Brown University
Who it subcontracts to
- Purdue University$297K
COIS BRANDON JOHNSON AND DAVID MINTON ADVISE A GRADUATE STUDENT IN PERFORMING THE WORK DESCRIBED IN SECTION "FORMATION, EVOLUTION, AND CHARACTER OF REGOLITH". A PURDUE GRADUATE STUDENT WILL DO MUCH OF THE DAY-TO-DAY WORK ASSOCIATED WITH THIS TASK. COIS B. JOHNSON AND MINTON WILL ALSO AID WITH OTHER TASKS AS LISTED IN THE PROPOSAL. COI A. JOHNSON WILL CONDUCT THE LABORATORY STUDIES DESCRIBED IN SECTION "ORIGIN, EVOLUTION, AND ACCESSIBILITY OF VOLATILES". AN UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHER WILL AID COI A. JOHNSON IN THE LABORATORY WORK. COIS A. JOHNSON, B. JOHNSON, MINTON AND THE PURDUE GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCHER WILL ALL ALSO CONTRIBUTE SUBSTANTIVELY TO MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION.
THE CO-INVESTIGATOR WILL LEAD EXPERIMENTAL AND COMPUTATIONAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF PLANETARY REGOLITH AND REGOLITH SIMULANTS RELEVANT TO LUNAR AND PLANETARY EXPLORATION INCLUDING SHEAR STRENGTH, BEARING STRENGTH, THERMAL PROPERTIES, AND MORE, WITH DIRECT RELEVANCE TO BOTH HUMAN AND ROBOTIC EXPLORATION OF PLANETARY SURFACES.
AS PART OF OF THE LUNASCOPE SSERVI PROPOSAL, THE CO-I WILL LEAD A PALEOMAGNETIC STUDY OF SEVERAL LUNAR ROCKS TO GARNER ADDITIONAL CONSTRAINTS ON (1) THE SUSCEPTIBILITY OF LUNAR SAMPLES TO MAGNETIC CONTAMINATION DURING SPACECRAFT RETURN FROM THE MOON, SAMPLE HANDLING, STORAGE, AND ABORATORY EXPERIMENTS ON EARTH; (2) THE ORIGIN OF PALEOMAGNETIC RECORDS WITHIN YOUNG (<3 BILLION YEAR OLD) LUNAR IMPACT GLASS-BEARING SAMPLES. BOTH STUDIES AIM TO TEST WHETHER LUNAR PALEOMAGNETIC RECORDS ARE DOMINANTLY SOURCED FROM A GLOBAL LUNAR DYNAMO FIELD OR FROM SECONDARY PROCESSES SUCH AS TRANSIENT IMPACT FIELDS OR MAGNETIC CONTAMINATION RELATED TO THE APOLLO MISSION AND SUSBSEQUENT ANALYSES. THE CO-I WILL SUPERVISE A STANFORD PH.D. STUDENT WHO WILL CONDUCT DAY-TO-DAY RESEARCH TASKS SUCH AS SAMPLE PREPARATION, PALEOMAGNETIC EXPERIMENTS AND DATA ANALYSIS. THE STUDENT, UNDER CO-I GUIDANCE WILL PREPARE 1-2 PEER REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS PERTAINING TO THE AFOREMENTIONED WORK BY THE END OF THE GRANT PERIOD. THE CO-I WILL ALSO COLLABORATE WITH THE LUNASCOPE PI AND OTHERS ON OTHER PROJECTS INVOLVING THE LUNAR GEOPHYSICAL HISTORY AS DESCRIBED IN THE PROPOSAL.
ARVIDSON AND SCHOLES WOULD PARTICIPATE IN THE CONVERSION OF THE RELAB SPECTRAL DATA BASE TO BE PDS 4 COMPATIBLE. THIS WILL INCLUDE, IN COOPERATION WITH RELAB PERSONNEL,DESIGNING THE XML LABELS AND DATA PRODUCTS, DEVELOPING A LOCAL DATA DICTIONARY, AND CONSIDERATION OF HOW THE DATA PRODUCTS AND LABELS ARE TO BE AGGREGATED INTO ONE OR MORE COLLECTIONS. WE WOULD ALSO PARTICIPATE IN GENERATION OF THE PDS 4 ARCHIVES, INCLUDING VALIDATION,AND LEADING A PEER-REVIEW. IN ADDITION WE WOULD WORK WITH RELAB PERSONNEL TO HELP DESIGN,PROTOTYPE AND IMPLEMENT A SPECTRAL LIBRARY SEARCH FUNCTION AND INTERFACE THAT TAKES ADVANTAGE OF THE PDS 4 ARCHIVES AND LOCAL DICTIONARY. THE WORK WOULD BE SPREAD OVER THREE YEARS, WITH MOST DESIGN AND PROTOTYPING CONDUCTED DURING THE FIRST YEAR, GENERATION OF THE DATA BASE AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SEARCH FUNCTIONS AND INTERFACE BEING DONE DURING THE SECOND YEAR. THE THIRD YEAR WOULD FOCUS ON VALIDATION,PEER REVIEW, AND HELPING TO IMPLEMENT ANY CHANGES THAT ARE A CONSEQUENCE OF REVIEW COMMENTS.
