Seti Institute

PLANETARY BIOLOGY: EVOLUTION AND INTELLIGENCE

ON THE OCCASION OF THE PDS DISCIPLINE NODE PROGRAMMATIC REVIEW THE PDS RING-MOON SYSTEMS NODE SUBMITS THIS MID-TERM REPORT AS A REVIEW

DATA PROCESSING AND ANALYSIS SUPPORT FOR NASA SCIENCE PIPELINES.

REACHING FOR THE STARS: NASA SCIENCE FOR GIRL SCOUTS A.K.A. GIRL SCOUT STARS BRINGS TOGETHER GIRL SCOUTS GS, THEIR VOLUNTEERS AND ADULT LEADERS WITH

THE AIRBORNE ASTRONOMY AMBASSADORS (AAA) PROGRAM IS A THREE-PART PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (PD) EXPERIENCE FOR BOTH FORMAL AND INFORMAL EDUCATORS. THE

SYNCHROTRON SPECTROSCOPY OF NITROGENASE AND HYDROGENASE

IN DECEMBER 2001, KEPLER BECAME THE IO'H MISSION SELECTED FOR FLIGHT BY NASA'S DISCOVERY PROGRAM, AND THE FIRST SUCH ORIENTED TO ACHIEVE GOALS UNDER

IN DECEMBER 2001 THE KEPLER MISSION BECAME THE 10"' SPACEPROBE SELECTED FOR FLIGHT BY NASA'SDISCOVE

FPDS BASE DESCRIPTION MULTIPLE YEAR AWARD&INCREMENTAL FUNDING FOR YEARS ONE TO FIVE. THIS PROPOSAL IS ENTITLED "CHANGING PLANETARY ENVIRONMENTS AND THE FINGERPRINTS OF LIFE." THIS IS AWARDED IN RESPONSE TO COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT NOTICE (CAN) NO. NNH13ZDA017C NASA ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE) CYCLE SEVEN (7). THE PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR IS DR. NATHALIE A. CABROL WITH SETI INSTITUTE (SETI). PROJECT SUMMARY: THE SETI INSTITUTE (SI) TEAM PROPOSES A RESEARCH PROGRAM THAT WILL DEVELOP A ROADMAP TO BIOSIGNATURE EXPLORATION IN SUPPORT OF NASA'S DECADAL PLAN FOR THE SEARCH FOR LIFE ON MARS. THE EARLIEST OPPORTUNITY FOR NASA TO SEARCH FOR ANCIENT TRACES OF LIFE ON MARS WILL BE 2020 WHEN A CURIOSITY-CLASS ROVER IS EXPECTED TO EXPLORE ANCIENT HABITABLE ENVIRONMENTS AND CACHE A LIMITED NUMBER OF SAMPLES. CACHING SAMPLES IS HIGH-COST AND HIGH RISK AND THE SINGLE MOST COMPELLING QUESTION TO ASK IN SUPPORT OF SUCH A MISSION IS: HOW DO WE IDENTIFY AND CACHE THE MOST VALUABLE SAMPLES? THE SI MAKES THIS QUESTION THE INTELLECTUAL FOCUS OF IT RESEARCH PROGRAM. FOUR RESEARCH AREAS STUDY THE ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS OF THIS CENTRAL QUESTION. WITHIN THEM FOCUS AREAS REGROUP INVESTIGATIONS THAT SYNERGISTICALLY TACKLE KEY ASPECTS OF EARLY MARS HABITABILITY TAPHONOMIC WINDOWS AND BIOSIGNATURE POTENTIAL THEIR PRESERVATION POTENTIAL AND THEIR DETECTABILITY. RESEARCH IS PERFORMED THROUGH AN INTEGRATED EXPLORATION OF EVER-INCREASING RESOLUTION THAT CORRELATES MEASUREMENT FROM MEGASCALE TO MOLECULAR SCALE AND ENVISIONS EACH ESSENTIAL COMPONENT THROUGH THE UNIQUE PRISM OF THE RAPIDLY CHANGING EARLY MARTIAN ENVIRONMENT. ULTIMATELY IT PRODUCES GUIDING PRINCIPLES TO BETTER UNDERSTAND WHERE TO RESEARCH WHAT TO SEARCH FOR AND HOW TO SEARCH.THE RESEARCH PROGRAM PROPOSED BY THE SI TEAM IS TIMELY NEEDED AND WILL DIRECTLY SUPPORT A DECADE OF SEARCHES FOR LIFE ON MARS THAT MAY CULMINATE WITH A MARS SAMPLE RETURN MISSION.SCIENTIFICALLY WE WILL CHARACTERIZE TERRESTRIAL ANALOGS TO ENVIRONMENTS AND BIOGEOMATERIALS CONSIDERED OF HIGH-PRIORITY TO THE SEARCH FOR TRACES OF ANCIENT LIFE ON MARS AND WILL INVESTIGATE THE IMPACT OF CHANGING EARLY MARS CONDITIONS ON THE PRESERVATION OF BIOSIGNATURES. INVESTIGATING THE PHYSICAL BIMOLECULAR AND METABOLIC RECORDS OF LIFE IN THESE ENVIRONMENTS OUR RESEARCH PROGRAM WILL DEFINE THEIR HABITABILITY POTENTIAL TAPHONOMIC WINDOWS POTENTIAL FOR BIOSIGNATURES AND THEIR PRESERVATION POTENTIAL.EXCELLENCE IN ASTROBIOLOGY MARS TAPHONOMY WORLD-CLASS LEADERSHIP IN THE EXPLORATION OF MARS ANALOGS DEEP INVOLVEMENT IN MARS MISSIONS AND PROGRAMMATIC DECISIONS AND ACCESS TO EXCEPTIONAL FIELD LABORATORY AND INSTRUMENT ASSETS UNIQUELY POSITION THE SI TEAM TO BRING TO THE NAI THE MEANS OF PROVIDING CRITICAL EXPLORATION GUIDELINES TO SUPPORT THE SEARCH FOR LIFE THE MARS.

WE PROPOSE TO CONTINUE SERVING AS A DISCIPLINE NODE OF THE PLANETARY DATA SYSTEM BUT NOW WITH AN EXPANDED SCOPE THAT MORE ACCURATELY REFLECTS THE ROL

A 4-YEAR MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH PROGRAM SUPPORTING NASAS STRATEGIC PLAN AND SCIENCE PLAN GOALS AND OBJECTIVES IS PROPOSED. THE GUIDING THEME FOR

GOALS&OBJECTIVES RESEARCH AND ACTIVITIES THAT SYSTEMATICALLY EXAMINE AND ANALYZE CRITICAL QUESTIONS RELATED TO PLANETARY PROTECTION AND IMPLEMENTATI

THIS UNSOLICITED GRANT PROPOSAL, "PLANETARY PROTECTION: POLICY DEVELOPMENT, IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES AND SOCIETAL CONCERNS", INCLUDES RESEARCH, DEVELOPM

IN DECEMBER 2001, KEPLER BECAME THE IO'H MISSION SELECTED FOR FLIGHT BY NASA'S DISCOVERY PROGRAM, AND THE FIRST SUCH ORIENTED TO ACHIEVE GOALS UNDER

THE NASA COMMUNITY COLLEGE NETWORK

FROM HABITABILITY TO LIFE

SETI INSTITUTES KEPLER EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREA CH PROJECT

22-NUP2022-0052 PLANETARY IMAGING AND TOPOGRAPHY COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT

INVADER WILL STUDY UNDERWATER HYDROTHERMAL SYSTEMS AT AXIAL SEAMOUNT THE LARGEST AND MOST ACTIVE VOLCANO ON WESTERN BOUNDARY OF THE JUAN DE FUCA TECTONIC PLATE OFF THE COAST OF OREGON. THE VENTS AT THE AXIAL SEAMOUNT GENERATE CHEMICAL ENERGY WHICH CAN SUSTAIN LIFE AND ARE HIGH-FIDELITY ANALOGUES TO PUTATIVE VENT SYSTEMS ON OCEAN WORLDS. OUR INVESTIGATION WILL INCLUDE IN-SITU OBSERVATION REAL-TIME DATA GATHERING AND INTERPRETATION AND SAMPLE COLLECTION ANALYSIS AND RETURN. TO SUPPORT THESE EFFORTS WE PROPOSE A RESEARCH PROGRAM WITH THREE MAIN GOALS. GOAL 1 - SCIENCE: CHARACTERIZE THE GEOCHEMISTRY GEOBIOLOGY AND METABOLIC ACTIVITY IN AXIAL SEAMOUNT AS AN ANALOG FOR PLANETARY EXPLORATION. WE WILL IDENTIFY ACTIVE MICROBIAL METABOLISMS IN HYDROTHERMAL ENVIRONMENTS THROUGH IN-SITU AND LABORATORY ANALYSES OF RETURNED SAMPLES. IN PARALLEL WE WILL CHARACTERIZE THE MINERALOGY HYDROTHERMAL FLUID CHARACTERISTICS AND GEOLOGICAL CONTEXT OF VENT SYSTEMS. GOAL 2 - SCIENCE OPERATIONS: VALIDATE SCIENCE OPERATIONS STRATEGIES ADAPTIVE SCIENCE DATA PROCESSING AND INSTRUMENT CONTROL. WE WILL: PERFORM LABORATORY LRS/LIBS/LINF MEASUREMENTS OF HYDROTHERMAL FLUID AND MINERAL SAMPLES; TEST SCIENCE OPERATIONS AND SCIENCE PLANNING STRATEGIES IN THE FIELD; DEVELOP DATA FUSION STRATEGIES FOR THE SYNERGISTIC VISUALIZATION AND EXPLOITATION OF SCIENCE DATA; AND DEVELOP TEST AND VALIDATE NEW EXPLORATION STRATEGIES BASED ON IN-SITU LASER SENSING AND SAMPLE CORING. GOAL 3 - TECHNOLOGY: DEMONSTRATE INVADER'S ASTROBIOLOGY TECHNOLOGY. WE WILL: PERFORMANCE-TEST INVADER WITH NATURAL SAMPLES (BOTH FLUID AND PRECIPITATES) FROM HYDROTHERMAL VENT SITES; DEPLOY INVADER AND PERFORM IN-SITU ANALYSES IN AXIAL SEAMOUNT; DEVELOP ROUTINES FOR RECORDING IMAGING AND SPECTROSCOPIC DATA FIRST LEVEL SCIENCE DATA PROCESSING AND SAMPLE CACHING ANALYSIS AND RETURN. TO IMPLEMENT THESE GOALS WE WILL INTEGRATE AND DEPLOY AN ASTROBIOLOGY PAYLOAD THAT FEATURES A COMBINATION OF RAPID IN-SITU STANDOFF ANALYSES AND SAMPLE CORING INSTRUMENTS: STEREO OPTICAL IMAGING; LASER RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY LASER-INDUCED BREAKDOWN SPECTROSCOPY AND LASER-INDUCED NATIVE FLUORESCENCE (LRS/LIBS/LINF); AND A CORING TOOL. BOTH THE IMAGING AND CORING SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFULLY TESTED UNDERWATER. THE SPECTROSCOPY SUITE IS A REPLICA OF AN EXISTING TRL 4 SYSTEM FOR PLANETARY EXPLORATION. WE WILL INSTALL THE PAYLOAD INTO THE OOI CABLED ARRAY A CHAIN OF POWER/DATA DISTRIBUTION NODES CONNECTED BY SUBSEA TELECOM CABLE. INVADER WILL INTEGRATE A PAYLOAD CONTAINING 3D VISUAL MAPPING AND LRS/LIBS/LINF TECHNOLOGIES INTO A DIVEBOT. THIS PAYLOAD WILL ENABLE STANDOFF DETERMINATIONS OF: A) RELEVANT DISEQUILIBRIA IN VENT SYSTEMS B) COMPOSITION AND MINERALOGY OF HYDROTHERMAL CHIMNEYS AND ASSOCIATED PRECIPITATES C) RELEVANT SMALL-SCALE FEATURES THAT ARE INDICATORS OF VENT GEOCHEMISTRY AND/OR HABITABILITY AND D) THE PRESENCE AND DISTRIBUTION OF ORGANICS. THUS THE PROJECT IS RELEVANT TO PSTAR'S OVERARCHING OBJECTIVES AND ADDRESSES MULTIPLE AREAS OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE OPERATIONS FIDELITY. WHILE THESE VENT CHARACTERISTICS CAN BE ANALYZED USING EXISTING TECHNOLOGIES SUCH ANALYSES CANNOT AT PRESENT BE CONDUCTED SIMULTANEOUSLY IN AN AUTONOMOUS NON-DESTRUCTIVE RAPID WAY. INVADER AIMS TO FILL THESE GAPS AND ADVANCE READINESS IN VENT EXPLORATION ON EARTH AND OCEAN WORLDS BY SIMPLIFYING OPERATIONAL STRATEGIES FOR IDENTIFYING AND CHARACTERIZING SEAFLOOR VENTS. WE WILL INTEGRATE AND APPLY A NOVEL TECHNOLOGY PACKAGE FOR THE SEARCH FOR SIGNATURES OF LIFE IN EXTREME UNDERWATER ENVIRONMENTS THEREBY ADDRESSING THE CALL FOR "DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF TECHNOLOGIES THAT SUPPORT SCIENCE INVESTIGATIONS ... AND IDENTIFICATION OF LIFE AND LIFE-RELATED CHEMISTRY IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS." OUR TEAM BRINGS EXPERTISE IN GEOCHEMISTRY MINERALOGY AND ASTROBIOLOGY OF HYDROTHERMAL SYSTEMS AS WELL AS OCEAN ENGINEERING SPECTROSCOPY ROBOTICS SCIENCE OPERATIONS AND ANALOG RESEARCH.

SETI INSTITUTE THE RINGS NODE FOR THE PLANETARY DATA SYSTEM WE PROPOSE TO CONTINUE IN OUR ROLE AS

IN DECEMBER 2001, KEPLER BECAME THE 10TH MISSION SELECTED FOR FLIGHT BY NASA'S DISCOVERY PROGRAM, AND THE FIRST SUCH ORIENTED TO ACHIEVE GOALS UNDER

IN APRIL 2013, THE TRANSITING EXOPLANET SURVEY SATELLITE (TESS) WAS SELECTED FOR FLIGHT IN AUGUST 2017 BY NASA S EXPLORER PROGRAM TO DISCOVER THE 1,0

THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL REGOLITH ANALYZER (XTRA) WILL PROVIDE QUANTITATIVE MINERALOGY AND.ELEMENTAL COMPOSITION OF AS-RECEIVED LUNAR SOIL. XTRA IS SUITABLE FOR A SMALL LUNAR LANDER OR ROVER .BUT VARIANTS OF XTRA COULD BE USED BY ASTRONAUTS IN A LUNAR HA

THE TRANSITING EXOPLANET SURVEY SATELLITE (TESS) WILL DISCOVER THOUSANDS OF EXOPLANTS IN ORBIT AROUND THE BRIGHTEST STARS IN THE SKY. IN A TWO YEAR SURVEY TESS WILL MONITOR MORE THAN 200 000 STARS FOR TEMPORARY DROPS IN BRIGHTNESS CAUSED BY PLANETARY TRANSITS. THIS FIRST EVER SPACE BORNE ALL SKY TRANSIT SURVEY WILL IDENTIFY PLANETS RANGING FROM EARTH SIZED TO GAS GIANTS AROUND A WIDE RANGE OF STELLAR TYPES AND ORBITAL DISTANCES. NO GROUND BASED SURVEY CAN ACHIEVE THIS FEAT. TESS STARS WILL BE 30-100 TIMES BRIGHTER THAN THOSE IN THE RELATIVELY NARROW FIELD OF VIEW OF THE KELPER SATELLITE AND THEREFORE TESS PLANETS WILL BE ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE EASIER TO CHARACTERIZE WITH FOLLOW UP OBSERVATIONS. AT LAST IT WILL BE POSSIBLE TO STUDY THE MASSES SIZES DENSITIES ORBITS AND ATMOSPHERES OF A LARGE COHORT OF SMALL PLANETS INCLUDING A SAMPLE OF ROCKY WORLDS IN THE HABITABLE ZONES OF THEIR HOST STARS. TESS WILL PROVIDE PRIME TARGETS FOR OBSERVATION WITH THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE (JWST) AS WELL AS OTHER LARGE GROUND BASED AND SPACE BASED TELESCOPES OF THE FUTURE.

