Here are some of the images which have appeared on the front page of our web site in 2012, featuring current research (and sometimes important past discoveries) at PSI.

• Jan 30, NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M³)
• Jan 23, MMSEV
• Jan 16, New Horizons
• Jan 9, Vesta Video
• Jan 2, Tucson Children's Museum

2011 cover images
Pre-2011 cover images

NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M³) provided detailed mineralogical maps of the lunar surface at high spatial and spectral resolutions when it flew on India’s first mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-1. PSI Senior Scientist Matthew Staid is a member of the M³ Science Team and is studying the geologic history of the last major phases of lunar volcanism.

Shown above is a mosaic of M³ data from the lunar nearside at reduced scale that captures the diverse geology of the Moon’s volcanic plains (orange to red) and rugged highlands (blue to green) using measurements in dozens of wavelengths of light sensitive to the mineralogy of the lunar surface.  The volcanic flows on the western nearside appear distinctly red in this M³ parameter image due to unique olivine, iron and titanium-rich compositions that are not observed in earlier lunar basalts.

The image above of Lichtenberg Crater (20 kilometers in diameter) is shown at the full spatial resolution of M³.  Late stage lunar volcanism is visible as a distinct red hue in this M³ color composite where it appears to embay and post-date ejecta from the Lichtenberg impact.

Images are modified from Staid et al., Journal of Geophysical Research, 2011

Brent Garry (left) is trained on how to fly the MMSEV. Photo credits: NASA

PSI Research Scientist W. Brent Garry recently experienced what it would be like to visit and explore a distant asteroid, all without leaving Earth.

Garry served as crew geologist when NASA’s Desert Research and Technology Studies group in December conducted integrated simulations tests of the prototype Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle at Johnson Space Center.  Crews could some day use MMSEV to travel to and explore near Earth asteroids.

Garry and NASA Astronaut Mike Gernhardt worked aboard MMSEV to see how functional the MMSEV was for working and living during a mission and to incorporate various training activities in preparation for future Desert RATS testing.

Brent Garry uses translation lines to move across the asteroid surface in ARGOS.

 During the mission, they spent three days and two nights in the MMSEV and conducted simulated EVAs (extravehicular activity) using NASA’s Virtual Reality Laboratory, ARGOS (Active Response Gravity Offload System), and air-sleds and air-chairs.  A projector screen was set up in front of the cockpit windows so that they could fly the MMSEV around a virtual model of asteroid Itokowa. ARGOS provided multiple degrees of freedom to practice geologic sampling in a micro-gravity environment.

NASA’s Multi Mission Space Exploration Vehicle.

They practiced docking the MMSEV using air thrusters on an air-bearing floor and geologic sample collection using an air-chair, which provided a physical simulation of maneuvering in micro-gravity rather than a virtual simulation.

For more information on Desert RATS:

NASA Desert RATS Homepage: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs/desertrats/
NASA Desert RATS Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASA.DRATS
NASA Desert RATS Twitter: http://twitter.com/DESERT_RATS
NASA Desert RATS Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasadesertrats/

In this artist's rendition, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft approaches Pluto during its encounter in July 2015. The Sun and Pluto's moon Charon appear behind it. The New Horizons mission is operated by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU-APL). The spacecraft's current location current location can be tracked at http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/index.php

Image credit: SwRI / Dan Durda

In the distant outer solar system, rings are nearly ubiquitous. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all have rings, leaving Pluto as the only outer planet without rings.

But PSI Senior Scientist Henry Throop would love to change that. Using both giant telescopes on Earth, and a small spacecraft currently on its way to Pluto, Throop is searching for signs that Pluto may have rings orbiting it, just like its neighbors. Astronomers expect that Pluto could well have rings – they've just never been discovered.

Throop presented results from one study at the Division for Planetary Sciences meeting in Nantes, France in October 2011. In the study, Throop and his co-authors used data from the four-meter Anglo-Australian Telescope in Australia. "From the ground, Pluto's rings would be too faint and too small to see directly. But occasionally, Pluto passes in front of a distant star, and that lets us study it in exquisite detail,” Throop said. “As Pluto passes in front of the star, the star's light blinks out, like a moth blocking out the beam from a flashlight. We searched through the observations to try to find any hint that the star light was being blocked by rings of Pluto."

So far, they haven't found any rings. But Throop will keep looking. He is working with NASA's New Horizons mission, which is sending a spacecraft to Pluto, to arrive in 2015. When it passes by Pluto, one of New Horizons' goals will be to conduct a search for rings, at much greater sensitivities than can be done from the Earth.

And ironically, Throop's search now will actually help plan the encounter in 2015. "Rings are made of tiny dust grains, and we want to be sure that New Horizons will not collide with anything at Pluto,” he said. “By knowing where there aren't rings, we help assure a safe path where the spacecraft will fly."

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This video by PSI Research Scientist David O’Brien shows a 360-degree perspective view of a 26 mile (42.5 kilometer) long by 17 mile (28 kilometer) wide hill on the asteroid Vesta that is sculpted by impact craters and appears to be covered by dark material, the origin of which is currently being studied.  The animation is based on images from NASA's Dawn framing camera instrument and a shape model of Vesta developed by PSI Senior Scientist Robert Gaskell.

PSI Education Specialist Sanlyn Buxner discusses the Sun, Earth and other space topics with children, parents – and attentive dinosaurs – at a Winter Solstice event Dec. 17 at Children’s Museum Tucson. Buxner, PSI Senior Scientist Steve Kortenkamp and PSI Docent Rob Bovill entertained as well as educated children with hands-on activities related to our solar system. The event was the first of many planned for the “Out of this world: bringing space rocks that hit the Earth to children and families” program funded by a three-year, $150,000 grant from NASA’s Space Science Directorate Supplemental Educational Awards for ROSES Investigators.