INVESTIGATE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF LONG WAVELENGTH STRUCTURES INCLUDING THE MARE BASALT VOLCANISM, PKT, AND DEEP MOONQUAKES, ALL OF WHICH OCCUR PREDOMINANTLY ON THE NEARSIDE. INVESTIGATE THE ORIGIN AND FORMATION OF LUNAR DEGREE-2 GRAVITY AND SHAPE ANOMALIES AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR LUNAR ORBITAL EVOLUTION.
THE PI WILL PROVIDE INTEGRATED COMPOSITIONAL REMOTE SENSING ANALYSES FOR THE LUNAR SURFACE AT SEVERAL SITES OF INTEREST RELEVANT TO UPCOMING LANDED MISSIONS. HE WILL ALSO PROVIDE SCIENCE CONTEXT RELEVANT TO PLANNING AND CONDUCTING LUNAR SURFACE ACTIVITIES OPTIMIZED TO ADDRESS HIGH-PRIORITY SCIENCE QUESTIONS.
THE LUNASCOPE (LUNAR STRUCTURE COMPOSITION AND PROCESSES FOR EXPLORATION) PROJECT WILL INVESTIGATE CRUCIAL QUESTIONS FOR UNDERSTANDING THE MOON. THE QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE KNOWLEDGE OF THE MOON ENABLED BY ORBITAL AND LANDED SPACECRAFT, RETURNED SAMPLES, AND HUMAN EXPLORATION AND ITS PROXIMITY TO EARTH, MAKES IT AN IDEAL EXPLORATION TARGET TO SERVE AS THE ARCHETYPE TO UNDERSTAND EXPLORATION DESTINATIONS.
Who it works for
IN THE PROPOSAL TITLED CASA MOON, INSTITUTIONAL PI DOTTIN AND THE PROPOSED GRADUATE STUDENT WILL BE PRIMARILY RESPONSIBLE FOR PERFORMING SULFUR ISOTOPE ANALYSES ON A VARIETY OF LUNAR MATERIALS, INCLUDING BRECCIAS, FANS, SOILS, AND GLASSES. THESE ANALYSES WILL BE PERFORMED AT BROWN UNIVERSITY. ONCE SAMPLES ARE PROCESSED AT UNM AND JSC AND SENT TO DOTTIN, THE SAMPLES WILL BE DIGESTED IN ACIDS TO EXTRACT SULFUR COMPOUNDS AND THAT ARE ULTIMATELY CONVERTED INTO PURIFIED SF6. THE SF6 WILL THEN BE INTRODUCED INTO A STATE-OF-THE-ART DUAL INLET GAS SOURCE ISOTOPE RATIO MASS SPECTROMETER. ONCE DATA IS COLLECTED, DOTTIN AND THE GRADUATE STUDENT WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ARCHIVING AND MAKING THE DATA PUBLICLY AVAILABLE THROUGH DATA REPOSITORIES, CONFERENCE ABSTRACTS, AND JOURNAL MANUSCRIPTS. DOTTIN AND THE GRADUATE STUDENT WILL PARTICIPATE IN ALL TEAM MEETINGS AND PRESENT FINDINGS AT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES. AS OUTLINED IN THE PROPOSAL, DOTTIN AND THE GRADUATE STUDENT WILL ALSO WORK WITH MANY OF THE OTHER TEAM MEMBERS IN A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT IN THE INTERPRETATION OF DATA AND PUBLICATION OF MANUSCRIPTS.
THE CO-I WILL PROVIDE SCIENTIFIC FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS IN ALL ASPECTS OF THE DIMPLE MISSION. DELIVERABLES WILL BE QUARTERLY ACTIVITY SUMMARY UPDATES AND ABSTRACTS AND PUBLICATIONS (IN THE FINAL YEAR).
Lunar awards as prime
| Award | Description | Period | Obligated |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80NSSC23M0161 | LUNAR STRUCTURE COMPOSITION AND PROCESSES FOR EXPLORATION LUNASCOPE | 2023-08-03 → 2028-08-02 | $5.1M |
| 80NSSC19K0605 | THE LUNAR RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER (LRO) SPACECRAFT ONBOARD THE LUNAR ORBITER LASERALTIMETER (LOLA) IS A CRITICAL EXPERIMENT THAT IS PROVIDING A GLOBAL LUNAR GEODETIC NETWORKAND ALTIMETRY ROUGHNESS AND REFLECTIVITY MEASUREMENTS THAT ARE REVOLUTIONIZING THESE FIELDSAND ENHANCING THE CHARACTERIZATION OF THE LUNAR SURFACE IN A MANNER THAT IS ABSOLUTELYESSENTIAL FOR ENSURING SAFE AND SCIENTIFICALLY PRODUCTIVE LUNAR AND PLANETARY HUMAN ANDROBOTIC EXPLORATION IN THE COMING COMMERCIAL AND NASA PROGRAMS. ACQUISITION VERIFICATION VALIDATION DELIVERY OF DATA TO NASA ENGINEERS AND SCIENTISTS AND THEINTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY AND DEMONSTRATION OF THE USEFULNESS OF THESE DATA INLOLA VALIDATION