IN DECEMBER 2001, KEPLER BECAME THE 10TH MISSION SELECTED FOR FLIGHT BY NASA'S DISCOVERY PROGRAM, AND THE FIRST SUCH ORIENTED TO ACHIEVE GOALS UNDER

CHARACTERIZATION OF SOLAR WIND FLUCTUATIONS AT 1AU USING MULTIPLE SPACECRAFT DATA: SUMMARY: THIS IS

OBJECTIVES: WE ARE PROPOSING TO PROVIDE SCIENCE AND OPERATIONS SUPPORT FOR THE KEPLER AND K2 MISSIONS WORKING IN COLLABORATION WITH THE KEPLER/KL PROJECT TEAM AT NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER. THE TWO PRIMARY OBJECTIVES OF THIS PROJECT ARE TO (1) SUPPORT THE CLOSEOUT OF THE KEPLER SCIENCE MISSION AND (2) SUPPORT THE K2 SCIENCE OPERATIONS FROM THE COLLECTION OF DATA TO THE ARCHIVING OF THE MISSION RESULTS. THE PROPOSED KEPLER WORK WILL OCCUR FROM JUNE 2017 THROUGH THE END OF THE KEPLER CLOSEOUT AT THE END OF SEPTEMBER 2017. THE PROPOSED K2 WORK WILL OCCUR FROM JUNE 2017 THROUGH THE END OF THE K2 MISSION. METHODS: THE WORK PROPOSED HERE SUPPORTS ELEVEN SCIENTISTS BOTH FULL-TIME AND PART-TIME WHO WILL CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THE KEPLER SCIENCE CLOSEOUT AND THE K2 MISSION OPERATIONS AND DATA PROCESSING AS A PART OF THE KEPLER SCIENCE OFFICE (SO) AND SCIENCE OPERATIONS CENTER (SOC) AT NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER. ALL OF THE PROPOSAL TEAM ARE EXPERIENCED MEMBERS OF THE KEPLER/K2 TEAM. SCIENTISTS WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR DEVELOPING THE WORK PLAN AND COORDINATING THE PERSONNEL REQUIRED TO CARRY OUT EACH ASSIGNED ACTIVITY WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THIS COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT PROPOSAL AND THE KEPLER/KL PROJECT SCHEDULE. PERCEIVED IMPACT: THE PROPOSED WORK IN SUPPORT OF KEPLER IS CRITICAL TO THE SUCCESSFUL CLOSEOUT OF THE MISSION AND THE COMPLETION OF A LEGACY ARCHIVE. TWO OF THE KEY GOALS FOR THE KEPLER CLOSEOUT WERE THE CREATION OF A UNIFORMLY VETTED PLANET CANDIDATE CATALOG AND THE CREATION OF A SERIES OF OCCURRENCE RATE PRODUCTS THAT WOULD ALLOW THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY TO COMPUTE PLANET OCCURRENCE RATES INDEPENDENTLY. THESE PRODUCTS AND THE SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION WERE DEEMED CRITICAL FOR KEPLER'S LEGACY BY THE KEPLER MISSION THE KEPLER USERS PANEL AND THE EXTERNAL OCCURRENCE RATE REVIEW PANEL AND HAVE BEEN ON THE KEPLER CLOSEOUT SCHEDULE APPROVED BY THE NASA EXOPLANET PROGRAM OFFICE. CO-IS ON THIS PROPOSAL ARE LEADING THE CATALOG OCCURRENCE RATE AND LEGACY DOCUMENTATION EFFORTS. THE WORK PROPOSED FOR K2 PRIMARILY INVOLVES SUPPORT FOR MISSION FLIGHT OPERATIONS DATA PROCESSING OPERATIONS AND DATA ARCHIVAL. SCIENTISTS ON THIS PROPOSAL ARE CRITICAL TO ALL PHASES OFK2 OPERATIONS FROM FIELD-OF-VIEW AND TARGET SELECTION THROUGH FINAL MISSION DATA AND DOCUMENTATION DELIVERY TO THE MAST. THE ONGOING EFFICIENT OPERATION OF K2 AND TIMELY DELIVERY OF QUALITY DATA TO THE COMMUNITY RELIES ON THE WORK PROPOSED HERE.

THE SETI INSTITUTE HAS A LONG HISTORY OF PROVIDING DATA PROCESSING SUPPORT FOR NASA MISSIONS. THE PERSONNEL TO BE SUPPORTED BY THIS COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT HAVE WORKED ON KEPLER AND TESS DATA PROCESSING FOR ALMOST A DECADE. WE HAVE EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE WITH DATA PROCESSING TIME SERIES SIGNAL PROCESSING IMAGE ANALYSIS MACHINE LEARNING SIMULATION/MODELLING AND ROBUST SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT FOR NASA PROJECTS AS CAN BE SEEN IN THE ATTACHED CVS. WE BRING A DIVERSE SET OF SKILLS THAT CAN BE QUICKLY INTEGRATED AND PROVIDE IMMEDIATE BENEFITS TO THE ATAP PROJECT GOALS. BELOW WE DISCUSS SPECIFIC ASPECTS OF THE ATAP PROJECT PLAN TO WHICH WE CAN MAKE DIRECT CONTRIBUTIONS.

MARS SURFACE COMPOSITION AND ITS PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS TO ASTROBIOLOGY

"PLANETARY SCIENCE AND EXPLORATION INVESTIGATIONS IN TERRESTRIAL ANALOG ENVIRONMENTS"A MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH PROGRAM SUPPORTING NASA SCIENCE AN

RELOCATE THE PLANETARY DATA SYSTEMS RINGS NODE TO SETI

THIS PROJECT CONSISTS OF A YEARLONG RESEARCH ACCELERATOR PROGRAM, FRONTIER DEVELOPMENT LAB (FDL), WHICH CULMINATES AN 8-WEEK SUMMER SPRINT WITH EARLY-CAREER PHDS IN MACHINE LEARNING AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THEIR COUNTERPARTS IN SCIENCE DOMAINS. IT WILL BE HOSTED BY SETI INSTITUTE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TRILLIUM TECHNOLOGIES, DOE, AND NASA, AND WILL FOCUS ON RESEARCH CHALLENGE QUESTIONS SELECTED FOR THEIR RELEVANCE TO DOE SCIENCE PRIORITIES, APPROPRIATENESS TO THE APPLICATION OF AI TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES, AND IMPORTANCE TO HUMANKIND.

PLANETARY SURFACE STUDIES SUCH AS GEOMORPHOLOGY, SURFACE PROCESSES, REMOTE SENSING AND PHOTOGRAMMETRY OF SOLID BODIES PROVIDE VITAL INFORMATION NEEDE

MANY PLANETARY SURFACE PROCESSES (LIKE PHYSICAL CHEMICAL AND ENERGETIC PARTICLE (SPACE) WEATHERING WATER ACTIVITY DIAGENESIS LOWTEMPERATURE OR IMPACT METAMORPHISM AND BIOGENIC ACTIVITY) LEAVE TRACES OF THEIR ACTIONS AS FEATURES IN THE SIZE RANGE 10S TO 100S OF MICRONS. THE MAPPING X-RAY FLUORESCENCE SPECTROMETER ( MAPX ) IS INTENDED TO PROVIDE ELEMENTAL IMAGING AT =100 MICRON SPATIAL RESOLUTION OF 2.5 X 2.5 CENTIMETER AREAS YIELDING ELEMENTAL CHEMISTRY AT OR BELOW THE SCALE LENGTH WHERE MANY RELICT PHYSICAL CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL FEATURES CAN BE IMAGED AND INTERPRETED IN ANCIENT ROCKS. MAPX IS AN ARM-BASED INSTRUMENT PLACED DIRECTLY ON THE SURFACE OF AN OBJECT TO BE ANALYZED AND HELD IN REGISTRY WITH IT THROUGH THE USE OF TOUCH SENSORS THAT PHYSICALLY CONTACT THE SURFACE. DURING AN ANALYSIS EITHER AN X-RAY TUBE OR A RADIOISOTOPE SOURCE BOMBARDS THE SAMPLE SURFACE WITH X-RAYS (TUBE SOURCE) OR ALPHA-PARTICLES AND GAMMA-RAYS (RADIOISOTOPE SOURCE) RESULTING IN X-RAY FLUORESCENCE FROM THE SAMPLE. FLUORESCED X-RAYS EMITTED IN THE DIRECTION OF AN X-RAY SENSITIVE CCD IMAGER PASS THROUGH AN X-RAY 1:1 FOCUSING LENS (CALLED AN X-RAY MICRO-PORE OPTIC MPO) THAT PROJECTS A SPATIALLY RESOLVED IMAGE OF THE X-RAYS GENERATED FROM THE SAMPLE SURFACE ONTO THE CCD. THE CCD IS READ AT SEVERAL FRAMES PER SECOND SO THAT IN THE MAJORITY OF CASES NO MORE THAN ONE PHOTON STRIKES AN INDIVIDUAL PIXEL BETWEEN READ CYCLES. IN THIS WAY THE ENERGIES AND POSITIONS OF INDIVIDUAL X-RAY PHOTONS ARE RECORDED. THE IMAGES ARE STORED IN MEMORY AND PROCESSED IN REAL TIME USING ALGORITHMS PARAMETERIZED FROM THE GROUND. IN A SINGLE ANALYSIS SEVERAL THOUSAND FRAMES ARE BOTH STORED AND PROCESSED IN REAL-TIME.

OBJECTIVES: WE PROPOSE TO BUILD AND CRITICALLY TEST A TRL6 IN-SITU SPECTROSCOPIC EUROPA EXPLORER (ISEE) A NEXT-GENERATION ULTRA-COMPACT RAMAN SPECTROMETER WITH SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE THAT MEETS THE TOP-LEVEL SCIENTIFIC REQUIREMENTS OF MULTIPLE PLANETARY MISSIONS TO THE INNER AND OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM. OUR MOTIVATION IS TO BUILD A SMALL VERSATILE INSTRUMENT THAT CAN ADDRESS PRIORITY SCIENCE GOALS IN MISSIONS TO SEVERAL TARGETS AND WITH DIFFERENT SPACECRAFT CONFIGURATIONS (ORBITERS FLY-THROUGHS LANDERS ROVERS). ISEE INTEGRATES FOR THE FIRST TIME A DIGITAL MICROMIRROR DEVICE/PHOTOMULTIPLIER ASSEMBLY (DMD/PMT) AND A MICROCHIP DIODE LASER INTO A MINIATURE RAMAN SPECTROMETER THAT ENABLES UNPRECEDENTED MEASUREMENTS: IN-SITU CHEMICAL IDENTIFICATION AND QUANTITATION OF COMPLEX ORGANIC COMPOUNDS INCLUDING PRE-BIOTIC COMPOUNDS (E.G. AMINO ACIDS) BIOMOLECULES (ORGANIC BIOMARKERS INCLUDING PROTEINS LIPIDS AND NUCLEIC ACID POLYMERS) MINERALS/SALTS AND VOLATILES. ISEE ALSO PROVIDES SAMPLE CONTEXT INCLUDING ICE COMPOSITION CRYSTALLINITY AND ICE PHASE DISTRIBUTION. APPROACH: THE OVERARCHING GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO REDUCE RISKS (TECHNICAL SCIENTIFIC OPERATIONAL AND PROGRAMMATIC) FOR DEVELOPMENT DELIVERY AND DEPLOYMENT OF A FUTURE PLANETARY EXPLORATION INSTRUMENT. FOR ANY GIVEN PLANETARY MISSION ISEE WOULD ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING SCIENCE OBJECTIVES: 1. DETECT AND QUANTITATE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS 2. SEARCH FOR SPECIFIC BIOMOLECULES THAT CAN SERVE AS BIOSIGNATURES 3. DETERMINE FINE-SCALE MINERALOGY 4. SEARCH FOR SOURCES OF CHEMICAL ENERGY (E.G. REDOX COUPLES) 5. CHARACTERIZE ICE CRYSTALLINITY AND ICE PHASE DISTRIBUTION. ISEE INFORMS THESE FIVE SCIENCE OBJECTIVES BY PERFORMING HIGH-RESOLUTION HIGH-SENSITIVITY QUANTITATIVE ANALYSES OF SAMPLES VIA AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY. RAMAN IS PROBABLY THE MOST POWERFUL TOOL AVAILABLE FOR IN-SITU NON-INVASIVE MOLECULAR AND MINERALOGICAL CHARACTERIZATIONS. BASED ON THE INELASTIC SCATTERING OF LIGHT THE RAMAN TECHNIQUE IDENTIFIES MOLECULAR SPECIES AND THEIR CHEMICAL AND STRUCTURAL NATURE. ISEE CHANGES PARADIGM IN IN-SITU PLANETARY EXPLORATION: IT SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVES SCIENCE INSTRUMENT MEASUREMENT CAPABILITIES FOR LANDED AND FLY-THROUGH MISSIONS AND HAS POTENTIAL TO BECOME A KEY NEW INSTRUMENT IN NASA S EXPLORATION TOOLBOX THAT CAN REPLACE FLOWN AND TO-BE-FLOWN IN-SITU SENSING TECHNOLOGIES IN FUTURE MISSION OPPORTUNITIES RELEVANCE: OUR INSTRUMENT SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVES INSTRUMENT MEASUREMENT CAPABILITIES FOR PLANETARY SCIENCE MISSIONS SUCH AS DISCOVERY NEW FRONTIERS MARS EXPLORATION AND OTHER PLANETARY PROGRAMS. IT HAS POTENTIAL TO BECOME A CRITICAL NEW INSTRUMENT IN NASA S EXPLORATION TOOLBOX THAT CAN REPLACE ALREADY-FLOWN IN-SITU SENSING TECHNOLOGIES IN FUTURE MISSION OPPORTUNITIES. ISEE WILL ENABLE IN-SITU CHEMICAL CLASSIFICATION AND QUANTITATION OF COMPLEX ORGANIC COMPOUNDS MINERALS/ICES AND VOLATILES. THEREFORE ISEE WILL ENABLE MEASUREMENTS RESPONSIVE TO THREE OF THE FIVE SCIENCE OBJECTIVES OF THE SMD S PSD AS STATED IN THE NASA SCIENCE PLAN: [2] UNDERSTAND HOW THE SUN S FAMILY OF PLANETS SATELLITES AND MINOR BODIES ORIGINATED AND EVOLVED [3] UNDERSTAND THE PROCESSES THAT DETERMINE THE HISTORY AND FUTURE OF HABITABILITY OF ENVIRONMENTS ON MARS AND OTHER SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES [4] UNDERSTAND THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF EARTH LIFE AND THE BIOSPHERE TO DETERMINE IF THERE IS OR EVER HAS BEEN LIFE ELSEWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE. SPECIFICALLY ISEE WILL ENABLE ALL THREE INVESTIGATIONS REQUIRED TO UNDERSTAND THE HABITABILITY OF EUROPA S OCEAN THROUGH COMPOSITION AND CHEMISTRY THE PRIORITY OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED EUROPA LANDER CONCEPT AS DEVELOPED BY A NASA-COMMISSIONED SCIENCE DEFINITION TEAM.

