and Planetary Laboratory Conference (LPLC) took place on August 18. The organizing committee (Margaret Landis, Joshua Lothringer, Maria Steinrueck, Cassandra Lejoly, Nathanial Hendler and Jess Vriesema) kept the one-day format that debuted last year. The August 21 solar eclipse (just three days after the conference) could not keep most people from attending LPLC: in total, 46 participants registered. A broad range of participants, including undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and staff scientists from LPL, Steward Observatory, and the Department of Geosciences, as well as members of the local community, presented a total of 32 talks.

Associate Professor Joellen Russell gave a lively keynote address titled Remote Discovery in Earth's Fiercest Ocean, which presented her research group’s efforts to understand the Southern Ocean with a combination of innovative profiling floats, remote sensing and computer modeling. In addition to the keynote, there were six invited talks, with topics ranging from a seismometer terrestrial analog mission presented by Daniella DellaGiustina to hot Jupiter exoplanets by Vivien Parmentier to analysis of Calcium-Aluminum Inclusions in meteorites by Prajkta Mane. Another LPLC highlight was the invited talk by Gabriella Cázares-Kelly from Indivisible Tohono O’odham. She gave the audience a short introduction to Tohono O’odham culture and provided some cultural and historic context about the region around Kitt Peak, which lies on Tohono O’odham land that has been leased to the observatory.

As in previous years, LPLC also hosted a graduate student talk competition. The judges, Alfred McEwen, Joe Giacalone, and Matt Chojnacki, evaluated ten talks from graduate students in the first session. This year’s winner was Shane Stone and his talk on the Temperature Structure of the Martian Upper Atmosphere from MAVEN NGIMS. The conference concluded with a reception for the attendees. The LPLC organizing committee would like to extend thanks to all who participated and attended. Abstracts and registration for next year’s LPLC will open summer 2018.

The 2017 LPLC Organizing Committee, from left to right: Joshua Lothringer, Jess Vriesema, Nathanial Hendler, Maria Steinrueck, Margaret Landis, Cassandra Lejoly.

Alex Evans joined LPL in January 2017 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate with Associate Professor Jeff Andrews-Hanna. Before staring at LPL, Alex held postdoctoral research positions at the Southwest Research Institute and at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. Alex is interested in understanding the evolutionary, tectonic, geodynamic, and geophysical processes of rocky planets. His work includes analyses of altimetry, gravity, geomorphology, and tectonics to determine the structure, surface, and internal evolution of these rocky bodies. Thus far, his research has focused on the investigation of the Earth, Moon, Mercury and Mars. He has also been involved in the design, development, and implementation of planetary exploration missions.

Alex is originally from the midwest region of the United States. He earned his B.S.E. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2006 and subsequently a M.S. in Geobiology and a Ph.D. in Planetary Geophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013. His thesis research covered investigations of Martian crustal evolution, lava-flooded craters on the Moon, and the influence of water in the early thermal history of the Moon using data from past and current NASA missions. Prior to pursuing his Ph.D., Alex worked for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on mission concept design and analyses at the Moon and Mars.

In addition to his research, Alex has demonstrated a strong commitment to public service and legislative advocacy. He has held leadership roles in student government and nonprofit organizations, including as the President and CEO of the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students. Through these roles, Alex has garnered significant experience in non-profit management as well as legislative policy and advocacy at the state and federal levels.

Gijs Mulders joined LPL in August 2013 to work with Ilaria Pascucci and Daniel Apai. He specializes in statistical studies of exoplanets discovered with Kepler, numerical simulations of terrestrial planet formation, and the structure of protoplanetary disks. In 2015, he also joined the Earth in Other Solar Systems team (EOS) to further study how exoplanets could obtain biocritical ingredients. Gijs was born in the Netherlands, growing up near the city of Utrecht. He studied at the University of Amsterdam, where he obtained a Ph.D. on radiative transfer modeling of protoplanetary disks. True to his Dutch genes, he is an avid cyclist ("who needs a car in Tucson?"). He enjoys running, listening to obscure music, and growing his collection of festival wrist bands.

In August, Dr. Erik Asphaug joined LPL as a Professor. Erik obtained his Ph.D. from LPL in 1993; since then, he has had a distinguished career studying the formation and evolution of comets, asteroids and planets. After his postgraduate work at NASA Ames, he became a Professor of Earth Sciences at U.C. Santa Cruz, where he helped start their degree program in Planetary Science, worked on problems of planet formation, and participated in the LCROSS mission detecting water on the Moon. In 2012, he joined the School of Earth and Space Exploration at ASU, where his work on planetary physics contributed to the selection of the NASA Discovery mission, Psyche. He leads the Comet Radar Explorer team, who aspire to use reflection radar to image the global interior structure of a comet nucleus. In his new appointment he also plans to work closely with students and faculty to make progress in low cost, high cadence missions of exploration to near-Earth asteroids, and to develop methodologies to extract resources and developing technologies for robotic exploration of these very low gravity worlds. Erik's scientific passion is understanding how the terrestrial planets, especially the Earth, got to be the way they are, and why they are so diverse.

Long-time LPL adjunct instructor Dr. Steve Kortenkamp moved into a new role as an Associate Professor of Practice. Steve's background is in planet formation and the orbital dynamics of interplanetary dust, asteroids, and the moon-forming impactor. He was previously a research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson. Steve’s current research includes an emphasis in science education, with a new NSF project that seeks to use 3D printed planetary terrains to address deficiencies in STEM involvement among students who are blind or visually impaired. At LPL, Steve uses an experimental curriculum to conduct human-subjects research into the effects of student choice on performance and engagement in science education. He is also an accomplished author of children’s science books, recently publishing an interactive “You Choose” book about Mars exploration based on many of the missions that LPL has been a part of over the last few decades.

Dr. Tommi Koskinen joined the faculty at LPL this fall as an Assistant Professor. Tommi is a planetary scientist who specializes in the dynamics, chemistry, escape and evolution of the atmospheres of the planets and satellites in the solar system and extrasolar planets. He earned his Ph.D. in Astrophysics at University College London, U.K. He came to LPL in the fall of 2009 to pursue a post-doctoral associate position and decided to stay on as a Staff Scientist (2014), attracted by the vibrant planetary science and astronomy community at the University of Arizona. Tommi develops numerical models and data analysis techniques to interpret observations of planetary atmospheres, with a current focus on the physics and chemistry of the middle and upper atmosphere. He works on atmospheric models and observations of a diverse array of objects including extrasolar planets, Saturn, Titan, and Pluto. He was a participating scientist on the Cassini mission to the Saturn system and will continue to work on the large archive of observations that remain to be analyzed after the Grand Finale tour. He is also working on developing new models that are required to understand upcoming observations of extrasolar planet atmospheres.