PROJECTS IS ESSENTIAL TO THE CURRENT AND FUTURE SUCCESS OF NASA.HERE WE OUTLINE A SERIES OF TASKS AND VALIDATION PROJECTS THAT ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLEMENTOTHER ACTIVITIES OF THE LUNAR ORBITER LASER ALTIMETER (LOLA) TEAM AND TO FULFILL THE GENERALREQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPATION AS A LUNAR ORBITER LASER ALTIMETER (LOLA) EXPERIMENT CO-INVESTIGATOR. WE OUTLINE THE THEMES AND TOPICS FOR LOLA DATA ACQUISITION DOCUMENTATION ANDVALIDATION AND DESCRIBE A SET OF EXPECTED ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND DELIVERABLES IN A MANNERSIMILAR TO PREVIOUS PARTICIPATION IN THIS AND SIMILAR EXPERIMENTS (E.G. SMITH ET AL. 1998 1999 2001 2010; KRESLAVSKY AND HEAD 1999 2000; ZUBER ET AL 1998 2000). A VALIDATION PROJECTIS DEFINED AS A SPECIFIC TASK THAT DEMONSTRATES TO THE ENGINEERING AND SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY THEUSEFULNESS AND CAPABILITIES OF THE DATA AS APPLIED TO A PARTICULAR FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM (E.G. PAST AND PRESENT LANDING SITE CHARACTERIZATION TECHNIQUES FOR APPLICATION TO THE MOON ASTEROIDS MARS; TOPOGRAPHIC CHARACTERIZATION OF LANDFORMS SUCH AS CRATERS TO ASSIST IN THEDESIGN OF FUTURE ALTIMETERS AND RELATED INSTRUMENTATION; SLOPE AND ROUGHNESS CHARACTERIZATIONFOR FUTURE LUNAR AND PLANETARY RESOURCE UTILIZATION; MECHANISMS FOR THE DOCUMENTATION ANDDETECTION OF VOLATILES IN PERMANENTLY SHADOWED AREAS) (E.G. FASSETT ET AL. 2011A B 2012A B;BAKER ET AL. 2011A B 2012; HEAD ET AL. 2010; HURWITZ ET AL. 2012 2013; JOZWIAK ET AL. 2012;KADISH ET AL 2011; VAUGHAN ET AL. 2013 KRESLAVSKY ET AL. 2012 2013; ZUBER ET AL. 2012).VALIDATION PROJECT DELIVERABLES TAKE THE FORM OF 1) PAPERS PUBLISHED IN THE SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE AND 2) DATA PLACED IN THE PLANETARY DATA SYSTEM AND ON INTERNET ARCHIVES(E.G. HTTP://WWW.PLANETARY.BROWN.EDU/HTML_PAGES/DATA.HTM). BELOW WE OUTLINE THESE SPECIFICTASKS DESCRIBE A SERIES OF VALIDATION PROJECTS AND PRESENT A WORK PLAN FOR THEIR TIMELYEXECUTION. | 2019-03-01 → 2025-11-30 | $1.0M |
| NNX16AG49G | ENHANCING THE RELAB SPECTRAL DATABASE FOR THE MODERN ERA OF PLANETARY SCIENCESTHE REFLECTANCE EXPERIMENT LABORATORY (RELAB) FACILITY HOUSED AND OPERATED AT BROWN UNIVERSITY HAS AMASSED A SIGNIFICANT LIBRARY OF VISIBLE-NEAR INFRARED-INFRARED (VIS-NIR-IR) REFLECTANCE SPECTRA OVER THE LAST ~30 YEARS. THE CURRENT RELAB SPECTRAL DATABASE CONTAINS ~24 000 SPECTRAL FILES CORRESPONDING TO ~12 000 UNIQUE SAMPLES INCLUDING A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF LUNAR AND METEORITE SAMPLES. THE LATTER ARE PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT GIVEN PAST RECENT AND UPCOMING MISSIONS THAT UTILIZE VIS-NIR-IR WAVELENGTHS (E.G. MARS MGS ODYSSEY MARS EXPRESS MRO CHANDRAYAAN-1 DAWN MESSENGER OSIRIS-REX HAYABUSA-2 ETC.). ALL DATA COLLECTED AT RELAB HAVE BEEN PUBLICLY AVAILABLE OVER THIS TIME PERIOD AND AVAILABLE TO THE WORLD. HOWEVER THE NEEDS OF THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY TO EASILY SEARCH AND ACCESS THIS LARGE DATABASE HAVE GROWN TREMENDOUSLY DURING THE DIGITAL AGE AND IT IS NECESSARY FOR THE DATABASE TO EVOLVE IN ORDER TO MEET THOSE NEEDS. HERE WE PROPOSE SEVERAL IMPORTANT STEPS TO SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE AND IMPROVETHE USABILITY AND SCIENTIFIC IMPACT OF THE VAST RELAB SPECTRAL LIBRARY. THE WORK PLAN CAN BE DIVIDED INTO THREE MAJOR TASKS:TASK 1: RESTRUCTURE EXISTING SPECTRAL DATABASE/CATALOG CORRECT INCONSISTENCIES AND INCORPORATE INTO A RELATIONAL DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TO PREPARE FOR INTEGRATION WITH AN ONLINE SEARCH TOOL. WHEN POSSIBLE MISSING SAMPLE INFORMATION WILL BE ADDED TO THE DATABASE AS WELL AS AUXILIARY SAMPLE INFORMATION (CHEMISTRY MINERALOGY PHOTOS ETC.).TASK 2: FORMAT ALL EXISTING SPECTRAL FILES TO BE IN COMPLIANCE WITH PDS4 STANDARDS AND AFTER PEER REVIEW DELIVER ALL EXISTING SPECTRAL DATA TO THE PDS GEOSCIENCES NODE (AT WASHINGTON UNIV. IN ST. LOUIS) FOR FORMAL ARCHIVING THROUGH NASA. OUR GOAL IS TO ESTABLISH A SYSTEM IN WHICH ALL FUTURE SPECTRAL DATA ARE MADE PDS-COMPLIANT AS THEY ARE COLLECTED ENSURING SIMPLE AND STREAMLINED DELIVERY TO THE PDS IN FUTURE YEARS AS THE DATABASE GROWS.TASK 3: CREATE A USER-FRIENDLY ONLINE TOOL FOR SEARCHING THE RELAB DATABASE EXAMINING SPECTRAL PLOTS AND DOWNLOADING DATA AS DESIRED. AUXILIARY INFORMATION (E.G. CHEMISTRY MINERALOGY PHOTOS JOURNAL REFERENCES) WILL BE INCLUDED WHEN AVAILABLE. THE TOOL WILL ALSO INCLUDE AN ONLINE METHOD FOR SUBMITTING SAMPLE MEASUREMENT REQUESTS AND SAMPLE INFORMATION TO RELAB. THIS TOOL WITH BEMADE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE PDS GEOSCIENCES NODE AND WILL BE MIRRORED AT BROWN UNIVERSITY.THE EXPECTED RESULT OF THIS PROJECT IS A SIGNIFICANT AND NECESSARY INCREASE IN THE ACCESSIBILITY USABILITY AND VISIBILITY OF THE NASA RELAB SPECTRAL DATABASE. THIS WORK IS RELEVANT TO THE PDART CALL IN THAT IT FOCUSES ON ARCHIVING OF SPECTRAL DATA AND CREATING A TOOL FOR SEARCHING AND USING THOSE DATA. ALL EXISTING SPECTRA AND AUXILIARY DATA WILL BE ARCHIVED IN THE PDS (FOLLOWING REVIEW) AT THE END OF THE AWARD PERIOD. WE WILL ALSO DEVELOP A WEB-BASED TOOL HOSTED THROUGH THE PDS AND MIRRORED AT BROWN THAT WILL ALLOW USERS EASY SEARCH AND DOWNLOAD CAPABILITIES. THESE ACTIVITIES ARE OUTSIDE THE CURRENT SCOPE OF FUNDING FOR THE RELAB FACILITY AND THE PDSGEOSCIENCES NODE AND THERE ARE CURRENTLY NO ESTABLISHED FUNDS TO SUPPORT SUCH WORK BEYOND RESPONDING TO THIS PDART CALL. | 2016-06-01 → 2022-05-31 | $980K |
| 80NSSC23K1047 | EO14042 ISOTOPIC CONSTRAINTS ON THE LUNAR SULFUR CYCLE | 2023-07-01 → 2027-06-30 | $662K |
| NNX13AO77G | THE LUNAR RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER (LRO) SPACECRAFT HAS ONBOARD THE LUNAR ORBITER LASER ALTIMETER (LOLA), A CRITICAL EXPERIMENT THAT IS PROVIDING A GLO | 2013-08-15 → ? | $650K |
| 80NSSC20K0861 | SEVERAL THEORIES HAVE BEEN ADVANCED TO EXPLAIN THE ORIGIN OF THE LUNAR HEMISPHERIC DICHOTOMY AN ASYMMETRY BETWEEN THE NEARSIDE AND FARSIDE HEMISPHERES OF THE MOON THAT PERVADES NEARLY EVERY GLOBAL LUNAR DATASET | 2020-04-06 → 2024-04-05 | $443K |
| 80NSSC18K0249 | THE VISCOSITY OF THE LUNAR MANTLE IS CRITICAL FOR UNDERSTANDING THE THERMAL AND CHEMICAL EVOLUTION OF THE MOON. HIGH-TI LUNAR BASALTS HAVE UP TO 16.5 WT% TIO2 SUGGESTING THEY ORIGINATE FROM AN ILMENITE-RICH MANTLE SOURCE. HOWEVER THE VISCOSITIES OF ILMENITE-BEARING MAFIC AND ULTRAMAFIC ROCKS RELEVANT TO THE LUNAR MANTLE HAVE NOT BEEN MEASURED IN THE LABORATORY. RECENT EXPERIMENTAL WORK SHOWS THAT ILMENITE (FETIO3) IS NEARLY FOUR ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE WEAKER THAN DRY OLIVINE AT MANTLE CONDITIONS. RHEOLOGICAL MIXING MODELS PREDICT THAT A LUNAR MANTLE WITH A SMALL AMOUNT OF ILMENITE COULD BE DRAMATICALLY WEAKER THAN AN ILMENITE-FREE MANTLE. TO CONSTRAIN THE VISCOSITY OF AN ILMENITE-BEARING LUNAR MANTLE NEW EXPERIMENTS ARE NEEDED TO EVALUATE THE EFFECT OF SMALL AMOUNTS OF ILMENITE ON TWO-PHASE AGGREGATE RHEOLOGY AND TO EVALUATE THE EFFICACY OF USING AGGREGATE RHEOLOGY MODELS TO PREDICT EFFECTIVE VISCOSITIES