IN SITU INSTRUMENTS FOR CHEMICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF MARS

UNDERSTANDING OF MARTIAN AND TERRESTRIAL ICE FEATURES

OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THOLIN PRODUCED IN A HYDROGEN-RICH EARLY EARTH ATMOSPHERE, IMPACT DRIVEN CHEMISTRY ON EURPOA'S SURFACE, RADIATION PROCESSING

AN OBSERVING CAMPAIGN TO STUDY THE ENTRY RADIATION&ABLATION PRODUCTS OF THE STARDUST SAMPLE RETURN CAPSULE

IN DECEMBER 2001, THE KEPLER MISSION BECAME THE 10TH SPACEPROBE SELECTED FOR FLIGHT BY NASA'S DISCOVERY PROGRAM, AND THE FIRST SUCH MISSION SET TO AC

OUTER SOLOAR SYSTEM BODIES

"MARS SURFACE PROCESSES, EXPLORATION AND EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH" THIS PROPOSAL OUTLINES A NEW THREE YEAR COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT ENTITLED "MARS SURFACE P

PI PROPOSES SEVERAL SCIENTIFIC, MISSION SUPPORT, AND PUBLIC OUTREACH ACTIVITIES THAT INCLUDE INVESTIGATIONS ON MARS, THE MOON, THE SATELLITES OF JUPI

EXOPLANET TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPMENT

CIRS INVESTIGATIONS OF PLANETARY RINGS THIS IS A NEW, FIVE-YEAR PROPOSAL TO SUPPORT THE WORK OF CIRS CO-INVESTIGATOR DR. MARK SHOWALTER ON BEHALF OF

FEDERAL MANDATES ARE REQUIRING CURATION AND SHARING OF SCIENTIFIC DATA FROM NASA FUNDED RESEARCH. TO SUPPORT THIS NEW POLICES NASA IS NOW REQUIRING THAT NASA-FUNDED RESEARCHERS RECEIVING GRANTS FOR RESEARCH NEED TO INCLUDE DATA MANAGEMENT PLANS AS PART OF THEIR NASA FUNDING PROPOSALS. ENCOURAGING OPEN DATA SHARING AND PROVIDING PUBLIC ACCESS TO SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES IS INTENDED TO INCREASE VISIBILITY FOR NASA FUNDED RESEARCH WHICH ACCELERATE THE DISSEMINATION OF NEW DISCOVERIES TO ADVANCE SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE AND INCREASE SCIENCE RETURNS FOR NASA INVESTMENTS. THE ARC S EXOBIOLOGY BRANCH (SSX) AT NASA AMES HAS MADE ACCESS TO RESEARCH DATA A HIGH PRIORITY LEADING SEVERAL PROJECTS ORIENTED TO MAKE SCIENTIFIC DATA MORE DISCOVERABLE AND ACCESSIBLE TO THE COMMUNITY. THIS PROPOSAL IS TO SUPPORT DR. BARBARA LAFUENTE S WORK AS A DATA SCIENTIST AND DATABASE SPECIALIST IN SSX ACTIVITIES: THE ASTROBIOLOGY HABITABLE ENVIRONMENT DATABASE (SERA PI THOMAS BRISTOW) THE CHEMIN DATABASE (MSL PI THOMAS BRISTOW) AND THE CENTER FOR LIFE DETECTION (PI S TORI HOEHLER LINDSAY HAYS AND ANDREW POHORILLE). THE PERFORMANCE PERIOD FOR THIS PROPOSAL BEGINS OCTOBER 31ST 2018 AND ENDS OCT. 30TH 2021. ROLES AND FUNDING FOR DR. LAFUENTE DURING THIS PERIOD ARE DESCRIBED BELOW. DR. LAFUENTE GAINED EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE IN MINERALOGY AND ASTROBIOLOGY DATABASE DESIGN DURING HER PHD RESEARCH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA (DR. ROBERT DOWNS ADVISOR). DR. DOWNS IS THE DIRECTOR OF THE MINERALOGY LAB AT UOFA WHERE THE OPEN DATA REPOSITORY (ODR) SOFTWARE WAS DEVELOPED TOGETHER WITH NATE STONE OF STONE UMBRELLA AND NASA AMES. IN 2004 DR. DOWNS CREATED THE RRUFF DATABASE (HTTP://RRUFF.INFO) AN OPEN-ACCESS DATABASE OF HIGH-QUALITY SPECTRAL DATA FROM WELL-CHARACTERIZED MINERALS. DURING HER PHD RESEARCH LAFUENTE ACTIVELY CONTRIBUTED TO RRUFF BY PERFORMING MINERALOGICAL ANALYSES AND BY CHARACTERIZING THE CRYSTAL-CHEMISTRY OF DIVERSE MINERALS THROUGH X-RAY DIFFRACTION (XRD) RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY AND ELECTRON MICROPROBE ANALYSIS. IN 2015 SHE PUBLISHED THE FIRST MANUSCRIPT DESCRIBING THE RRUFF DATABASE [1]. DURING HER RECENT POSTDOC AT NASA/AMES RESEARCH CENTER AS A NASA ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE NPP FELLOW SHE CONTINUED TO LEAD AND DIRECT THE DEVELOPMENT OF AHED AND THE ODR PLATFORM.

THIS PROPOSAL SEEKS FUNDING TO SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OPERATIONS AND ANALYSIS OF SEVERAL NASA SCIENCE PIPELINES FOR PROJECTS APPROVED BY VARIOUS NASA PROGRAMS. THESE PROJECTS INCLUDE THE SCIENCE PROCESSING OPERATIONS CENTER (SPOC) OF NASA EXPLORER

MARTIAN ANALOG STUDIES

PLANETARY IN SITU COMPOSITIONAL (ELEMENTAL) ANALYSES ARE PRESENTLY LIMITED TO AREAS OF ~3 CM DIA. (THE APXS INSTRUMENT ON MSL), OR AS INDIVIDUAL HIGH

IDENTIFYING A HABITABLE OR INHABITED PLANET AROUND ANOTHER STAR IS ONE OF NASA'S GREATEST LONG-TERM GOALS. MAJOR ADVANCES IN EXOPLANET DETECTION PLAC

BIOFUELS FOR SUSTAINABLE SPACE EXPLORATION NASA'S LONG-TERM MISSION TO EXPLORE AND ULTIMATELY COL

DEVELOPMENT OF ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES FOR, AND THE AN ALYSIS OF, BIOGEOCHEMICAL SAMPLES

THE ROSES FUNDING OPPORTUNITY GOALS ARE: 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

WE PROPOSE TO MINIATURIZE AN X-RAY MICROCOMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY (MICROCT) SYSTEM FOR IN SITU ANALYSIS OF LAYERED MARTIAN ICE. THE MICRO IN SITU TOMOGRAPHY SYSTEM (MISTS) WILL PROVIDE THE MICROSTRUCTURAL INFORMATION WE WOULD SEEK FROM AN ICE CORE: MILLIMETER SCALE STRATIGRAPHY OF IMPURITY LAYERS AND MICRON SCALE PARTICLE SIZE SHAPE AND POSITION. OBJECTIVE MARS HAS LAYERED SUBSURFACE ICE AND POLAR LAYERED DEPOSITS THAT CONTAIN A CLIMATE RECORD RELEVANT TO STUDIES OF PAST HABITABILITY AND CLIMATE SCIENCE MORE GENERALLY. MICROCT PROVIDES NON-DESTRUCTIVE THREE-DIMENSIONAL VISUALIZATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE INTERNAL FEATURES OF MULTIPHASE MATERIALS WITH SPATIAL RESOLUTION DOWN TO SEVERAL MICRONS. IT HAS BEEN USED EXTENSIVELY IN THE STUDY OF DEPOSITIONAL PROCESSES IN SEDIMENTARY ROCK (E.G. FALVARD AND PARIS 2017) AND MORE RECENTLY IN ICE (OBBARD ET AL. 2009; IVERSON ET AL. 2017). MICROCT CAN MEASURE MICRON SCALE LAYER STRATIGRAPHY PARTICLE SIZE SHAPE VOLUME CONCENTRATION PORE SIZE SHAPE AND DISTRIBUTION ALL AS A FUNCTION OF DEPTH. THE USE OF MICROCT TO DIFFERENTIATE AND IDENTIFY DEPOSITIONAL LAYERS BASED ON PARTICLE SIZE AND SHAPE DISTRIBUTION IN THE ICE HAS BEEN DEMONSTRATED IN THE WEST ANTARCTIC ICE SHEET (WAIS) CORE WERE USED TO IDENTIFY THE TYPE AND SOURCE OF SPECIFIC VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS (IVERSON ET AL. 2017). APPLICATION OF THE TECHNIQUE HAS BEEN GROWING IN PART DUE TO RAPID ADVANCES IN INSTRUMENTATION TECHNOLOGY AND ACCESSIBILITY THROUGH COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE BENCHTOP SYSTEMS. TYPICALLY A MICROCT SYSTEM IS LOCATED IN A LABORATORY; HOWEVER IN SOME SITUATIONS IT MAY BE PREFERRED (E.G. TRANSPORT AND CURATION OF FROZEN SAMPLES) TO BRING THE MICROCT TO THE SAMPLES. WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP A MINIATURIZED MICROCT SYSTEM THAT CAN BE USED ROBOTICALLY TO EXAMINE STRATIGRAPHY AND SEDIMENT DISTRIBUTION IN MARTIAN ICE CORES. TECHNICAL APPROACH THE MISTS WILL BE A TWO-STEP PROCESS. IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING COLLECTION AN ICE CORE WILL BE PLACED BETWEEN SOURCE AND DETECTOR AND XRAY ATTENUATION IMAGES COLLECTED. ONE OF THE CHALLENGES WE FORESEE IS THE NEED TO WITHDRAW AND IMAGE FRACTURED CORES. THE ICE CORING DRILL WILL EMPLOY HONEYBEE ROBOTICS ECCENTRIC TUBES CORE BREAKOFF AND RETENTION TECHNOLOGY A METAL BIT WITH AN INTERNAL BREAKOFF AND CACHING TUBE(S) MADE OF AN X-RAY TRANSPARENT POLYMER (ZANCY 2014). AS THE CACHING TUBE AND CORE IS DRAWN FROM THE HOLE IT WILL PASS THOUGH A SURFACE MOUNTED MICROCT SYSTEM WHICH WILL IMAGE THE SAMPLE IN SITU IN THE TUBE. DATA (BITMAP X-RAY ATTENUATION IMAGE FILES VERTICAL AND AZIMUTHAL POSITION AND X-RAY SOURCE STATISTICS) WILL BE TRANSFERRED TO EARTH WHERE TOMOGRAPHIC IMAGES WILL BE RECONSTRUCTED. TASKS: 1. DETERMINE OPTIMAL CORE DIAMETER BY WEIGHING COMPETING REQUIREMENTS SUCH AS SAMPLE SIZE TOMOGRAPHIC SPATIAL RESOLUTION DRILLING AND MICROCT POWER AND WEIGHT. 2. SPECIFY X-RAY SOURCE STRENGTH INTEGRATION TIME DETECTOR RESOLUTION. 3. IDENTIFY MICROCT GEOMETRY COMPONENTS (I.E. SOURCE AND DETECTOR) AND DESIGN. 4. MAKE DESIGN CHANGES TO CURRENT CORE BREAKOFF AND RETENTION SYSTEM INCLUDING THE CACHING/ANALYSIS TUBE(S). 5. BUILD AND TEST MICROCT SYSTEM ON CACHING TUBES CONTAINING ICE AND SEDIMENT IN THE LAB AT COLD TEMPERATURES. THE PROPOSED WORK IS RELEVANT TO NASA PICASSO BECAUSE WE AIM TO DESIGN AND DEVELOP A NEW MINIATURIZED INSTRUMENT TO BE USED FOR IN SITU SCIENCE IN A PLANETARY CONTEXT. UNDER THIS PROJECT THE PROPOSED INSTRUMENT WILL ADVANCE FROM TRL 2 TO TRL 4.

FORMATION AND EVOLUTION OF GIANT PLANET SATELLITE SYSTEMS

THE CHEMIN X-RAY DIFFRACTION (XRD) INSTRUMENT SUCCESSFULLY DEPLOYED ON MARS SCIENCE LABORATORY (MSL) FOR MORE THAN 7 YEARS ESTABLISHED THE QUANTITATIVE MINERALOGY OF THE MARS SOIL CHARACTERIZED THE FIRST HABITABLE ENVIRONMENT ON ANOTHER PLANET RE

THE MIKULSKI ARCHIVE FOR SPACE TELESCOPES (MAST) CURRENTLY CONTAINS 29,000 SOLAR SYSTEM OBSERVATIONS. HOWEVER, BECAUSE THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE (H

ONE OF THE KEY AREAS OF INVESTIGATION IN THE EXOBIOLOGY PROGRAM IS THAT OF BIOSIGNATURES AND LIFE ELSEWHERE. THIS COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT PROPOSAL AIMS TO SUPPORT THIS TOPIC BY CONTRIBUTING TO A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR THE CHARACTERIZATION AND INTERPRETATION OF HABITABILITY AND BIOSIGNATURES FOR PLANETARY BODIES WITHIN THE SOLAR SYSTEM. THIS FRAMEWORK MOVES BEYOND A BINARY CHARACTERIZATION OF THE PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF WATER OR WHETHER A BIOSIGNATURE IS BIOTIC OR ABIOTIC. INSTEAD THE NEW FRAMEWORK AIMS TO CHARACTERIZE THE DEGREE OF HABITABILITY OF DIFFERENT PLANETARY ENVIRONMENTS BY ASSESSING THE ABILITY OF A BIOSPHERE TO PRODUCE DETECTABLE BIOSIGNATURES AFTER CONSIDERING ENERGY LIMITATIONS ON PRODUCTIVITY AS WELL AS BIOSIGNATURE PRESERVATION AND DEGRADATION PROCESSES. THE PROPOSED SUPPORT APPLIES THIS NEW FRAMEWORK TO THE EARLY EARTH MARS AND OTHER ROCKY PLANETARY BODIES WITHIN THE SOLAR SYSTEM.

THE DAYTIME CONVECTIVE BOUNDARY LAYER (CBL) ON MARS AND EARTH IS THE PART OF THE ATMOSPHERE THAT RESPONDS DIRECTLY TO SURFACE FORCING

SCOPE/DELIVERABLES: IN OUR NASA HQ WORK PACKAGE SETI HAS BEEN PROPOSED TO PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING DELIVERABLES: 1. THE FOLLOWING SPECTRAL DATA (THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL) WILL BE PRODUCED TO EXPAND THE PAH DATABASE AND DEVELOP THE RAMAN DATABASE AND ANY OTHER APPROPRIATE DATABASE AS RELEVANT. O PROVIDE THE CALCULATED SPECTRA OF PAH AND PAH?RELATED SPECIES CURRENTLY UNDERREPRESENTED IN PAHDB COVERING A WIDER RANGE OF PAH SIZES CHARGES COMPOSITIONS AND SHAPES. O PROVIDE LABORATORY MEASURED SPECTRA OF PAH SPECIES CURRENTLY UNDERREPRESENTED IN PAHDB COVERING A WIDER RANGE OF PAH SIZES. O PROVIDE LABORATORY MEASURED AND COMPUTED SPECTRA OF PAH CLUSTERS TO BE ADDED TO PAHDB. O PROVIDE UV?VIS COMPUTED SPECTRA OF PAH AND PAH?RELATED SPECIES TO BE ADDED TO PAHDB. O PROVIDE IR SPECTRA OF PAHS EMBEDDED IN ASTROPHYSICALLY RELEVANT ICES. O PROVIDE THEORETICAL RAMAN SPECTRA OF ORGANIC MOLECULES AND PAHS EMBEDDED IN WATER ICE. O PROVIDE EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL NEAR IR TO MID IR SPECTRAL DATA AND SPECIFIC INFRARED SIGNATURES OF PLANETARY ICE ANALOGS ICE MIXTURES AND ICE?COATED GRAINS 2. PREPARE AND SUBMIT MANUSCRIPTS IN PEER?REVIEWED JOURNALS TO COMMUNICATE THIS WORK TO THE ASTRONOMICAL AND PLANETARY COMMUNITIES. 3. PRESENT RESEARCH RESULTS OF THEORETICAL STUDIES AT CONFERENCES AS APPROPRIATE. TRAVEL TO CONFERENCES IS EXPECTED TO PRESENT RESEARCH.

