Kuhlman is continuing her multidisciplinary work in astrobiology pertaining to origin and growth mechanisms of rock varnish, a rock coating considered by many to be an analog for coating seen by the various landers on Mars, and thought by many to be formed by microbes on Earth. She is also continuing her research on space weathering phenomena and simulation of space weathering using Plasma Source Ion Implantation (PSII). In addition, this past year Kuhlman was invited to become a member of the LADTAG team that is looking at the toxicology of lunar dust and analogs. She was also awarded at SRLIDAP grant to work with the cleaning of Genesis samples and characterization of the contaminants removed. Kuhlman also continues to lead the effort to use the Tumbleweed long-range rover for reconnaissance missions to Mars for astrobiology and discovery of in-situ resources despite the cancellation of the ASTEP call by NASA. Kuhlman also continues her efforts to develop "pseudoconfocal microscopy" for in-situ deployment. Pseudoconfocal microscopy is simply the use of a high numerical aperture objective lens to acquire a stack of images that approximate what can be achieved with a traditional confocal microscope, but without the use of physical pinholes and lasers, which must be very accurately aligned.
Kuhlman remains a strong advocate of education and public outreach (E/PO), with the goal of putting student experiments on the surface of Mars and the Moon through the SNOOPY project (Student Nanoexperiments for Outreach and Observational Planetary inquirY). The first student experiments unofficially landed on Mars late in 2004 on the ill-fated Beagle II lander.
Kuhlman, K.R., P. Venkat, M.T. La Duc, G.M. Kuhlman and C.P. McKay (2007) "Evidence of a Microbial Community Associated with Rock Varnish at Yungay, Atacama Desert, Chile," Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences, Submitted.
Kuhlman, K.R. (2007) "High-Fidelity Lunar Regolith Simulants: Synergies Between Lunar Exploration and Lunar Science," NASA Advisory Council Lunar Science Workshop, February 27 - March 2, 2007, Tempe, Arizona.
Kuhlman, K.R. (2007) "Particulate Characterization," Genesis Team Science Meeting, March 11, Houston, Texas.
Kuhlman, K.R. and D.S. Burnett (2007) "Extraction Replica Cleaning of Genesis AuOS and AlOS," Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, March 12-16, Houston, Texas, Abstract #1920.
Kuhlman, K.R. and C.P. McKay (2007) "Occurrence of Rock Varnish at Yungay, Atacama Desert, Chile," Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, March 12-16, Houston, Texas, Abstract #1920.
Kuhlman, K.R., P. Venkat, M.T. La Duc, G.M. Kuhlman and C.P. McKay (2007) "Evidence for a Cryptoendolithic Microbial Community in Rock Varnish at Yungay, Atacama Desert, Chile," American Society for Microbiology General Meeting, May 21-25, Toronto, Canada.
Kuhlman, K.R., P. Venkat, M.T. La Duc, G.M. Kuhlman and C.P. McKay (2007) "Evidence for a Cryptoendolithic Microbial Community in Rock Varnish at Yungay, Atacama Desert, Chile," Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, December 10-14, San Francisco, California.