RELEVANT FOR THE MOON USING END-MEMBER FLOW LAWS. WE PROPOSE TO MEASURE THE EFFECTIVE VISCOSITY OF ILMENITE-OLIVINE AGGREGATES IN GRIGGS ROCK DEFORMATION EXPERIMENTS AT BROWN UNIVERSITY AND TEXTURALLY CHARACTERIZE THE EXPERIMENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN. WE WILL ALSO INVESTIGATE THE EFFECTS OF FE/MG RATIO ON ILMENITE RHEOLOGY WHICH IS REQUIRED TO EVALUATE MECHANICAL DATA FROM THE TWO-PHASE EXPERIMENTS USING AGGREGATE RHEOLOGY MODELS. OUR LABORATORY APPROACH CAPITALIZES ON OUR EARLIER WORK AND TAKES ADVANTAGE OF THE TECHNICAL STRENGTHS OF THE TWO INSTITUTIONS. THE PROPOSED STUDY IS TIMELY IN LIGHT OF RECENT LUNAR MISSIONS AND GROUND BASED STUDIES THAT HAVE GENERATED A LARGE AMOUNT OF GEOPHYSICAL OBSERVATIONS AND THAT HAVE STIMULATED A NEW WAVE OF STUDIES OF THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF THE MOON AND THE LONG-TERM EVOLUTION OF THE LUNAR MANTLE AND LUNAR CORE. | 2017-12-07 → 2022-11-29 | $440K |
| 80NSSC25K7366 | BUILDING THE FOUNDATIONS FOR HUGE-N LUNAR RADIO INTERFEROMETRY | 2024-11-21 → 2027-11-20 | $390K |
| 80NSSC20K0314 | THE EVOLUTION OF LUNAR KREEP MATERIAL IS POORLY UNDERSTOOD AND REMAINS A SIGNIFICANT OBSTACLE IN UNDERSTANDING THE EARLY THERMOCHEMICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOON. | 2019-11-25 → 2025-11-24 | $379K |
| NNX16AQ14G | ATTENUATION AND FLOW/RELAXATION IN ICE-I AND ITS EFFECT ON THERMOMECHANICAL EVOLUTION OF THE ICY SATELLITESTHE ENERGY BUDGET OF THE ICY SATELLITES DEPENDS TO FIRST ORDER ON THE CONVERSION OF TIDAL ENERGY INTO HEAT WHICH IS EFFECTED BY THE THERMOPHYSICAL PROPERTY OF MATERIALS KNOWN AS ANELASTICITY OR ATTENUATION. THE RECENT DISCOVERY OF PLUMES ERUPTING FROM EUROPA S SOUTH POLE REVEALS NOT ONLY THAT THE MOON IS MORE GEOLOGICALLY ACTIVE THAN EXPECTED BUT THAT THE THEORETICAL MODELS IMPLYING THE MOON S QUIESCENCE ARE INACCURATE -AN INACCURACY PREDICATED SPECIFICALLY ON A LACK OF EXTRAPOLATIVE MODELS OF VISCOELASTICITY (CREEP AND ATTENUATION COMBINED) IN POLYCRYSTALLINE ICE-I. PRESENT RHEOLOGICAL EXTRAPOLATIONS FOR ATTENUATION ARE PREDICATED ON A MODEL SPECIFICALLY DIFFUSIONAL CREEP GIVING RISE TO A SIMPLE MAXWELL VISCOSITY WHICH LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS HAVE DEMONSTRATED AS CLEARLY INAPPROPRIATE. SOUND DEFENSIBLE EXTRAPOLATIONS CAN ONLY BE DONE FROM EXPERIMENTS PROBING THE SAME PHYSICAL MECHANISMS OPERATIVE WITHIN AN ICY SATELLITE. WE PROPOSE A UNIQUE EXPERIMENTAL/THEORETICAL STUDY SPECIFICALLY TO ADDRESS THIS NEED. ENGINEERED ICE- I SPECIMENS OF CONTROLLED GRAIN SIZE AND IMPURITY CONTENT WILL BE SUBJECTED TO SIMULTANEOUS LOADING FOR STEADY-STATE CREEP (CONSTANT MEAN DIFFERENTIAL STRESS ~0.5MPA) AND ATTENUATION (SINUSOID ABOUT THE MEAN STRESS ~ 0.05MPA AND 1E-4<(HZ)<1) AT 200<T(K)<255). THESE ARE CONDITIONS CONSISTENT WITH PLANETARY ICE PHYSICS AS PRESENTLY UNDERSTOOD WITH A RHEOLOGY WHEREBY LATTICE DISLOCATIONS AND DIFFUSION-AFFECTED GRAIN BOUNDARY SLIDING BOTH CONTRIBUTE TO EFFECTIVE VISCOSITY AND ATTENUATION. DEFORMED SPECIMENS WILL BE EVALUATED MICROSTRUCTURALLY VIA DIFFERENTIAL INTERFERENCE CONTRAST (NOMARSKI) OPTICAL MICROSCOPY. THEORETICALLY THERE ARE TWO THRUSTS: (1) APPLICATION OF EQUATION-OF-STATE RHEOLOGY THEORY TO ATTENUATION AND (2) PARAMETERIZATION OF A VISCOELASTIC RHEOLOGY CONSISTENT WITH THAT DISCERNED IN THESE EXPERIMENTS THAT CAN BE APPLIED TO MODELS OF ENERGY BUDGET AND DEFORMATION ON ICY SATELLITES. IMPURITY CONTENT WILL EMPHASIZE SALTS (SULFATE AND AMMONIUM PRIMARILY) PARTICULARLY INCLUDING SECOND PHASES OF SALT HYDRATES. THE EXPERIMENTS ADDITIONALLY ALLOW