ADVANCED DATA MINING TECHNIQUES FOR THE ANALYSIS OF LARGE SPACE SCIENCE AND ASTROPHYSICAL DATA SETS

THE GEMINI PLANET IMAGER (GPI) IS A NEXT-GENERATION CORONAGRAPH CONSTRUCTED FOR THE GEMINI OBSERVATORY. GPI WILL SEE FIRST LIGHT THIS FALL. IT WILL B

QUANTITATIVE MOLECULAR DYNAMICS OF EXTREMOPHILE METALLOPROTEINS -- COMBINING EXPERIMENT AND COMPUTATION -THIS IS A COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PROJECT BETWEEN THE SETI INSTITUTE, SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY, PCOM GEORGIA, AND GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY TO STUDY PROTEINS FROM ?EXTREMOPHILES?. THESE ARE ORGANISMS THAT CAN THRIVE IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS, SUCH AS LOW TEMPERATURE (<0?C, ?PSYCHROPHILES?), HIGH TEMPERATURE (>100?C, ?HYPERTHERMOPHILES?), OR HIGH PRESSURE (>1100 ATM, ?PIEZOPHILES?), AS WELL AS OTHER EXTREMES OF PH, SALT CONCENTRATION, AND RADIATION. UNDERSTANDING HOW LIVING THINGS CAN FLOURISH UNDER EXTREME CONDITIONS IS IMPORTANT FOR GUIDING THE SEARCH FOR LIFE ELSEWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE. IT ALSO HAS MANY PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS, SINCE THE ENZYMES FROM THESE MICROORGANISMS, ?EXTREMOZYMES?, ARE EXTRAORDINARILY USEFUL. THEIR STABILITY UNDER EXTREME CONDITIONS HAS ENABLED NUMEROUS APPLICATIONS, SUCH AS ENZYMES INCLUDED IN COLD-WATER ?BIODETERGENTS?, HIGH TEMPERATURE ?BIO-PULPING? ENZYMES FOR MORE ECO-FRIENDLY PAPER-PROCESSING, AND HIGH-PRESSURE ENZYMES FOR FOOD PROCESSING. DESPITE THEIR NUMEROUS APPLICATIONS, THE FACTORS THAT LEAD TO EXTREMOZYME STABILITY ARE STILL NOT COMPLETELY UNDERSTOOD. SOME THEORIES PROPOSE THAT THE MOLECULAR MOTION WITHIN THESE PROTEINS DETERMINES THE RANGES OF STABILITY AND ACTIVITY. HOWEVER, THERE IS NOT ENOUGH GOOD QUANTITATIVE INFORMATION ABOUT EXTREMOZYME MOTION UNDER DIFFERENT CONDITIONS. FOR THIS PROJECT, PROTEINS FROM VARIOUS EXTREMOPHILES WILL BE PRODUCED BY UNDERGRADUATES AT SAN JOSE STATE AND PCOM GEORGIA. THE MOTION IN THESE PROTEINS WILL BE MEASURED BY SETI SCIENTISTS USING NOVEL X-RAY TECHNIQUES. THE RESULTS WILL BE TESTED AGAINST THEORETICAL CALCULATIONS BY GRADUATE STUDENTS AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY. UNDERREPRESENTED HIGH SCHOOL AND UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS FROM LOCAL SCHOOLS WILL BE INVOLVED IN FIELD TRIPS AND SUMMER RESEARCH PROJECTS. THIS PROJECT IS UNDERTAKEN TO GAIN EXPERIMENTAL DATA ON ATOMIC MOTION IN PROTEINS FROM PSYCHROPHILES TO HYPERTHERMOPHILES AND FROM MESOPHILES TO OBLIGATE PIEZOPHILES, UNDER A RANGE OF TEMPERATURES AND PRESSURES. EXPERIMENTS PERFORMED BY USING NUCLEAR RESONANCE VIBRATIONAL SPECTROSCOPY (NRVS) WILL PROVIDE INFORMATION ON MOTION OF FE ATOMS AT THE ACTIVE SITES OF RUBREDOXIN AND CYTOCHROME P450 AND TE ATOMS IN THE MIDDLE OR ON THE PERIPHERY OF THE TARGET PROTEINS. X-RAY DIFFRACTION AND NUCLEAR RESONANT TIME DOMAIN INTERFEROMETRY (NR-TDI) WILL QUANTIFY MOTION IN POLYPEPTIDE HELICES AND LOOPS OF THESE PROTEINS. THE DATA WILL TEST TWO HYPOTHESES CONCERNING PROTEIN DYNAMICS. THE PROJECT WILL SPECIFICALLY LOOK FOR ?PROTEIN GLASS TRANSITIONS?, WHICH ARE PROPOSED TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENT CHANGES IN PROTEIN FLEXIBILITY OVER THE RANGE OF 180-220 K. THE PROJECT WILL ALSO TEST THE ?CORRESPONDING STATES? PARADIGM, WHICH SAYS THAT PROTEINS IN AN EXTREMOPHILE HAVE BEEN ADAPTED TO MAINTAIN EQUIVALENT FLEXIBILITY UNDER THE DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS FAVORED FOR EACH ORGANISM. FINALLY, THE PROJECT IS AIMED TO DETERMINE THE BEST COMBINATION OF FORCE FIELDS AND WATER MODELS FOR MOLECULAR DYNAMICS (MD) SIMULATIONS TO REPRODUCE AND INTERPRET THE EXPERIMENTAL DATA COLLECTED FOR A SET OF PROTEINS. THIS RESEARCH IS EXPECTED TO EXPAND THE KNOWLEDGE OF MOLECULAR MOTION IN EXTREMOPHILE PROTEINS AND THE FUNDAMENTAL FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO LIFE UNDER EXTREME CONDITIONS. THIS PROJECT WAS FUNDED BY THE MOLECULAR BIOPHYSICS CLUSTER IN THE DIVISION OF MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOSCIENCES. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.

FOR THE 3-YEAR PERIOD, WE INTEND TO INVESTIGATE HOW SUCH A SYSTEM CAN PHOTOSYNTHETICALLY DRIVE BOTH ENZYMATIC AND PREBIOTIC CHEMISTRY IN GENERAL AND

UNSOLICITED PROPOSAL ENTITLED "MOLECULAR SPECTRSCOPY. MODELING OF BROWN SWARFS AND EXTRASOLA GIANT PLANETS"SPACE SCIENCE DIVISION IS FUNDING THIS MU

WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP A CONCEPT OF GUINIER CAMERA FOR HIGH-RESOLUTION X-RAY DIFFRACTION (XRD) ANALYSIS IN PLANETARY EXPLORATION. THE TECHNOLOGY INHE

MOLECULES IN THE ICE AND METEORITES: STUDYING SIMPLE AND COMPLEX ORGANICS IN SPACETHE PURPOSE OF OUR

ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF THE MARTIAN MOON SYSTEM

FROM ANTARCTICA TO SPACE: MOLECULAR RESPONSE AND PHYSIOLOGICAL ADAPTATION OF MOSS TO SIMULATED DEEP SPACE COSMIC IONIZING RADIATION AND SPACEFLIGHT MICROGRAVITY.

EXPERIMENTS IN ELECTROSTATIC CHARGING AND TRANSPORT OF LUNAR DUSTTHE ISSUE OF LUNAR DUST NEAR THE SURFACE AND ITS MITIGATION IS A CRITICAL ISSUE THA

DEEP-WATER MICROBIALITIES IN A PERENNIALLY INC-COVERED LAKE: A KEY TO IMTERPRETING ANCIENT MICROBIA

OBJECTIVES. WE PROPOSE TO MODEL THE CLIMATES AND DISK-INTEGRATED SPECTRA FOR A VARIETY OF EARTH-SIMILAR PLANETS IN ORDER TO EXPLORE (1) HOW HABITABILITY IS IMPACTED BY OBLIQUITY ROTATION LAND DISTRIBUTION ORBITAL PARAMETERS AND STELLAR TYPE AND

WE PROPOSE TO INVESTIGATE THE MOST PROMISING CURRENT BIOFUEL FEEDSTOCKS: MICROALGAE. MICROALGAE ARE TRADITIONAL GROWN IN SHALLOW CIRCULATING CHANNELS

ADVANCING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF AQUEOUS ALTERATION AND GYPSUM FORMATION AT OLYMPIA UNDAE THROUGH ANALYSIS OF CRISM AND HIRISE IMAGERY

THERE IS AN INCREASING NEED FOR HIGHLY ACCURATE ROVIBRATIONAL LINE LISTS (INCLUDING INFRARED INTENSITIES) OF SMALL MOLECULES THAT ARE COMMON IN VARIOUS SOLAR SYSTEM PLANET AND MOON ENVIRONMENTS BROWN DWARFS THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM (ISM) AND EXOPLANET ATMOSPHERES.[1] THIS IS BEING DRIVEN BY THE AVAILABILITY OF EVER INCREASINGLY HIGH-RESOLUTION TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTS INCLUDING SPACE-BASED SUCH AS JWST AND WFIRST PLANE-BASED SUCH AS SOFIA AND GROUND BASED SUCH AS ALMA AND SEVERAL PLANNED EXTREMELY LARGE TELESCOPES. IN ORDER TO MAXIMIZE THE SCIENTIFIC RETURN FOR THESE MISSIONS THE LINE LISTS NEED TO PROVIDE BOTH ACCURATE LINE POSITIONS AND LINE STRENGTHS AS WELL AS BEING COMPLETE ENOUGH TO BE ABLE TO DESCRIBE THE LARGE TEMPERATURE EXTREMES OF THE DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS. ONE SUCH MOLECULE IS AMMONIA WHICH WIDELY EXISTS IN THE ISM BROWN DWARFS AND H2&HE DOMINATED EXOPLANETARY ATMOSPHERES [1] AND THUS WILL BE AN IMPORTANT DIAGNOSTIC MOLECULE IN THE CHARACTERIZATION OF ENVIRONMENTS AND EXOPLANET ATMOSPHERES. THE EXISTING SPECTRAL DATABASES FOR NH3 AND ITS ISOTOPOLOGUES HITRAN [2 3 4] AND EXOMOL (BYTE) [5 6] ARE NOT SUFFICIENTLY COMPLETE OR ACCURATE TO CHARACTERIZE THE ENVIRONMENTS WHERE NH3 IS PRESENT. BUILDING ON OUR PREVIOUS WORK ON NH3[7 8 9 10] AND SUBSEQUENT WORK ON OTHER MOLECULES [11 12 13 14 15 16] AS WELL AS ADDITIONAL EXPERIMENTAL DATA WE WILL GENERATE ACCURATE AND COMPLETE LINE LISTS FOR NH3 AND ITS D&15N ISOTOPOLOGUES. THESE LINE LISTS WILL BE INVALUABLE IN MODELING THE ISM AND EXOPLANETARY ATMOSPHERES OF VARIOUS CELESTIAL OBJECTS. THE SPECTRAL LIBRARY AND DATA PRODUCTS WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE TO THE ASTROPHYSICAL COMMUNITIES.

THIS IS A TYPE II MMAMA PROPOSAL TO BUILD UPON AN EXISTING RESEARCH PROGRAM AT PAVILION LAKE FOCUSING ON UNDERWATER SCIENCE AND SAMPLING. THE PROJECT

MARGARET RACE/SETI INSTITUTEPLANETARY PROTECTION SOLAR SYSTEM MISSIONS AND MARS SAMPLE RETURN: RESE

22-ADAP22-0170 COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF DUST MOLECULES AND EJECTA IN SUPERNOVAE AND THEIR REMNANTS FOR THE JWST ERA

MOBILE EXPLORATION OF THE SUBSURFACE IS ESSENTIAL IN ACHIEVING FUTURE ASTROBIOLOGY GOALS. DISCOVERY OF VOLATILE ORGANICS AND PERHAPS LIFE ON MARS IS

PI BEYER PROPOSES SEVERAL SCIENTIFIC MISSION SUPPORT AND PUBLIC OUTREACH ACTIVITIES THAT INCLUDE I

THIS PROGRAM IS AS THE SOLICITATION STATES "DEVELOPMENT OF SPACECRAFT-BASED INSTRUMENT SYSTEMS THAT SHOW PROMISE FOR USE IN FUTURE PLANETARY MISSIONS".

CIRS INVESTIGATIONS OF PLANETARY RINGS

THE PURPOSE OF OUR PROPOSED RESEARCH IS TO INVESTIGATE AROMATIC COMPOUNDS AND RELATEDMOLECULAR SPECI

JANICE BISHOP/SETI INSTITUTE\NCHARACTERIZATION OF MARTIAN SURFACE MINERALOGY\NCHARACTERIZATION OF THE MARTIAN SURFACE VIA ORBIT AND LANDED INVESTIGAT

ANALYSIS AND COMMUNICATION OF PLANETARY PROTECTION ISSUES FOR SOLAR SYSTEM MISSIONS

DETECTION OF COMPLEX, ELECTROMAGNETIC MARKERS OF TECHNOLOGY

ASTROBIOLOGY FOCUSED PLANETARY SCIENCE AND EXPLORA TION INVESTIGATIONS IN TERRESTRAIL ANALOG ENVIRON

DETERMINATION OF HIGHLY ACCURATE ROVIBRATIONAL LINE LISTS FOR METHANE AND ISOTOPOLOGUES THERE IS AN INCREASING NEED FOR HIGHLY ACCURATE ROVIBRATIONAL

WINDBLOWN MINERAL GRAINS AS A SOURCE OF NATURAL TRANSPORT OF BIOLOGICAL CONTAMINATION

INVESTIGATING IRREGULAR VERTICAL STRUCTURES AT THE EDGES OF SATURN'S A AND B RINGS

THIS WORK WILL SUPPORT THE ANALYSIS AN INTERPRETATION OF A DATA FROM THE FIELD STUDY OF MICROBIAL EC

WE PROPOSE AN INVESTIGATION TO TRACK THE ORIGIN AND POSSIBLE MIGRATION HISTORY OF THE ORGANIC MATERIAL PREVIOUSLY FOUND TO BE SIMILAR ON THE SURFACES OF IAPETUS PHOEBE AND HYPERION. VIA THE EXTRACTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE HYDROCARBON SIGNATURE FROM VIMS SPECTRA OF IAPETUS PHOEBE AND HYPERION AND ITS COMPARISON TO THAT OF THE CLOSEST INTERNAL SATELLITE RHEA WE WILL MAP THE LOCATION OF THE MATERIAL OF SIMILAR NATURE IN THE OUTER SATURN SYSTEM. PAST WORK ON THE SPECTRAL SIGNATURE OF THE DARK CARBONACEOUS MATERIAL PRESENT ON THE SURFACES OF IAPETUS PHOEBE AND HYPERION CONFIRMED THE LIKENESS OF THE PHOEBE MATERIAL TO THAT OF THE IAPETUS LEADING HEMISPHERE. AN UNEXPECTED RESULT OF OUR STUDY (DALLE ORE ET AL 2012) IS THE SIMILARITY BETWEEN THE DARK MATERIAL ON THE TRAILING SIDE OF IAPETUS AND THAT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE DARK SUNCUPS ON HYPERION. A POSSIBLE EXPLANATION IS THAT THE MATERIAL MIGHT HAVE MIGRATED FROM ONE SATELLITE TO THE OTHER.

FOR STELLAR ASTROPHYSICS THE ONE MILLION YEAR (MYR) MARK REPRESENTS A CRUCIAL JUNCTURE STRADDLING THE END STAGES OF STAR FORMATION AND THE BEGINNING OF PRE-MAIN SEQUENCE (PMS) EVOLUTION.

WE PROPOSE A FOLLOW UP OF BRUNETTO S WORK BY EXPLORING THE BEHAVIOR OF RELEVANT MIXED ICES CH3OH CH4 H2O N2- UNDER IRRADIATION WITH ENERGETIC H+ IONS AND ELECTRONS.

REU SITE: LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE - ASTROBIOLOGY AT THE SETI INSTITUTE

SINGLE SOURCE NASA AMES LADWP ISFM

FOR THE PAST 15 YEARS, THROUGH COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS NCC 2-1064 (1998-2001), NCC 2-1328 (2002-2005), NNA (2005-2008) AND NNX09AE80A_S09 (2008-2013),

OVER THE PAST DECADE NASA S SPACE TELESCOPES HAVE SCANNED THE SKY FOR EXOPLANET TRANSITS AND OTHER VARIABLE PHENOMENA. FROM KEPLER AND K2 TO THE TRANSITING EXOPLANET SURVEY SATELLITE (TESS) THESE MISSIONS ARE FINDING THOUSANDS OF PLANETS AROUND

THE JUVENTAE CHASMA REGION FEATURES AN EXPANSIVE 5-6 KM DEEP DEPRESSION CONTAINING BRIGHT MOUNTAINS OF SULFATES OUTCROPS OF OLIVINE AND PYROXENE IN THE CHAOTIC TERRAIN TOWARDS THE NORTHERN OUTFLOW AT MAYA VALLIS MASS WASTING (SLUMPS AND RSL) ON A

THE PROPOSED STUDY IS DESIGNED TO ADDRESS TWO HIGH PRIORITY AREAS OF LUNAR RESEARCH INCLUDING IDENTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF VOLATILES IN AND ON THE MOON AND CHARACTERIZATION OF POTENTIAL LANDING SITES .

THE CASSINI DATA SETS HAVE PROVIDED REMARKABLE NEW INSIGHTS ABOUT THE PROCESSES AT WORK AMONG THE RINGS AND SMALL MOONS OF SATURN. GUIDED BY THESE DI

"STUDY OF THE ISM IN EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES: THE INFRARED VIEW"

"AN AUTOMATED METEOROID ORBIT SURVEY TO MEASURE THE FRAGMENTATION HISTORY OF (MOSTLY) DORMANT COMETS IN THE NEAR EARTH OBJECT POPULATION" THIS INVES

THE O/OREOS (ORGANISM/ORGANIC EXPOSURE TO ORBITAL STRESSES) NANOSATELLITE HAS BEEN DEVELOPED AS THE FIRST TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION SPACECRAFT AND FLI

TRACING AROMATIC CARBONS COSMIC EVOLUTIONTHE ORIGIN OF CARBONACEOUS MATTER STARTS WITH THE INJECTION OF ATOMS, MOLECULES AND DUSTINTO INTERSTELLAR

A MAJOR GOAL OF THE NASA PLANETARY SPACE PROGRAM HAS BEEN THE SEARCH FOR LIFE IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. ON MARS, THIS EFFORT HAS BEEN FOCUSED ON THE SUCCE

WE PROPOSE TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF DUST MASS ASSOCIATED WITH SN EJECTA IN YSNRS A FACTOR OF TWO HIGHER WITH ACCURATE DUST MASS FROM SPECTROSCOPIC DATA.

