Code S Weekly Highlights
September 18,2017
From Code SS
• Upcoming Program Milestones/Event
• Field Expeditions, Hardware activities, support to any flight program
FINESSE Project Upcoming Milestones and Activities Summary
o N/A
• Significant Announcements
• Major Awards & Recognitions, major success with your experiment or research
o Dale Cruikshank is a Co-I on a new award titled “Experimental study of hypervelocity impact-driven chemical reactions in planetary ice analogs.” The PI is Dr. Tobin Munsat at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
• Key Meetings/ Event and Attendees
o Astrobiology is the study of life in the Universe. However, the only place in this vast cosmos that is known to host life is our own planet. But now, science has revealed that several planetary bodies in our solar system have the potential to host primitive forms of life. Dr. Carol Stoker (Code SST) gave an invited talk on August 26, 2017 and described why and how NASA plans to search for life on Mars and icy ocean moons of Jupiter and Saturn
Please see attached .docx “09.18.17 MDB_Highlights-1” for more information
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o Resource Prospector (RP) is very mature S/C mission concept, with significant hardware and software development over the last three years; The RP Payload instruments are all at or near TRL6
o The RP mission goals and science have been well developed and vetted by the broader Lunar Science community
o The RP goals align very well with Lunar Science goals, e.g., as defined in the Scientific Context for Exploration of the Moon (SCEM) report and the Planetary Decadal Survey report
There is a strong understanding of mission concept of operations, including the observational plan (traverse planning) and with significant work being accomplished in terms of data and tool development for operational planning
Please see attached .docx “09.18.17 MDB_Highlights” for more information
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o Space Science & Astrobiology Seminar – Thursday, September 21, 2017 – N239/355 Chang Conference Room
Speaker: Oksana Coban (SSX), Title: Nitrogen Transformations in Microbial Mats: Implications for Microbial Evolution on Erath and he Search for Life Elsewhere
Please see attached .pptx “September 21-Oksana Coban-flyer” for more information
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o Tech talk Series by Alfonso Davila (SSX): Titled “The search for a second genesis of life” (August 2017). The talk introduces the concept of a second genesis of life; past and current strategies to search for evidence of life are critically examined; and a new approach to search for evidence of a second genesis on Mars and on icy moons is presented
Please see attached .docx “9.21.17 MDB_Highlights” for more information
• New Publications (Upcoming)
o Richard Elpic (Code SST) is a co-author on “The mysterious equatorial hydrogen distribution on Mars” Icarus, 299, January 2018, 148–160
o The resolution of the Mars Odyssey Neutron Spectrometer data has been improved from 520 to 290 km, and the polar deposits and the boundaries of equatorial hydrogen reservoirs are more clearly identified
o Western lobes of the Medusae Fossae Formation contain up to 40 wt.% water equivalent hydrogen
The results are consistent with buried water ice existing in small regions close to Mars’ equator
Please see attached .docx “09.20.17 MDB_Highlights” for more information
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o Tom Bristow (SSX) was part of the MSL team that published results reporting the first in situ detection of Boron on Mars. Gasda, P. J., et al. (2017), “In situ detection of boron by ChemCam on Mars,” Geophys. Res. Lett., 44, doi:10.1002/2017GL074480
o First detection of boron on Mars’ surface
o Presence of boron in Gale crater suggests evaporite deposits may be present stratigraphically above the detected boron
o Borates can stabilize ribose in aqueous solutions and thus may be important for prebiotic chemistry
Please see attached .docx “09.20.17 MDB_Highlights-1” for more information
• Collaborations
o N/A
• High Level Visits
o N/A