CHARACTERIZATION OF TRANSIENT CREEP RESPONSES TO SIGNIFICANT STAINS (I.E. >0.01) I.E. THOSE THAT AFFECT MICROSTRUCTURAL CHANGES IN THE RESISTANCE TO FLOW; THESE DATA CAN BE USED TO ADDRESS THE PHYSICS OF SURFACE RELAXATION ON THE SATELLITES. STATEMENT OF THE PERCEIVED SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROPOSED WORK TO THE OBJECTIVES OF THE SOLICITATION AND TO NASA INTERESTS AND PROGRAMS IN GENERAL: THE MISSION TO EUROPA WILL BE ABLE TO MONITOR THE SATELLITE'S GEOID BUT HOW IS THAT TURNED IN TO AN ENERGY BUDGET? PRESENT COMPREHENSION OF MECHANICAL RESPONSE OF ICE IS RAPIDLY CHANGING AND THE PROPOSED EXPERIMENTS AND ANALYSES WILL BE CRUCIAL TO THE APPROPRIATE INTERPRETATION OF MISSION DATA. MORE GENERALLY THE PROPOSED WORK IS DISTINCTLY RELEVANT TO THE NASA SOLAR SYSTEMS WORKINGS PROGRAM SPECIFICALLY IN THAT THE CALL SEEKS TO ADDRESS THE PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROCESSES THAT AFFECT THE SURFACES INTERIORS OF PLANETARY BODIES AND PARTICULARLY LABORATORY AND THEORETICAL STUDIES GEARED TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING INTERNAL STRUCTURE CHEMISTRY AND DYNAMICS OF SOLAR-SYSTEM BODIES. | 2016-09-01 → 2023-04-18 | $360K |
| 80NSSC20K0461 | CONSTRAINING THE LI AND B BUDGET AND D7LI AND D11B RATIOS OF THE MOON'S INTERIOR USING LUNAR VOLCANIC GLASSES MELT INCLUSIONS OLIVINE AND PYROXENE PHENOCRYSTS. | 2020-01-01 → 2025-08-31 | $357K |
| 80NSSC23K1334 | MINERALOGICAL MAPPING OF ILMENITE IN THE LUNAR MARE USING RADIATIVE TRANSFER MODELING | 2023-07-28 → 2026-07-27 | $335K |
| NNX16AR96G | OBJECTIVES: THE DISTRIBUTION OF RARE EARTH ELEMENTS (REE) BETWEEN MAJOR ROCK-FORMING MINERALS DEPENDS ON TEMPERATURE PRESSURE AND MINERAL COMPOSITION. THE PRIMARY GOALS OF THIS PROPOSED STUDY ARE TWOFOLD: (1) TO USE TEMPERATURE- AND COMPOSITION DEPENDENT MINERAL-MELT AND MINERAL-MINERAL REE PARTITION COEFFICIENTS TO INFER MAGMATIC AND SUBSOLIDUS PROCESSES EXPERIENCED BY MAFIC AND ULTRAMAFIC ROCKS FROM THE MOON (LUNAR FERROAN ANORTHOSITES AND MG-SUITE ROCKS) MARS AND HED METEORITES AND (2) TO EXPLORE THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR THE AGE AND THE THERMAL AND MAGMATIC EVOLUTION OF PARENT BODIES. GIVEN THE UBIQUITOUS PRESENCE OF PLAGIOCLASE AND PYROXENE IN CUMULATE ROCKS FROM THE MOON MARS AND HED METEORITES WE PLAN TO DEVELOP A REE-INPLAGIOCLASECLINOPYROXENE THERMOMETER AND A REE-IN-PLAGIOCLASE-ORTHOPYROXENE THERMOMETER FOR MAFIC AND ULTRAMAFIC ROCKS IN THIS PROPOSED STUDY. A REE-IN-TWO PYROXENE THERMOMETER WAS RECENTLY DEVELOPED IN PI S LAB FOR MAFIC AND ULTRAMAFIC ROCKS. PART OF THIS PROPOSED STUDY WILL FOCUS ON ITS FURTHER CALIBRATION IN FE-RICH SYSTEMS AND ITS PLANETARY APPLICATION. DUE TO THEIR SLOW DIFFUSION RATES TRIVALENT REE HAVE HIGHER CLOSURE TEMPERATURES THAN DIVALENT CA MG AND FE IN PYROXENE AND PLAGIOCLASE. THE DIFFERENCES IN TEMPERATURES BETWEEN THE REE-BASED THERMOMETERS AND THE DIVALENT CATION-BASED THERMOMETERS WILL BE USED TO INFER COOLING RATES OF THE CUMULATE ROCKS. THE LATTER CAN SHED NEW LIGHT ON THE THERMAL HISTORY OF THE PARENT BODIES. RELEVANCY: MAFIC AND ULTRAMAFIC ROCKS ARE UBIQUITOUS IN INNER SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES. ABUNDANCES AND DISTRIBUTIONS OF REE IN THESE MAFIC AND ULTRAMAFIC ROCKS PROVIDE IMPORTANT CLUES TO UNDERSTANDING THE CHEMICAL AND THERMAL EVOLUTION OF PLANETARY INTERIORS THROUGH TIME. THIS PROPOSED STUDY IS DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO THE SCOPES OF SOLAR SYSTEM WORKINGS BY PRODUCING NEW MINERAL-MELT REE PARTITIONING DATA AND DEVELOPING THREE