EO14042 CHARACTERIZING AMMONIUM-BEARING MATERIALS TO CONSTRAIN AMMONIUM IN THE REGOLITHS OF ROCKY BODIES IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

THIS PROJECT WILL SUPPORT DIRECTED WORK PACKAGES WITHIN ASTROBIOLOGY FOCUSED ON 1) COMPUTATIONAL STUDIES OF THE ASSEMBLY OF THE EARLIEST COMPONENTS OF METABOLISM TO FURTHER UNDERSTANDING OF THE ORIGIN AND EARLY EVOLUTION OF LIFE ON EARTH AND THE POTENTIAL FOR LIFE TO EMERGE IN OTHER HABITABLE ENVIRONMENTS AND 2) THE SIMULATION OF A VIRTUAL CELL CONTAINING ALL OF THE MAIN METABOLIC PATHWAYS TO SUPPORT THE EMERGENCE AND EARLY PROLIFERATION OF LIFE.

FUNDS ARE REQUESTED TO ESTABLISH A NEXT TC3 CONSORTIUM THAT 1) BRINGS TOGETHER THE ASTEROID SURVEY PROJECTS THAT CAN DETECT SUCH AN ASTEROID AND THE

PROPOSAL TITLE: MARS SIMULATION MEASUREMENTS (MSM): SURVIVABILITY OF ORGANIC MOLECULES ADSORBED ON OR OCCLUDED IN MINERALS UNDER IONIZING RADIATION.

REU SITE: LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE - ASTRONOMY, ASTROBIOLOGY, AND PLANETARY SCIENCE AT THE SETI INSTITUTE

INVESTIGATING THE ORIGIN OF LAYERED OUTCROPS IN THE MAWRTH VALLIS REGION OBJECTIVES: THE MAWRTH VALLIS REGION CONTAINS ONE OF THE LARGEST OUTCROPS OF

THE DATABASE OF BOLIDE EVENTS THAT WAS ESTABLISHED DURING PHASE 1 OF THIS PROJECT IS UNPRECEDENTED IN IT'S SPATIAL COVERAGE COMPLETENESS AND NUMBER OF EVENTS TABULATED. THE WORK PROPOSED IN PHASE 2 IS HIGHLY MERITORIOUS IN THAT IT WILL MATURE THE BOLIDE DETECTION PIPELINE SIGNIFICANTLY ESTABLISH A METHOD TO CORRECTLY CALIBRATE THE SIGNALS AND CONTRIBUTE THE RESULTS OF THE INVESTIGATION TO A PUBLIC DATABASE. THE PROPOSAL TEAM IS UNIQUELY QUALIFIED TO DO THIS WORK GIVEN THE EXPERIENCE IN PHASE 1 AND THEIR SUBSTANTIVE EXPERIENCE WITH OTHER TIME-DOMAIN DATA PROCESSING FOR THE KEPLER K2 AND TESS NASA SPACECRAFT..

22-PDAR22-0005 A GLOBAL GEOLOGIC MAP OF TETHYS

22-ICAR22_2-0003 THE FORMATION AND EVOLUTION OF PREBIOTIC ORGANICS IN EXTRATERRESTRIAL ENVIRONMENTS EXPLORING THE ROLE OF ASTROCHEMISTRY IN THE ORIGIN OF LIFE

THE HARD DENSE SOLID STATE OF MAGMATIC MINERALS IS A MEDIUM IN WHICH ORGANIC SYNTHESIS CAN TAKE PLACE. WHEN MINERALS CRYSTALLIZE FROM MAGMAS LADEN

ULTRA VIOLET RADIATION: THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING EVOLUTION AND SURVIVAL OF LIFE ON EARTH AND BEYOND

JAROSITE SERVES AS AN INDICATOR MINERAL FOR SALTY AND LOW PH ENVIRONMENTS AND ITS DISSOLUTION PRODUCTS PROVIDE A RECORD OF TEMPERATURE PH AND LONGEVITY OF LIQUID WATER ON THE SURFACE OF MARS. JAROSITE AND ITS AL FORM ALUNITE ARE HYDROXYL-SULFATE MINERALS AND CAN BE DETECTED IN THE VISIBLE/NEAR-INFRARED CRISM IMAGES OF MARS THROUGH MULTIPLE SPECTRAL ABSORPTION BANDS. WE PROPOSE TO INVESTIGATE THE OCCURRENCE OF JAROSITE AND ALUNITE OUTCROPS IN SEVERAL LOCATIONS ACROSS MARS IN ORDER TO DETERMINE THE ENVIRONMENTS SUPPORTING THEIR FORMATION ON EARLY MARS AND THEIR PRESERVATION SINCE THEN. JAROSITE AND ALUNITE HAVE BEEN DETECTED FROM ORBIT AT MARS THROUGH ANALYSES OF CRISM IMAGES AT MULTIPLE SITES (E.G. FARRAND ET AL. 2010; WRAY ET AL. 2011 WEITZ ET AL. 2011; THOLLOT ET AL. 2012; EHLMANN ET AL. 2016). SURFACE ANALYSES AT GUSEV CRATER MERIDIANI PLANUM AND GALE CRATER HAVE ALSO SHOWN THE PRESENCE OF JAROSITE (E.G. KLINGELH FER ET AL. 2004; MORRIS ET AL. 2008; BRISTOW ET AL. 2018). OUR PROJECT INCLUDES A PURIFICATION STEP FOR THE CRISM IMAGES BECAUSE THE ORBITAL DETECTIONS OF JAROSITE AND ALUNITE ARE VERY SMALL AND SPECTRA WITH REDUCED NOISE ARE NECESSARY TO PRECISELY DESCRIBE THESE FEATURES. FURTHER WE ARE UTILIZING A NOVEL FEATURE EXTRACTION ALGORITHM TO FACILITATE IDENTIFICATION OF ALL OUTCROPS OF JAROSITE AND ALUNITE AT THE STUDY SITES AND ALSO TO CHARACTERIZE THE ASSOCIATED MINERAL ASSEMBLAGES. WE WILL EVALUATE THE MINERALOGY IN DETAIL FOR THE JAROSITE- AND ALUNITE-BEARING OUTCROPS AT SEVERAL LOCATIONS INCLUDING GALE CRATER COLUMBUS CRATER MAWRTH VALLIS NOCTIS LABYRINTHUS VALLES MARINERIS (AND NEARBY CHASMA) CROSS CRATER JEZERO CRATER AND NE SYRTIS. WE WILL DESCRIBE THE MORPHOLOGY OF THESE UNITS IN HIRISE IMAGERY AND CHARACTERIZE THEIR STRATIGRAPHY USING 3D CRISM/MOLA CRISM/HRSC AND CRISM/HIRISE SCENES. WE WILL ALSO APPLY THE RESULTS OF JAROSITE/ALUNITE STUDIES FROM LAB EXPERIMENTS GEOCHEMICAL MODELING FIELD SITES AND ROVERS DETECTIONS TO MORE FULLY UNDERSTAND THE ORBITAL IDENTIFICATIONS. UNDERSTANDING WHETHER THESE JAROSITE AND ALUNITE OUTCROPS FORMED IN HIGH TEMPERATURE VOLCANIC STEAM ENVIRONMENTS THROUGH ACID FOG DEPOSITION THROUGH ACID ICE REACTIONS IN ACIDIC BRINES FOLLOWING DISSOLUTION OF SULFIDES OR IN SALTY EVAPORATE POOLS WOULD INDICATE GREATLY DIFFERENT GEOCHEMICAL CONDITIONS. BURNS (1988) SUGGESTED THE PRESENCE OF GOSSANS ON MARS AND DEFINED THESE AS ALTERATION ASSEMBLAGES INCLUDING JAROSITE HYDRATED FERRIC OXIDES SILICA AND CLAYS. HE EMPHASIZED THE IMPORTANCE OF THESE MATERIALS FOR UNDERSTANDING MARTIAN GEOCHEMISTRY BY PARAPHRASING JENSEN AND BATEMAN (1979) GOSSANS ARE SIGNPOSTS THAT POINT TO WHAT LIES BENEATH THE SURFACE. THEY ARREST ATTENTION AND INCITE INTEREST AS TO WHAT THEY MAY MASK. THE FINDING OF ONE MAY HERALD THE DISCOVERY OF BURIED WEALTH. ALTERATION OF IGNEOUS SILICATES AND IRON SULFIDES ON MARS THROUGH ACIDIC GROUNDWATER WAS PROPOSED BY BURNS AND COLLEAGUES THROUGH SEVERAL STUDIES TO YIELD JAROSITE ALUNITE AND OTHER MINERALS. ELWOOD MADDEN AND COLLEAGUES HAVE EXTENDED THIS EARLY WORK BY BURNS THROUGH MODELING THE FORMATION CONDITIONS SUPPORTING FORMATION AND DISSOLUTION OF JAROSITE GROUP MINERALS. THESE STUDIES RESULTED IN FORMATION OF JAROSITE TOGETHER WITH IRON OXIDES/HYDROXIDES AND CLAYS ON MARS AS PREDICTED BY BURNS BUT EXPRESS THIS PROCESS USING JAROSITE AS AN INDICATOR MINERAL FOR THE DEGREE OF ALTERATION AND FOR THE EXTENT OF LIQUID WATER AVAILABILITY ON MARS. EXPERIMENTS AND MODELING INDICATE THAT JAROSITE/ ALUNITE WOULD NOT PERSIST LONG TERM ON THE MARTIAN SURFACE IN A LIQUID WATER/BRINE SETTING. THIS COULD EXPLAIN WHY THE OUTCROPS OF JAROSITE AND ALUNITE OBSERVED FROM ORBIT ON MARS ARE RELATIVELY SMALL COMPARED WITH OTHER AQUEOUS OUTCROPS AND WHY THEY OCCUR MIXED WITH IRON OXIDES/HYDROXIDES AND CLAYS. CHARACTERIZING THESE JAROSITE AND ALUNITE MINERAL ASSEMBLAGES WILL LEAD TO INFORMATION ABOUT THE AQUEOUS GEOCHEMISTRY CLIMATE AND HABITABILITY ON MARS.

GROWTH AND REDISTRIBUTION FO CONDENSIBLE MATERIALS IN THE PROTOPLANETARY NEBULATHE EARLIEST STAGES OF PLANETARY FORMATION - GROWTH BY STICKING AND PRIMARY ACCRETION OF 100KM PRIMITIVE BODIES - ARE POORLY UNDERSTOOD AND YET PROFOUNDLY IMPORTANT BECAUSE THE PARTICLES MAKING UP PRIMITIVE (UNMELTED) PLANETESIMALS ACTUALLY WITNESSED THE EARLY PROTOPLANETARY NEBULA AND PROVIDE OUR ONLY GROUND TRUTH ABOUT ITS PROPERTIES. OUR RESEARCH IS SOMEWHAT UNUSUAL BECAUSE IT INTIMATELY COMBINES STATE OF THE ART GLOBAL MODELS OF GROWTH BY STICKING AND RADIAL TRANSPORT OF POROUS AGGREGATE PARTICLES (CONSTRAINED BY LIMITED EXPERIMENTS ON IDEAL MATERIALS) WITH PROBLEM-FOCUSSED STUDIES OF SOME OF THE MOST LONGSTANDING PUZZLES OF METEORITICS. THE PROCESSES OF PHYSICS AND THE PROPERTIES OF METEORITES SPEAK IN TWO DIFFERENT LANGUAGES BUT WE NEED BOTH TO UNDERSTAND THE EARLIEST STAGES OF PLANET FORMATION. UNDERNEATH IT ALL PLANET FORMATION IS GEOLOGY IN THE SENSE THAT IT CAN BE RESISTANT TO CLEAN MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONS. THE TECHNIQUES WE PROPOSE ARE NECESSARILY NUMERICAL WITH PARAMETERS BASED ON PHYSICAL PROCESSES WHICH HAVE SOMETIMES BEEN STUDIED MORE RIGOROUSLY BY OTHERS. THE UNDERLYING PROCESSES CAN BE MESSY AND WE INTRODUCE THEM ONLY WHEN PREVIOUS WORK HAS SHOWN THEM TO HAVE SIGNIFICANT IMPLICATIONS. WE BELIEVE THIS OVERALL PROGRAM REPRESENTS A SIGNIFICANT STEP FORWARD TOWARD REPLACING THE USUAL COSMIC ABUNDANCE MINIMUM MASS NEBULA WITH A MORE REALISTIC INITIAL SETTING FOR PLANET FORMATION.WE PROPOSE FIVE BASIC TASKS DENOTED BY THEIR SECTION NUMBERS: (6.1) IMPLEMENT A FEW KEY PHYSICAL PROCESSES INTO THE CODE INCLUDING EXTERNAL MASS LOSS AND/OR GAIN FROM DISK WINDS OR INFALL; (6.2) STUDY VARIATIONS ON THE PROCESS OF POROUS/FRACTAL GROWTH AND DETERMINE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PRIMARY FORMATION OF PLANETESIMALS; (6.3) STUDY THE TRANSPORT OF ANOMALOUS HEAVY OXYGEN ISOTOPES FROM THE OUTER NEBULA INTO PRIMITIVE CHONDRITES COMPARING MODEL TIMESCALES WITH OBSERVED ONES; (6.4) TEST A NEW HYPOTHESIS FOR THE LONGSTANDING PROBLEM OF THE SYSTEMATIC DEPLETION OF THE MODERATELY VOLATILE ELEMENTS IN CHONDRITES AND PLANETS; (6.5) UNDERSTAND THE SUBSTANTIAL DEPLETION OF CHONDRITES (INCLUDING CARBONACEOUS CHONDRITES) IN CARBON RELATIVE TO COSMIC ABUNDANCE. THE WORK WILL PROVIDE REALISTIC INITIAL CONDITIONS FOR PRIMARY ACCRETION OF PLANETESIMALS AND PLANETS IN THE INNER AND OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM AND A PROTOPLANETARY DISK CONTEXT FOR PRIMITIVE METEORITE PROPERTIES THAT IS NOW LACKING INCLUDING A CONNECTION BETWEEN OBSERVED PROPERTIES AND NEBULA TIMESCALES. IN THE END ON TIMESCALES FAR LONGER THAN THOSE OF THIS PROPOSAL OUR GOAL MUST BE TO EXPLAIN ALL OF THIS GEOLOGY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SAME NEBULA EVOLUTIONARY SCENARIO.

ASSESSING ATMOSPHERIC IMPACTS OF X-RAY AND UV IRRADIATION ON EARTH-LIKE PLANETS IN DIRECTLY IMAGEABLE HABITABLE ZONES

THIS IS A NEW, TWO-YEAR PROPOSAL TO SUPPORT THE WORK OF CIRS CO INVESTIGATOR FOR HIS WORK ON THE CASSINI PROJECT. IT IS A SUCCESSOR TO OUR CURRENT GR

CHARACTERIZATION OF LOW-HYDRATE MG AND FE SULFATES TO SUPPORT THEIR DETECTION ON MARS

THIS REPORT OUTLINES A NEW THREE-YEAR COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT ENTITLED UNDERSTANDING MARS SURFACE PROCESSES. THE PROPOSAL CONTAINS FOUR BROAD TASKS. TA

THE ROSES FUNDING OPPORTUNITY GOALS ARE: 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.

CHONDRITES AND COMETS ARE BELIEVED TO BE THE SOURCES OF WATER VOLATILES (INCLUDING NOBLE GASES) AND ORGANICS TO THE TERRESTRIAL REGION DURING EARLY EPOCHS OF SOLAR SYSTEM FORMATION. THE D/H RATIO OF WATER AND ORGANICS IN THESE BODIES VARIES SIGNIFI

WE PROPOSE TO MAP THE ACTIVITY OF SAND DUNES ON MARS BETWEEN 60 N AND 60 S USING GEOMORPHOLOGICAL CRITERIA SUCH AS SAND AVALANCHE SCARS, MAKING USE

THIS CO OPERATIVE AGREEMENT IS FUNDED FROM THE SUCCESSFUL PROPOSAL NEW LINEAGES OF MICROBIAL ENDOSYMBIONTS OF THE BASIDIOMYCETE EXTREMOPHILE PISOLITH

THE PROPOSED EFFORT SEEKS TO MATURE A FLUORESCENCE MICROSCOPE FOR THE DETECTION OF BIOMARKERS AND STRUCTURAL INDICATORS OF MICROBIAL LIFE IN OCEAN WORLDS. THE LUMINESCENCE IMAGER FOR EXPLORATION (LIFE) INSTRUMENT UTILIZE DEEP-ULTRAVIOLET (DUV) TO IDENTIFY AROMATIC COMPOUNDS AND VISIBLE LIGHT TO EXCITE EXTRINSIC FLUORESCENT PROBES THAT TARGET SPECIFIC CELLULAR COMPONENTS (E.G. LIPIDS DNA ETC.) LIFE WOULD COLLECT SAMPLES ONTO A SUB-MICRON FILTER AND ANALYZE THEM USING FLUORESCENCE IMAGING WITH SUB-MICRON SPATIAL RESOLUTIONS ENABLING THE DETECTION AND QUANTIFICATION OF BACTERIUM-SIZED STRUCTURES.THIS PROPOSAL AIMS TO ADVANCE DEVELOPMENT OF A SOLID-STATE NANOPORE INSTRUMENT (SEQLOW) FOR THE DETECTION AND STUDY OF A BROAD RANGE OF MICROBIAL BIOMARKERS IN OCEAN WORLD ENVIRONMENTS SUCH AS EUROPA. THE SEQLOW INSTRUMENT WOULD USE A SOLID-STATE NANOPORE MEMBRANE PLATFORM DESIGNED FOR THE DETECTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF POLYIONIC ORGANIC POLYMERS DERIVED FROM MICROBIAL LIFE. THESE COULD INCLUDE TERRESTRIAL-LIKE DNA NUCLEOTIDES BUT ALSO NOVEL LINEAR POLYMERS THAT COULD INDICATE LIFE (SUCH AS TNAS AND XNAS).HERITAGE FOR THE PROPOSED INSTRUMENT WOULD BE DERIVED FROM A COMMERCIAL PORTABLE DNA-SEQUENCING PLATFORM (OXFORD NANOPORE'S MINION) ALREADY USED FOR IN SITU FIELD ANALYSIS ON EARTH AND SLATED FOR INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION TESTING. THE INTEGRITY OF THE CURRENT MINION PROTEIN NANOPORE MEMBRANE WOULD BE MADE MORE ROBUST TO SURVIVE LONG DURATION SPACE MISSIONS AS PART OF THIS PROPOSED WORK. THE SEQLOW INSTRUMENT WOULD CONTAIN DIFFERING PORE DIAMETERS FOR DETECTION OF MULTIPLE TYPES OF BIOMARKERS (I.E. DNA CHARGED PROTEINS AMINO ACIDS VIRUSES ETC.) WHICH WOULD BE INTEGRATED INTO A MICROFLUIDIC PLATFORM WITH OPTOELECTRIC DETECTION FOR IN SITU LIFE DETECTION. THE SYSTEM WOULD BE BROUGHT TO A TRL OF 5 AS PART OF THIS WORK.

OBJECTIVES: WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP AND DEPLOY THE FIRST AUTOMATED SURVEY OF METEOROID ELEMENTAL COMPOSITIONS (MG&#039; NA&#039; FE&#039; CA, -.), BY S

CASSINI UVIS DATA PRODUCT ENHANCEMENT AND VISUALIZATION

SCIENCE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES INVESTIGATIONS OF THE SOUTH ISIDIS REGION OF MARS HAVE UNCOVERED ROCKS RICH IN UNALTERED MAFIC MINERALS AS WELL AS A VARIETY OF AQUEOUS ALTERATION MATERIALS. THIS REGION OF MARS IS UNIQUE IN THAT THERE ARE EXPOSED VIEWS OF THE ANCIENT CRUSTAL ROCKS LAVA FLOWS FROM SYRTIS MAJOR ALTERATION FROM THE ISIDIS IMPACT AND MULTIPLE VALLEY NETWORKS STREAM BEDS AND DELTAS. RECENT MORPHOLOGIC AND SPECTROSCOPIC STUDIES USING COORDINATED CRISM-HRSC AND CRISM-HIRISE-CTX IMAGERY HAVE REVEALED STRATIGRAPHIC UNITS CONTAINING PHYLLOSILICATES CARBONATE OLIVINE AND PYROXENE IN ISOLATED REGIONS (E.G. BISHOP ET AL. 2013). WE PROPOSE TO EXTEND THIS WORK ACROSS A BROADER AREA OF LIBYA MONTES AND SOUTH ACROSS TYRRHENA TERRA TOWARDS HELLAS BASIN. SPECIFIC QUESTIONS WE WILL ADDRESS INCLUDE: 1) WHEN AND HOW DID THE PHYLLOSILICATES OPAL CARBONATE ZEOLITE AND PERHAPS SULFATES FORM? 2) HOW WERE THE SURFACE ROCKS ALTERED BY THE SYRTIS FLOW AND THE ISIDIS IMPACT? (AND HOW SIMILAR WERE THE GEOLOGIC PROCESSES AT LIBYA MONTES NILI FOSSAE AND TYRRHENA TERRA?) 3) WHAT WERE THE EFFECTS OF THE AQUEOUS CHANNELS AND DELTAS ON THE SURFACE ROCKS? 4) HOW DID SMALLER CRATERS SUCH AS DULOVO HASHIR BRADBURY LIPANY JERRY-DESLOGES AUKI AND LOPEZ AFFECT THE SURFACE ROCKS? 5) HOW DOES THE SURFACE MINERALOGY ACROSS THE STUDY REGION COMPARE WITH ELEMENTAL ABUNDANCES FROM GRS? AND 6) WHAT EXTENT DOES IMPACT ALTERATION PLAY IN FORMATION OR TRANSFORMATION OF THE MINERALOGY? MORE SPECIFICALLY ARE THE BEIDELLITE AND CHLORITE FORMED THROUGH LOW-TEMPERATURE ALTERATION FROM IMPACTS OR FROM BURIAL DIAGENESIS? METHODOLOGY TASK 1A) WE WILL CONDUCT REGIONAL ANALYSES OF THE SPECTRAL PROPERTIES USING TES THEMIS AND CRISM MULTISPECTRAL IMAGES AND COMPARE THESE WITH TRENDS IN CHEMISTRY FROM GRS AND GRAIN SIZE INDURATION ETC. FROM THERMAL INERTIA DERIVED FROM TES AND THEMIS. TASK 1B) WE WILL ANALYZE ALL TARGETED CRISM IMAGES ACROSS THE LIBYA MONTES AND TYRRHENA TERRA REGIONS FOR DETAILED LOCAL INVESTIGATION OF THE MINERALOGY AND CORRELATION WITH FLUVIAL IMPACT VOLCANIC AND AEOLIAN FEATURES. TASK 2) WE WILL PERFORM AGE DATING AND SURFACE ANALYSES IN ORDER TO GENERATE MAPS OF GEOLOGIC TERRAINS ACROSS THE REGION. TASK 3) WE WILL PREPARE STRATIGRAPHIC VIEWS OF COMPOSITIONAL UNITS USING CRISM OVER CTX/HRSC DTMS WITH ARCSCENE FOR TENS TO 100S OF KM VIEWS CRISM OVER MOLA WITH ENVI FOR 5-10 KM VIEWS AND CRISM OVER HIRISE DTMS FOR THE HIGHEST RESOLUTION AT<3 KM VIEWS. TASK 4) WE WILL SYNTHESIZE THE RESULTS FROM ALL 3 TASKS IN CONTEXT OF WORK BY OTHERS IN THE REGION IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND THE EFFECTS OF VOLCANIC FLUVIAL AND AEOLIAN PROCESSES AND IMPACT CRATERS ON THE MINERALOGY AND SURFACE MORPHOLOGY. THROUGH JOINT ANALYSES OF MULTIPLE DATASETS WE EXPECT TO GAIN A DETAILED UNDERSTANDING OF THE DOMINANT PROCESSES AFFECTING THE REGION PROVIDE A FULLER PICTURE OF THE AQUEOUS GEOCHEMICAL ENVIRONMENT THROUGH TIME DOCUMENT SITES OF LIKELY IMPORTANCE FOR HABITABILITY AND CHARACTERIZE SITES UNDER CONSIDERATION FOR FUTURE LANDING SITES. RELEVANCE OF PROJECT TO MDAP THE PROPOSED STUDY IS RELEVANT TO UNDERSTANDING THE AQUEOUS GEOCHEMISTRY OF MARS INCLUDING WATER-RELATED ALTERATION IN MULTIPLE SITES. THIS INVESTIGATION WILL UTILIZE MULTIPLE DATA SETS TAKEN OF MARS ESPECIALLY FROM THE MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER (MRO) MARS EXPRESS MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR (MGS) AND MARS ODYSSEY WHICH MAKES THE PROPOSED STUDY RELEVANT TO THE MDAP PROGRAM. BECAUSE THE LIBYA MONTES REGION HAS BEEN PROPOSED AS A LANDING SITE INVESTIGATING THIS SITE ALSO SUPPORTS MDAP OBJECTIVES. THE CONTEXT OF THE RESULTS PROVIDED BY THIS STUDY WILL ALSO BE RELEVANT TO THE NUMEROUS LANDING SITES PROPOSED IN THE VICINITY OF THE NILI FOSSAE REGION.

RELIABLE COMPREHENSIVE ATOMIC DATA ARE NEEDED TO QUANTIFY THE TEMPERATURE AND HEAVY-ELEMENT CONTENT OF THE STARS AND GALAXIES THAT GIVE RISE TO OBSERVED FLUXES AND SPECTRA. CURRENTLY FE I LABORATORY MEASUREMENTS OF THE ENERGIES OF ITS HIGH-LYING LEVELS ARE WOEFULLY INCOMPLETE. THE RESULT IS A LARGE NUMBER OF UNIDENTIFIED ABSORPTION LINES IN THE UV AND THE INFRARED. IN THE RED AND INFRARED LINES OF OTHER NEUTRAL ELEMENTS SUCH AS CALCIUM AND SILICON HAVE A SIGNIFICANT PRESENCE AS WELL. WE HAVE MADE SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS ON FE I LINE IDENTIFICATION BY USING HIGH-RESOLUTION HIGH-QUALITY ARCHIVAL ULTRAVIOLET AND OPTICAL SPECTRA OF A DOZEN WARM AND COOL STARS AS THE FE I LABORATORY SOURCE RELYING ON THE WARMER TEMPERATURES OF THESE STARS TO POPULATE HIGHER EXCITATION LEVELS THAN IS POSSIBLE WITH THE NIST LABORATORY FURNACE. WE ESTABLISHED THE IDENTIFICATION AND ENERGY OF 124 PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN FE I LEVELS BY DEMANDING AN EXACT MATCH OF THE POSITIONS OF AT LEAST FOUR KURUCZ PREDICTED LINES OF EACH UNKNOWN LEVEL TO OBSERVED BUT UNIDENTIFIED STELLAR ABSORPTION FEATURES (PETERSON&KURUCZ 2015; PETERSON KURUCZ &AYRES 2017). FOR EACH NEWLY-IDENTIFIED LINE THAT WAS SUFFICIENTLY STRONG AND UNBLENDED WE DETERMINED A SEMI-EMPIRICAL GF-VALUE BY FORCING ITS OBSERVED STRENGTH TO AGREE WITH THAT PREDICTED BY THE SPECTRAL CALCULATIONS FOR EACH RELEVANT STAR. LEVEL IDENTIFICATIONS THEIR ENERGY LEVELS AND THESE GF-VALUES ARE ALL PART OF EACH PUBLICATION AND THE COMPLETE FE I LINE LIST WITH THEORETICAL GF-VALUES IS MADE AVAILABLE ON THE KURUCZ WEB SITE AT THE SAME TIME. HERE WE PROPOSE TO ADD STELLAR INFRARED SPECTRAL COMPARISONS TO OUR ARSENAL TO EXPAND THE ENERGY RANGE OF THE SEARCH FOR LINES OF AN INDIVIDUAL LEVEL. THIS SHOULD ADD ENOUGH LINES TO IDENTIFY A SIZABLE NUMBER OF OTHERWISE INTRACTABLE LEVELS REFINE THE ENERGIES OF OUR PREVIOUS DETERMINATIONS AND CONTRIBUTE RELIABLE GF-VALUES FOR ALL SUFFICIENTLY UNBLENDED INFRARED LINES. OUR GOAL IS TO DOUBLE THE NUMBER OF OUR FE I LEVEL IDENTIFICATIONS WHICH SHOULD ADD IDENTIFICATIONS FOR NEARLY 2000 FEATURES THAT ARE POTENTIALLY DETECTABLE IN SPECTRA FROM THE UV TO THE MID-IR IN THE SUN AND RED GIANTS. WE PLAN TO ADD IDENTIFICATIONS FOR OTHER NEUTRAL SPECIES WHERE FEASIBLE. OUR PROGRAM IS HIGHLY RELEVANT TO THE LABORATORY ASTROPHYSICS SOLICITATION OF APRA. IT IS A SEMI-EMPIRICAL STUDY DESIGNED TO IMPROVE THE QUANTITATIVE UNDERSTANDING OF THE FE I ATOM BY INTERPRETING OBSERVED SOLAR AND STELLAR SPECTRA AS THE "LABORATORY" SOURCE OF FE I FEATURES IN ABSORPTION WITH THEORETICAL MODELING OF THE FE I ATOM AND OF THE SPECTRA THEMSELVES OVER A PANCHROMATIC WAVELENGTH RANGE FROM THE ULTRAVIOLET TO THE PROPOSED INFRARED. OUR INFRARED SPECTRAL OBSERVATIONS AND ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES ARE ALREADY WELL SUITED TO THIS TASK. FIG. 1 OF PETERSON ET AL. (2017) SHOWED THAT OUR ANALYSIS REPRODUCES VERY WELL THE HIGH-QUALITY HIGH-RESOLUTION SPECTRA IN THE H BAND OBTAINED BY OTHERS FOR THREE STARS SPANNING A TEMPERATURE RANGE OF 1500K. IT ALSO ILLUSTRATES HOW THE INFRARED SPECTRA PINPOINT THE POSITIONS OF NEWLY-IDENTIFIED FE I LINES WHICH MORE TIGHTLY CONSTRAINS THE ENERGIES FOR THE CORRESPONDING LEVELS. INFRARED LINE IDENTIFICATIONS ARE PARTICULARLY TIMELY FOR CLARIFICATIONS OF FLUX DISTRIBUTIONS OF INFRARED SOURCES AT VIRTUALLY ALL REDSHIFTS SUCH AS THOSE TO BE CHARACTERIZED WITH SPECTROSCOPY FROM JWST NIRCAM NIRSPEC AND MIRI AND KECK NIRES. IN HIGH-RESOLUTION ECHELLE SPECTRA SUCH AS THOSE FROM HST STIS AND KECK HIRES OUR FINDINGS WILL IMPROVE SUBSTANTIALLY THE MODELING OF INDIVIDUAL STELLAR UV SPECTRAL FEATURES AND THE DEFINITION OF THE UV CONTINUUM ESSENTIALS FOR DERIVING RELIABLE ELEMENTAL ABUNDANCES.

FUNDAMENTAL KNOWLEDGE GAPS EXIST IN OUR BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF THE ORIGIN OF LIFE ON EARTH AND WHAT DISTINGUISHES ABIOTIC FROM BIOTIC PROCESSES. AS WE EXPLORE THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND BEYOND THIS MAY CHALLENGE OUR ABILITY TO POSITIVELY IDENTIFY BIOSIGNATURES AND UNAMBIGUOUSLY CONFIRM A POTENTIAL DISCOVERY. ADDRESSING THESE GAPS DEMANDS THAT WE SYNERGISTICALLY ANALYZE VAST AMOUNTS OF DATA FROM MANY SCIENTIFIC DOMAINS AND ENVISION COUNTLESS PROBABILISTIC OCCURRENCES. THIS MAKES THE FIELD OF BIOSIGNATURE DETECTION AN AREA WHERE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) AND MACHINE LEARNING CAN PROVIDE A CRITICAL SUPPORT TO STANDARD LAB FIELD AND THEORETICAL APPROACHES AND SIGNIFICANTLY SPEED UP BREAKTHROUGH DISCOVERIES. AS A RESULT WE PROPOSE TO LEVERAGE THE PROVEN NASA FRONTIERS DEVELOPMENT LAB (FDL) FORMULA TO ADVANCE KNOWLEDGE IN THE FIELD OF BIOSIGNATURE DETECTION. FDL IS AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) APPLIED RESEARCH ACCELERATOR AND A PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER AND THE SETI INSTITUTE. INITIATED TWO YEARS AGO THIS HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM IS AN INTENSE 8-WEEK WORKSHOP THAT TACKLES KNOWLEDGE GAPS IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY BY PAIRING MACHINE LEARNING EXPERTS WITH ASTRONOMY AND PLANETARY SCIENCE EXPERTS. WITH THE PROPOSAL HEREIN WE SEEK FUNDING FOR TWO INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAMS TO JOIN FDL 3.0 IN 2018 AND ADDRESS TWO FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS RELATING TO OUR ABILITY TO RECOGNIZE THE SIGNATURES OF LIFE ON AND BEYOND EARTH: THE FIRST QUESTION RELATES TO THE ELEMENTAL ARCHITECTURE OF LIFE AND THE LIKELIHOOD FOR A GIVEN CHEMICAL MIXTURE TO HAVE BEEN PRODUCED BY BIOLOGY. THE SECOND QUESTION ALSO TESTS OUR ABILITY TO RECOGNIZE THE SIGNATURES OF LIFE BUT THIS TIME IN THE CONTEXT OF EXOPLANETS AND THE TYPES AND COMBINATIONS OF BIOHINTS THAT MAY REPRESENT DEFINITIVE BIOSIGNATURES. ADDRESSING THESE THEMES HAS DIRECT RELEVANCE TO NASA STRATEGIC PLAN OBJECTIVES 1.5 NASA'S PROGRAM ELEMENTS C5 EXOBIOLOGY AND C11 DISCOVERY DATA ANALYSIS KEPLER/K2 THE NASA ASTROBIOLOGY STRATEGY (2015) - AND IN PARTICULAR CAN HELP ADVANCE THE QUESTIONS OF THEMES 4 5 AND 7. IT IS ALSO RELEVANT TO THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL "VISION AND VOYAGES": MARS BIOSIGNATURES (BOX 6.2) AND SATELLITES: ACTIVE WORLDS AND EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS: OBJECTIVE 4: IS THERE EVIDENCE FOR LIFE ON THE SATELLITES OF GIANT PLANETS?