NEW THERMOMETERS FOR PLANETARY MATERIALS BY EXAMINING THE MEASURED SM-ND AGES OF LUNAR HIGHLANDS SAMPLES THE BY ANALYZING PLANETARY MATERIALS AND BY PROVIDING NEW METHODS FOR ASSESSING THE THERMAL AND CHEMICAL EVOLUTION OF PLANETARY MANTLE AND LITHOSPHERE. METHODOLOGY: LABORATORY CRYSTAL GROWTH EXPERIMENTS WILL BE CONDUCTED IN THE SYSTEM PLAGIOCLASE-PYROXENE-BASALT OVER A RANGE OF TEMPERATURES (1050~1400 C) PRESSURES (0~2 GPA) AND (EVOLVED) MELT COMPOSITIONS. MAJOR AND TRACE ELEMENT ABUNDANCES IN QUENCHED RUN PRODUCTS WILL BE ANALYZED USING AN ELECTRON MICROPROBE AND A LASER ABLATION INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA MASS SPECTROMETRY (LA-ICP-MS) AT BROWN UNIVERSITY. TOGETHER WITH PUBLISHED HIGH QUALITY PLAGIOCLASE-MELT AND PYROXENE-MELT TRACE ELEMENT PARTITIONING DATA WE WILL DEVELOP INTERNALLY CONSISTENT LATTICE STRAIN MODELS FOR REE PARTITIONING IN THE AFOREMENTIONED MINERAL-MELT SYSTEMS USING A NONLINEAR LEAST SQUARES REGRESSION METHOD. WITH LABORATORY CALIBRATED TEMPERATURE- AND COMPOSITION-DEPENDENT MINERAL-MINERAL REE PARTITIONING MODELS WE WILL BE ABLE TO CALCULATE TEMPERATURES FOR THE MAFIC AND ULTRAMAFIC ROCKS USING MEASURED PLAGIOCLASEPYROXENE REE PARTITION COEFFICIENTS. WE WILL ASSESS EFFECTS OF DISEQUILIBRIUM CRYSTALLIZATION DIFFUSION AND SUBSOLIDUS RE-EQUILIBRATION ON REE ABUNDANCES IN COEXISTING PLAGIOCLASE AND PYROXENES IN THE CUMULATE SAMPLES THROUGH NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS AND EXAMINE THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR THE MEASURED SM-ND AGES AND INFERRED PARENTAL MELT COMPOSITIONS. AS PART OF PLANETARY APPLICATIONS WE PLAN TO MEASURE REE AND OTHER ELEMENT ABUNDANCES IN COEXISTING PLAGIOCLASE AND PYROXENES IN SELECTED LUNAR SAMPLES MARTIAN AND HED METEORITES AS WELL AS MAFIC AND ULTRAMAFIC CUMULATES FROM THE BUSHVELD LAYERED INTRUSION USING THE LA-ICP-MS AND ELECTRON MICROPROBE. TERRESTRIAL LAYERED INTRUSION STUDY WILL HELP US TO FURTHER TEST AND BETTER UNDERSTAND THE REE-BASED THERMOMETERS AND TO AID OUR PLANETARY INTERPRETATION. | 2016-08-26 → 2022-09-14 | $328K |
| 80NSSC20K0789 | WE WILL COMBINE DATE CONSTRAINTS ON MARTIAN AND LUNAR IMPACTS WITH MODELS OF IMPACT MEASURE THE SIZES OF THOSE IMPACT CRATERS USE IMAGING DATA TO TEST FOR SEASONAL AND METEORIC ENHANCEMENTS AND VALIDATE THOSE WITH MONTE CARLO MODELING. | 2020-03-16 → 2025-03-15 | $302K |
| 80NSSC25K7960 | EXECUTE A BALANCED SCIENCE PROGRAM BASED ON DISCIPLINE-SPECIFIC GUIDANCE FROM THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES ENGINEERING AND MEDICINE ADMINISTRATION PRIORITIES AND DIRECTION FROM CONGRESS. PARTICIPATE AS A KEY PARTNER AND ENABLER IN THE AGENCY S EXPLORATION INITIATIVE FOCUSING ON SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH OF ON AND FROM THE MOON LUNAR ORBIT MARS AND BEYOND. ADVANCE DISCOVERY IN EMERGING FIELDS BY IDENTIFYING AND EXPLOITING CROSS-DISCIPLINARY OPPORTUNITIES BETWEEN TRADITIONAL SCIENCE DISCIPLINES DEVELOP A DIRECTORATE-WIDE TARGET-USER FOCUSED APPROACH TO APPLIED PROGRAMS INCLUDING EARTH SCIENCE APPLICATIONS SPACE WEATHER PLANETARY DEFENSE AND SPACE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS. | 2025-08-01 → 2028-07-31 | $279K |
| 80NSSC25M7096 | 24-24NIACPROP-0008 MYCOTECTURE OFF PLANET: EN ROUTE TO THE MOON AND MARS | 2025-01-28 → 2027-01-27 | $188K |
| 80NSSC26K0740 | THE WORK TO BE PERFORMED IS TO ENSURE THAT THE INSTRUMENT ACQUIRES ALTIMETRY AND RADIOMETRY FOR LUNAR VOLCANISM TOPOGRAPHY AND SURFACE PYROCLASTICS SUPPORT THE OBSERVATION OF INTERNATIONAL AND COMMERCIAL ORGANIZATION LANDERS CONTINUE TO PROVIDE P | 2026-05-04 → 2029-05-03 | $180K |