SCIENTIFIC GOAL AND OBJECTIVES: THE SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVE OF THIS OBSERVING PROGRAM IS TO CHARACTERIZE THE MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF NEAR EARTH OBJECTS (NEO) AND THE MAIN BELT ASTEROID FAMILIES THAT THEY TRACE BACK TO. THE GOAL IS TO DEVELOP THE TECHNOLOGY NEEDED TO GREATLY SCALE UP THE MEASUREMENT OF PRE-ATMOSPHERIC ORBITS OF METEORITE FALLS. THE RESULTING ORBITAL ELEMENTS FOR DIFFERENT METEORITE TYPES WILL BE COMPARED TO DYNAMICAL MODELS OF THE ORBITAL EVOLUTION OF SMALL (10-300 CM SIZED) ASTEROIDS FROM MAIN BELT TO NEO ORBITS IN ORDER TO STATISTICALLY DETERMINE THE LIKELIHOOD THAT A METEORITE ORIGINATES FROM A GIVEN ASTEROID FAMILY. METHODS: A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF DESERT FIREBALL NETWORK CAMERAS ARE AVAILABLE FOR DEPLOYMENT IN THE ARID REGIONS OF THE UNITED STATES FROM THE AUSTRALIAN PARTNER OF NASA'S SERVII PROGRAM. THESE ARE MODIFIED DIGITAL STILL CAMERAS WITH ALL-SKY OBJECTIVES AND A LIQUID CRYSTAL SHUTTER THAT HAVE PROVEN TO GENERATE SUPERIOR FIREBALL TRAJECTORIES AND ORBITS. SUPPORT IS REQUESTED TO DEPLOY AND MANAGE THIS NETWORK IN THE UNITED STATES. IN ORDER TO GREATLY SCALE UP THE RECOVERY OF METEORITES FROM SUCH NETWORKS CAMERA SYSTEMS WILL BE DEVELOPED AND DESIGNED TO FUNCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE DESERT FIREBALL NETWORK CAMERAS THAT CAN TRACK THE FIREBALL FRAGMENTS TO THE GROUND AND HELP FIND METEORITES IN THE LOCAL TERRAIN. SPECIFICALLY A TELESCOPIC CAMERA SYSTEM WILL BE DEVELOPED THAT RAPIDLY SLEWS TO THE METEOR AND RECORDS BOTH STAR BACKGROUND AND METEOR FRAGMENTS AT HIGH FRAME RATE. THAT DATA WILL BE TRIANGULATED AND METEORITE IMPACT LOCATIONS ON THE GROUND CALCULATED. THE TECHNOLOGY FOR FINDING METEORITES USING DRONES EQUIPPED WITH DEEP-LEARNING ALGORITHMS WILL BE FURTHER DEVELOPED. RELEVANCE: THE PROPOSED WORK IS TO CONDUCT A PROGRAM OF GROUND-BASED ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS THAT CONTRIBUTES TO UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE AND EVOLUTION OF SMALL 0.1-3M SIZED NEAR EARTH OBJECTS. THE PROPOSED WORK IS THE MOST DIRECT APPROACH POSSIBLE SHORT OF SAMPLE RETURN FROM KNOWN ASTEROIDS TO IDENTIFY WHAT METEORITES SAMPLE NEAR EARTH OBJECTS THAT EVOLVED FROM THE SAME SOURCE REGIONS.

THE FORMATION OF EXOPLANETARY SYSTEMS IS CONTINGENT ON THE AVAILABILITY OF RAW MATERIAL IN THE PARENT DISK ENVIRONMENT. THE TYPE OF PLANET FORMED (ROCKY OR GASEOUS) AT A PARTICULAR LOCATION IS EXPECTED TO DEPEND ON THE RELATIVE MASSES OF GAS AND DUST IN THE DISK. MOREOVER CURRENT THEORIES ARGUE FOR A DECREASE IN THE GAS/SOLIDS RATIO TO ENABLE THE FIRST CRITICAL STAGES OF PLANETESIMAL FORMATION. DUST EMISSION IS NOW KNOWN TO DECLINE WITH SYSTEM AGE. RECENT SURVEYS FOR STAR-FORMING REGIONS FURTHER INDICATE THAT THE DUST IN DISKS UNDERGOES EVOLUTION IN ACCORDANCE WITH WHAT IS EXPECTED THEORETICALLY. HOWEVER TRACKING THE GAS MASS HAS BEEN FAR MORE DIFFICULT WITH THE HITHERTO RELIABLE CO COMPONENT BEING FROZEN ON GRAINS AND PERHAPS SUBJECT TO CHEMICAL EFFECTS. WE PROPOSE TO USE NEW UPTO- DATE DISK CHEMICAL MODELS THAT INCLUDE ISOTOPE SELECTIVE PHOTO-DISSOCIATION AND GRAIN CHEMISTRY TO ESTIMATE THE MASS OF GAS IN DISKS. WE WILL ALSO RE-VISIT CONTINUUM-BASED ESTIMATES OF DUST MASS FROM EXTANT SURVEYS. FROM INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENTS OF THE TWO WE WILL COMPARE THE INFERRED GAS/SOLIDS MASS RATIO IN DISKS WITH DISK EVOLUTION AND PLANET FORMATION THEORIES. WE WILL THUS EVALUATE HOW THE MASS RESERVOIR IN PROTO-PLANETARY DISKS EVOLVES DURING PLANET FORMATION EPOCHS. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH IS DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO IMPROVING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE ORIGINS OF EXOPLANETARY SYSTEMS AND OF THE COMPOSITION OF EXOPLANETS (PREDOMINANTLY ROCKY ICY OR GASEOUS) AND HENCE ALIGNED WITH THE OBJECTIVES OF THE NASA EXOPLANETS RESEARCH PROGRAM.

ECLIPSING BINARY STARS ARE ONE OF THE FOUNDATIONS UPON WHICH STELLAR ASTROPHYSICS IS BUILT.

THE WFIRST MISSION IS NOW ENVISIONED TO INCLUDE A CORONAGRAPH FOR THE PURPOSE OF DIRECT DETECTION OF NEARBY EXOPLANETS, INCLUDING PLANETS KNOWN TO E

REU SITE: LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE - ASTRONOMY, ASTROBIOLOGY, AND PLANETARY SCIENCE AT THE SETI INSTITUTE -THIS PROJECT IS A RENEWAL OF A REU SITE AT THE SETI INSTITUTE (SI) WITH A FOCUS ON ASTRONOMY AND PLANETARY SCIENCE, WITH A CONNECTING THEME OF ASTROBIOLOGY. PARTICIPANTS WILL DEVELOP THE RESEARCH METHODS AND ANALYTICAL SKILLS (MATHEMATICAL, COMPUTATIONAL, AND LOGICAL) NECESSARY TO PROCESS DATA, UNDERSTAND PRIMARY RESEARCH, AND TO REMAIN CURRENT WITH NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE FIELD. BY OFFERING HIGH-QUALITY RESEARCH EXPERIENCES TO STUDENTS AT A CRITICAL STAGE OF UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION, THE REU SITE WILL CONTRIBUTE TO INCREASING THE NATIONWIDE POOL OF SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS. UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS WILL BE PAIRED WITH SI SCIENTISTS TO CONDUCT RESEARCH INTO A VARIETY OF TOPICS, INCLUDING EXOPLANETS, ASTEROIDS, COMET AND METEORS, MARS SURFACE SCIENCE, SATURN?S RINGS, THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM, AND ASTROBIOLOGY. IN ADDITION, ALL PARTICIPANTS WILL SPEND A WEEK LEARNING ABOUT RADIO ASTRONOMY AT THE ALLEN TELESCOPE ARRAY, STUDYING AN EXTREMOPHILE RESEARCH SITE AT NEARBY LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK, AND STUDYING HABITABILITY AND LIFE DETECTION AT COASTAL FIELD SITES. THE STUDENTS PARTICIPATE IN A WEEKLY JOURNAL CLUB AND GROUP MEETING, IN WHICH STUDENTS PRACTICE PRESENTATION SKILLS AND SHARE THEIR ONGOING EXPERIENCES WITH EACH OTHER. THEY ALSO GIVE FINAL RESEARCH TALKS TO A LARGER AUDIENCE. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.- SUBAWARDS ARE NOT PLANNED FOR THIS AWARD.

REU SITE: LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE - ASTRONOMY AND PLANETARY SCIENCE AT THE SETI INSTITUTE

COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF PERIOD CHANGES IN ECLIPSING BINARIES AS A PROBE OF STELLAR ASTROPHYSICS -A NATURAL AND VERY COMMON PRODUCT OF STAR FORMATION PROCESSES, BINARY STARS PROVIDE A VITAL FOUNDATION OF STELLAR STUDIES AS CALIBRATORS FOR STELLAR SIZES, MASSES, TEMPERATURES, AND LUMINOSITIES. THEY ALSO SERVE AS PROBES FOR STELLAR STRUCTURE, FORMATION AND EVOLUTION, TIDAL INTERACTIONS, AND OTHER MORE SPECIALIZED FIELDS SUCH AS ACCRETION PHYSICS, ASTEROSEISMOLOGY, RESONANT DYNAMICS, AND THE FORMATION AND EVOLUTION OF EXOPLANETS IN MULTIPLE STAR SYSTEMS. ECLIPSING BINARIES ARE A SPECIAL GROUP OF BINARY STARS, IN WHICH THE TWO STARS PERIODICALLY ECLIPSE EACH OTHER, PRODUCING VARIATIONS IN THEIR LIGHT CURVES. A TEAM OF SCIENTISTS AT THE SETI INSTITUTE AND AT SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY WILL PERFORM AN ANALYSIS OF DEVIATIONS FROM THE REGULAR, PERIODIC BEHAVIOR IN THIS SPECIAL TYPE OF BINARY STARS. DEVIATIONS CAN BE INTRODUCED BY THE PRESENCE OF PLANETS AND BY ROTATION AND TIDAL FORCES. BY INVESTIGATING THESE DEVIATIONS, THE TEAM WILL BE ABLE TO CONSTRAIN THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF EACH COMPONENT STAR, PROVIDING UNIQUE CONSTRAINTS TO IMPROVE CURRENT STELLAR STRUCTURE MODELS. IN ADDITION, THE TEAM WILL CREATE A SET OF 3-DAYS WORKSHOPS FOR STEM TEACHERS, IN COLLABORATION WITH EXISTING NATIONAL EDUCATION OUTREACH PROGRAMS THAT PARTNER ASTRONOMERS WITH TEACHERS IN GRADES 3 TO 9. THE WORKSHOPS WILL PROVIDE HANDS-ON PROJECT-BASED LEARNING WITH AN OVERARCHING THEME OF ECLIPSES AND TRANSITS. THE PROJECT PLAN HAS THREE COMPONENTS: 1) MEASURE DECADES-LONG PERIOD CHANGES FOR HUNDREDS OF ECLIPSING BINARIES; 2) CONSTRAIN THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF EACH STAR IN SUITABLE BINARIES; 3) PROBE FOR THE PRESENCE OF ADDITIONAL BODIES (STARS, CIRCUMBINARY PLANETS). THE INVESTIGATORS WILL USE ALL AVAILABLE PHOTOMETRIC DATA FROM GROUND- AND SPACE-BASED ARCHIVES FOR HUNDREDS OF KNOWN ECLIPSING BINARIES. FURTHERMORE, THEY WILL USE A STATE-OF-THE-ART MODELING CODE THAT PREDICTS THE MEASURED ECLIPSE TIMES BASED ON THE ORBITAL CONFIGURATION OF THE PARTICULAR SYSTEM AND THE PROPERTIES OF ITS COMPONENTS, AS WELL AS ON THE CORRESPONDING TIDAL AND GENERAL RELATIVITY EFFECTS. PRESENTLY, PERIOD CHANGES IN CERTAIN BINARIES ARE USED TO MEASURE THE AVERAGE APSIDAL MOTION CONSTANT OF THE BINARY. THIS PROJECT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO MEASURE THE APSIDAL MOTION CONSTANTS OF EACH STAR IN A MUCH LARGER SAMPLE. THIS WILL BE MADE POSSIBLE BY USING ECLIPSE TIMES MEASURED OVER MANY DECADES. THIS IS CRITICAL BECAUSE THE PRECESSION TIMESCALES ARE MUCH LONGER THAN THE ORBITAL PERIOD OF THE BINARIES AND, AS A RESULT, THEIR DETECTION OFTEN REQUIRES PHOTOMETRIC OBSERVATIONS SPANNING DECADES. STUDYING A LARGE SAMPLE OF ECLIPSING BINARIES COVERING DIFFERENT STELLAR TYPES AND ENVIRONMENTS WILL ALSO ADVANCE THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE PHYSICS OF BINARY INTERACTIONS, LEADING TO A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF TIDAL FORCES, MIGRATION, SPIN-ORBIT COUPLING, AND MASS TRANSFER. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.

"PREBIOTIC SYNTHESIS OF AUTOCATALYTIC AND SELF-REPLICATING MOLECULES FROM SUGARS AS THE PRIMARY CARBON SUBSTRATE" IN A GENERAL WAY, LIFE COULD BE DES

THE VOYAGER FLYBYS REMAIN OUR BEST SOURCE OF DATA FOR THE URANUS AND NEPTUNE SYSTEMS AND PROVIDE KEY REFERENCE POINTS FOR CONTINUING STUDIES OF JUPI

23-SSW23-0086 DYNAMICAL HISTORY OF THE URANIAN MOONS

THE PURPOSE OF OUR PROPOSED RESEARCH IS TO INVESTIGATE THE FORMATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF ICES AND ORGANIC MOLECULES IN SPACE. SINCE TONS OF ORGANIC M

23-XRP23_2-0145 TRANSITING EXOPLANET SCIENCE WITH A GLOBAL NETWORK OF SMALL GROUND-BASED TELESCOPES

WE PROPOSE AN INVESTIGATION OF THE H2O ICE PHASE ON THE SURFACES OF MIMAS, TETHYS, AND DIONE USING SPATIALLY RESOLVED NEAR-INFRARED SPECTRAL MAPS OBT

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

PRIMITIVE CHONDRITE PARENT BODIES APPARENTLY ACCRETED OVER SEVERAL MYR, IN WHICH TIME MODELS AND OBSERVATIONS TELL US THE NEBULA GAS ITSELF EVOLVED S