| 80NSSC17K0341 | SCIENCE OBJECTIVES: RECENT MODELING OF THE FORMATION OF ORIENTALE BY THE PI (JOHNSON ET AL. 2015) INDICATES THAT THE SPACING AND LOCATION OF BASIN RINGS DEPEND ON THE STATE OF THE LUNAR LITHOSPHERE. THE HIGH-RESOLUTION LUNAR GRAVITY FIELD PROVIDED BY THE GRAVITY RECOVERY AND INTERIOR LABORATORY (GRAIL) MISSION AND LUNAR TOPOGRAPHY FROM THE LUNAR ORBITER LASER ALTIMETER (LOLA) INSTRUMENT OFFER AN EXCEPTIONAL OPPORTUNITY TO INVESTIGATE LUNAR BASIN RINGS TO GAIN VALUABLE INSIGHT INTO THE STRUCTURE OF THE LUNAR LITHOSPHERE. WE PROPOSE TO MODEL THE OBSERVED GRAVITATIONAL AND TOPOGRAPHIC SIGNATURES OF LUNAR BASIN RINGS TO INVESTIGATE THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIATION OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE LUNAR LITHOSPHERE. IN TASK 1 WE WILL USE GRAIL GRAVITY DATA AND LOLA TOPOGRAPHY DATA IN ORDER TO CONSTRAIN THE SUBSURFACE STRUCTURE OF PEAK RING AND MULTI-RING BASINS. MODELS OF THE CRUSTAL STRUCTURE OF THE BASINS WILL BE USED TO QUANTIFY THE DIP AND DISPLACEMENT ACROSS INDIVIDUAL FAULTS. COMPARISONS BETWEEN BASINS AND ASYMMETRIES WITHIN INDIVIDUAL BASINS WILL PROVIDE INFORMATION ON THE SENSITIVITY OF THE RING FAULT CHARACTERISTICS TO TARGET PROPERTIES SUCH AS CRUSTAL THICKNESS AND HEAT FLOW. IN TASK 2 WE WILL STUDY THE STRUCTURE OF THE RINGS THAT CHARACTERIZE MULTI-RING BASINS BY FORWARD MODELING THEIR GRAVITATIONAL SIGNATURES. THIS TASK WILL INCLUDE MODELING THE FORMATION OF MULTI-RING BASINS TO DETERMINE HOW THE GRAVITY SIGNATURES LOCATIONS SPACING AND OFFSETS OF BASIN RINGS DEPEND ON THE THICKNESS OF THE LUNAR LITHOSPHERE IMPACTOR SIZE AND PRE-IMPACT CRUSTAL THICKNESS. IN TASK 3 WE WILL COMPARE OUR FORWARD MODELS FROM TASK 2 TO THE OBSERVED GRAVITY SIGNATURES CRUSTAL STRUCTURE DERIVED IN TASK 1 LOCATIONS SPACING AND OFFSETS OF THE RINGS OF OLD AND YOUNG BASINS. IN ALL TASKS WE WILL FOCUS ON KEY BASINS CHOSEN TO BE REPRESENTATIVE OF DISTINCTIVE IMPACT CONDITIONS. THE FIRST FOCUS OF THE WORK WILL BE ON THE ORIENTALE BASIN. ADDITIONAL ANALYSES WILL FOCUS ON THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT TARGET PROPERTIES BY COMPARING BASINS THAT DIFFER PRIMARILY IN A SINGLE KEY PARAMETER. THE EFFECT OF HEAT FLOW WILL BE INVESTIGATED LOOKING AT TWO SIMILARLY SIZED BASINS WITHIN AND OUTSIDE OF THE PKT (E.G. IMBRIUM AND ORIENTALE) OR TWO SIMILARLY SIZED BASINS FORMED IN THE PRE-NECTARIAN AND NECTARIAN/IMBRIAN (E.G. SMITHII AND ORIENTALE). THE EFFECT OF CRUSTAL THICKNESS WILL BE INVESTIGATED BY COMPARING TWO SIMILARLY SIZED BASINS IN THE THICK CRUST OF THE FARSIDE HIGHLAND AND THE THIN CRUST OF THE SOUTH POLE-AITKEN BASIN (E.G. HERTZSPRUNG AND APOLLO). THE EFFECT OF IMPACT ENERGY AND THE PEAK-RING TO MULTI-RING BASIN TRANSITION WILL BE INVESTIGATED BY FOCUSING ON BASINS OF DIFFERENT SIZE (E.G. KOROLEV HERTZSPRUNG AND ORIENTALE). | 2017-08-01 → ? | $138K |
| 80NSSC19K1289 | VOLATILE ENHANCEMENTS HAVE BEEN DETECTED WITHIN PERMANENTLY SHADOWED REGIONS ON MERCURY AND THE MOON HOWEVER THE CONCENTRATION OF VOLATILES IS GREATER AT MERCURY S POLES THAN AT THE MOON S POLES | 2019-09-01 → 2020-08-31 | $55K |
| 80NSSC23M0102 | MYCOTECTURE OFF PLANET: THE GOAL OF THIS RESEARCH IS TO DEVELOP A DESIGN REFERENCE MISSION (DRM) FOR LUNAR EXPLORATION THAT CAN BE UTILIZED TO ASSESS THE NEEDS OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF HUMAN AND ROBOTIC ENCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS THAT CAN BE APPLIED TO MYCO-ARCHITECTURE DESIGN REQUIREMENTS | 2023-07-01 → 2024-06-30 | $23K |