THE EXTRAORDINARY INFRARED INSTRUMENTS ON THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE JWST WILL TRANSFORM THE FIELD OF COSMIC SPECTROSCOPY. WE PROPOSE TO SUPPLY THE ASTRONOMICAL COMMUNITY WITH THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL SPECTRA OF A WIDE RANGE OF POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS PAHS AND PAH CLUSTERS AND TO USE OUR IR ABSORPTION SPECTRA TO CALCULATE EMISSION SPECTRA THAT WILL BE CRUCIAL IN INTERPRETING THE NEW OBSERVATIONAL DATA.THE INFRARED SPACE OBSERVATORY AND SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPES HAVE SHOWN THAT THE MID IR EMISSION SPECTRUM OF THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM IS DOMINATED BY STRONG BANDS AT MICRONS SUPERIMPOSED UPON BROAD UNDERLYING PLATEAUS GENERALLY ATTRIBUTED TO PAHS PAH CLUSTERS AND VERY SMALL GRAINS. DESPITE THE LIMITED SPECTRAL AND SPATIAL RESOLUTION OF THESE DATA DETAILED ANALYSIS HAS REVEALED THAT EACH BAND IS IN FACT A BLEND OF MULTIPLE EMISSION FEATURES. SUBTLE VARIATIONS IN THE BAND BLENDING CAN BE DETECTED EVEN FOR SPECTRA MEASURED AT DIFFERENT POSITIONS WITHIN A SINGLE ASTRONOMICAL SOURCE. THESE VARIATIONS CAN BE SEEN TO ARISE FROM MULTIPLE PAH AND PAH RELATED CARRIERS THAT ARE EACH RESPONDING DIFFERENTLY TO THE LOCAL PHYSICAL CONDITIONS. THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE HAS NEAR IR AND MID IR INSTRUMENTS NIRSPEC AND MIRI WITH AN EXTREMELY HIGH SPECTRAL RESOLUTION SPATIAL RESOLUTION AND SENSITIVITY THAT WILL REVOLUTIONIZE INFRARED ASTRONOMY. THESE INSTRUMENTS WILL PROVIDE SPATIAL MAPS ON A SUB ARCSECOND SCALE WITH AN UNPRECEDENTED LEVEL OF SPECTRAL DETAIL ALLOWING DETAILED STUDY OF THE INTERRELATIONSHIP OF THE INDIVIDUAL COMPONENTS WITHIN EACH EMISSION BAND. THIS WILL PROVIDE A CRITICAL INSIGHT INTO THE MOLECULAR CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EMITTING SPECIES AND THEIR PHOTOCHEMICAL EVOLUTION IN SPACE.EXPLOITATION OF THESE ASTRONOMICAL SPECTRA REQUIRES FUNDAMENTAL DATA ON POTENTIAL EMITTING SPECIES THAT FULLY ACCOUNT FOR ALL ASTROPHYSICALLY RELEVANT MATERIALS. OVER THE LAST TWO DECADES SPECTRA OF NEUTRAL AND CHARGED PAHS HAVE BEEN CALCULATED USING QUANTUM THEORY. DUE TO COMPUTATIONAL LIMITATIONS THIS DATA SET IS BIASED TOWARDS SMALLER OR HIGHLY SYMMETRIC SPECIES. IN ADDITION CONTINUED ANALYSIS OF THE MID IR EMISSION BANDS BY SEVERAL RECENT SPITZER STUDIES HAS DEMONSTRATED THAT PAHS AND PAH CLUSTERSWITH LESS SYMMETRIC STRUCTURES CONTAINING BAY REGIONS ARE MORE IMPORTANT FOR UNDERSTANDING THE IR EMISSION BANDS THAN HAD PREVIOUSLY BEEN REALIZED. THE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE INFRARED DATA SET ON LESS SYMMETRIC PAHS AND PAH CLUSTERS IS INSUFFICIENT TO EXPLOIT THE ASTRONOMICAL DATA.ADVANCES IN COMPUTING POWER NOW ALLOW SPECTRA FOR A MUCH WIDER RANGE OF SPECIES TO BE CALCULATED. IN SUPPORT OF THE ANALYSIS OF SPITZER DATA AND THE UPCOMING JWST MISSION WE THEREFORE PROPOSE TO CALCULATE THE 3 20 MICRON SPECTRA OF ISOLATED AS WELL AS CLUSTERED NEUTRAL AND CHARGED PAHS CONTAINING UP TO 150 CARBON ATOMS AND WITH A WIDE RANGE OF COMPACT STRUCTURES AND ERODED STRUCTURES WITH IRREGULAR SHAPES CONTAINING BAY REGIONS COVES AND FJORDS. THESE THEORETICAL DATA WILL BE VALIDATED BY A DEDICATED LABORATORY STUDY OF PAH SPECIES AND THEIR CLUSTERS. THESE IR ABSORPTION SPECTRA WILL BE USED TO CALCULATE EMISSION SPECTRA THAT CAN BE DIRECTLY COMPARED TO EXISTING ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS AND THAT WILL BE USED TO GUIDE OUR QUANTUM CHEMICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ONRELEVANT SPECIES FOR SUPPORT OF EARLY RELEASE SCIENCE PROPOSALS FOR JWST.

23-EW23-0042 TURBULENT CONCENTRATION AND THE FIRST PLANETESIMALS

THE GOAL OF THE NASA'S ASTROBIOLOGY PROGRAM IS THE STUDY OF THE ORIGINS EVOLUTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE. IT IS CENTRAL TO NASA'S CONTINUED EXPLORATION OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM AND BEYOND. RESEARCH IS CENTERED ON THE ORIGIN AND EARLY E

THE GOAL OF OUR PROPOSED RESEARCH IS TO FURTHER INVESTIGATE THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF THE DARK MATERIAL(S) ON THE SATELLITES OF SATURN. WE PLAN TO ACH

THE CENTRAL OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS: PERFORM UNIFORM STATE-OF-THE-ART LIGHTCURVE MODELING WITH KEPLER'S LIST OF PLANETARY CANDIDATES (KEPLER O

STUDIES OF ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR OPACITY IN ASTROPHYSICAL ENVIRONMENTS AND THE APPLICATION TO COMPUT ,

EVOLUTION OF PREBIOTIC CHEMICAL COMPLEXITY: DISK MODELING THE GOAL OF THIS NAI TEAM IS TO UNDERSTAND CHEMICAL PROCESSES AT EVERY STAGE IN THE EVOLUTI

THE MOLECULAR INVENTORY OF THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM (ISM) IS VITALLY IMPORTANT FOR UNDERSTANDING NUMEROUS INTERSTELLAR PHENOMENA SUCH AS THE COLLAPSE OF DENSE CLOUDS TO PRODUCE NEW STARS (VANHALA & CAMERON 1998)

FUNDING FOR THIS COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT PROPOSAL IS BASED ON THE SUCCESSFUL ROSES 2011 SOLICITATIONS NNH11ZDA001N 11-OSS-0134 AND NH11ZDA001N 11-PATM1

I PROPOSE TO STUDY THE OXIDATIVE STRESS RESPONSE OF CELLS TO KEY PLANETARY CONDITIONS THAT LIMIT THE PRESENCE OF LIFE: RADIATION, EXTREME TEMPERATURE

SCIENCE OBJECTIVES: THE CLASSIC PERCEPTION OF AEOLIAN TRANSPORT IS GRAIN MOTION BY SALTATION. HOWEVER STUDIES SUGGEST THAT IN DENSE ATMOSPHERES ON VENUS AND TITAN ROLLING AND SKIPPING ARE SIGNIFICANT WHILE IN THIN ATMOSPHERES SUCH AS MARS SALTATION REPTATION AND SALTATION/REPTATION HYBRID TRANSPORT MODES ARE DOMINANT. AT ONE END OF THE SPECTRUM AERODYNAMIC FORCES ARE ALMOST 100% IN CONTROL (E.G. VENUS) WHILE AT THE OTHER END OF THE SPECTRUM (E.G. MARS) BALLISTIC GRAIN INTERACTIONS PLAY A HUGELY IMPORTANT ROLE IN GOVERNING TRANSPORT MODES. MUCH OF THE INFORMATION ABOUT COMPARATIVE TRANSPORT MODES FROM EXPERIMENTS HAS NOT BEEN SYSTEMATICALLY DOCUMENTED HAS ONLY BEEN MODELED OR ACQUIRED ANECDOTALLY. OUR GOAL THEREFORE IS TO CONDUCT AN INTEGRATED AND SYSTEMATIC EXPERIMENTAL (WIND TUNNEL) STUDY OF THE RELATIVE ROLES OF AERODYNAMIC VERSUS BALLISTIC TRANSPORT MODES FOR A RANGE OF PLANETARY ENVIRONMENTS. AT PRESENT IT IS UNKNOWN AS TO WHETHER THE PHYSICS OF TRANSPORT DIFFERS ONLY BY DEGREE BETWEEN DIFFERENT AEOLIAN REGIMES OR IF IT IS RADICALLY DIFFERENT BETWEEN THEM. A PRIMARY GOAL OF THE PROJECT IS TO DEVELOP #FOR WIND TUNNEL PLANETARY SIMULATIONS #A SIMILITUDE PARAMETER APPROPRIATE FOR AEOLIAN GRAINS THAT ACTS AS AN EQUIVALENT TO THE REYNOLD#S NUMBER (WHICH IS ONLY APPROPRIATE FOR THE GAS FLOW). METHODOLOGY: EXPERIMENTS WILL BE CONDUCTED IN THE PLANETARY AEOLIAN LABORATORY (PAL) AT NASA AMES USING THE MARS WIND TUNNEL AND THE TITAN (FORMERLY VENUS) WIND TUNNEL. EXTENSIVE VIDEOGRAPHY WILL BE APPLIED TO DETERMINE THE RATIO BETWEEN AERODYNAMIC (A) AND BALLISTIC (B) TRANSPORT IN RELATION TO THE APPLIED VARIABLES. EXPERIMENTS WILL TEST A WIDE RANGE OF VARIABLES (GRAIN SIZE GRAIN DENSITY GAS DENSITY WIND SPEED ETC) WITH A PASSIVE TEST MATRIX THAT INVESTIGATES PARAMETER SPACE AND AN ACTIVE TEST MATRIX THAT IS PLANETARY-SPECIFIC. A SPLIT-BED METHOD OF TESTING WILL BE INTRODUCED IN ORDER TO COMPENSATE FOR WEIGHT-VERSUS-INERTIA PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN WIND TUNNELS. FROM THESE TESTS WE WILL ACQUIRE A/B RATIOS THAT CAN BE USED TO DERIVE A SIMILITUDE PARAMETER MODEL APPROPRIATE FOR CALIBRATING FUTURE WIND TUNNEL SIMULATIONS OF PLANETARY CONDITIONS. SIGNIFICANCE: AEOLIAN PROCESSES HAVE MANIFESTATIONS ON MARS EARTH TITAN VENUS TRITON AND PERHAPS ON COMETS SUCH AS 67P/ CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO AND PLUTO; THEIR UBIQUITY UNDER SUCH DIVERSE CONDITIONS MAKES THEM IMPORTANT TO STUDY AND OF DIRECT RELEVANCE/SIGNIFICANCE FOR NASA. IN PARTICULAR AN UNDERSTANDING OF WHY THESE VARIOUS SYSTEMS ARE SIMILAR AND WHY THEY ARE ALSO DIFFERENT IS A CORE PRINCIPLE OF COMPARATIVE PLANETOLOGY A FOUNDATION OF NASA'S PLANETARY EXPLORATION. THIS WORK WILL BE THE FIRST SYSTEMATIC AND COMPREHENSIVE PLANETARY INVESTIGATION OF WHAT WE REFER TO AS THE A-B RATIO --THE FLUX RATIO OF AERODYNAMICALLY-DRIVEN TO BALLISTICALLY-DRIVEN GRAINS THAT DEFINES THE CHARACTER OF AEOLIAN TRANSPORT. PLANETARY COMPARISONS REQUIRE A PHYSICAL BASIS -SOME GOVERNING BEHAVIORAL LAWS THAT ENABLE SUCH COMPARISON. SEDIMENTARY GEOLOGY USES SIMILITUDE PARAMETERS SUCH AS FROUDE REYNOLDS MACH NUMBERS ETC. WHICH CHARACTERIZE THE FLUID FLOW IN AEOLIAN ENVIRONMENTS INCLUDING WIND TUNNELS. THERE IS NO SIMILITUDE PARAMETER FOR GRANULAR MATERIAL IN WIND TUNNEL INVESTIGATIONS. THIS WORK HAS A GOAL OF DEFINING A SIMILITUDE PARAMETER WITH UNIVERSAL APPLICABILITY TO THE DESIGN AND INTERPRETATION OF WIND TUNNEL EXPERIMENTS.

EXTENDED SUPPORT FOR THE CHEMIN MINERALOGICAL INSTRUMENT DURING THE MARS SCIENCE LABORATORY (MSL11) MISSION: EXPERIMENT PLANNING DATA ANALYSIS AND MISSION OPERATIONSTHIS PROPOSAL IS TO SUPPORT DR. PHILIPPE SARRAZINS ACTIVITIES AS CO-I OF THE CHEMIN MINERALOGICALINSTRUMENT THAT IS PART OF THE MARS SCIENCE LABORATORY (MSL) ROVER CURIOSITY DURING THEEXTENDED MISSION ON THE MARS SURFACE.DR. SARRAZIN WAS A NAMED CO-I ON THE ORIGINAL CHEMIN INSTRUMENT PROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO THEMSL MISSION ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY AND HIS INCLUSION WAS VALIDATED AT THAT TIME BY DR. MICHAEL MEYER MARS PROGRAM SCIENTIST AT NASA HEADQUARTERS. FUNDING FOR DR. SARRAZIN FOR THE DURATION OF PHASE E WHICH IS DETAILED IN THE CHEMIN EOP HAS BEEN VALIDATED BY THE MARS PROGRAM OFFICE AND BY DR. MICHAEL MEYER MARS PROGRAM SCIENTIST AT NASA HEADQUARTERS.

AN ORBITAL ELEMENT SURVEY OF NEAR-EARTH LONG-PERIOD COMETS

WE PROPOSE TO INVESTIGATE THE PROPERTIES DYNAMICS AND EVOLUTION OF SATURN'S FAINT DUSTY RINGS COMBINING CASSINI ISS VIMS AND CIRS DATA. SUCH RING

UNDERSTANDING THE CHEMICAL NATURE OF HAZE PARTICLES IN THE ATMOSPHERES OF TITAN AND SATURN AND MATERIALS ON THE SURFACE OF THE SATURN SYSTEM BODIES I

SCIENCE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES: THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS WORK IS TO STUDY THE DIVERSITY OF PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF MM-CM SIZED COMETARY DUST BOTH THE DIVERSITY OF MATERIALS WITHIN COMETS AND FROM ONE COMET TO THE NEXT. THE PROPOSED WORK STUDIES THE MM-CM SIZED MATERIAL CREATED DURING LATE STAGES OF SOLAR NEBULA ACCRETION WHICH ARE THEN COLLECTED TO MAKE MUCH LARGER BODIES. THIS WORK IS LIKELY TO DEMONSTRATE THAT SUCH MATERIALS GAINED DIFFERENT PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES AT DIFFERENT PLACES IN THE SOLAR NEBULA FROM SOLAR NEBULA PROCESSES OR DURING COMET FORMATION. METHODOLOGY: SHORT OF SAMPLE RETURN THE COHESION AND ELEMENTAL COMPOSITIONS OF MM-CM SIZED COMETARY MATTER CAN ONLY BE STUDIED BY METEOR OBSERVATIONS. METEOROID COHESION AND ELEMENTAL COMPOSITIONS CAN BE DERIVED FROM METEOR LIGHTCURVES AND SPECTRA. THE CAMERAS FOR ALLSKY METEOR SURVEILLANCE (CAMS) PROJECT MEASURED OVER 250 000 METEOR LIGHTCURVES AND TRAJECTORIES IN THE PERIOD 2011-2015. THE LIGHTCURVES MEASURED THE MANNER IN WHICH THESE GRAINS FRAGMENT WHILE ENTERING EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE. THE TRAJECTORIES IDENTIFY THE SOURCE: A RANGE OF JUPITER-FAMILY AND OORT-CLOUD COMETS THAT PASS NEAR EARTH'S ORBIT INCLUDING SOME ACTIVE ASTEROIDAL OBJECTS SUCH AS 3200 PHAETHON. AN ASSOCIATED SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY COLLECTED OVER 1 000 METEOR SPECTRA OF THESE SAME SOURCES WHICH WILL PROVIDE MAIN-ELEMENT ABUNDANCES. THE PROPOSED WORK WILL ANALYZE THIS DATA. THIS WILL REQUIRE NEW MODELS OF METEOROID FRAGMENTATION IN THE ATMOSPHERE AND NEW SOFTWARE TOOLS TO EXTRACT RELEVANT PHYSICAL PARAMETERS FROM THE MEASURED DATA. THE RESULTS WILL BE USED TO INTERPRET THE PROCESSES OF ACCRETION DURING SOLAR SYSTEM FORMATION IN PARTICULARLY ADDRESSING THE QUESTION HOW LARGE DUST MAY HAVE GROWN BEFORE ACCUMULATING INTO COMETS. AS PART OF THIS STUDY IT WILL BE NECESSARY TO STUDY HOW THE DUST EVOLVES SINCE EJECTION FROM THE COMET FROM EXPOSURE TO HEAT AND RADIATION. THE LATTER WILL REQUIRE DYNAMICAL MODELS OF METEOROID STREAM EVOLUTION. RELEVANCE TO THE SOLICITATION: EMERGING WORLDS AIMS TO UNDERSTAND THE FORMATION AND EARLY EVOLUTION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM INCLUDING THE ACCRETION OF SMALL BODIES AND EARLY THERMAL AND CHEMICAL PROCESSES. WHILE STUDIES OF METEORITES SHOW THAT THE EARLY STAGES OF ACCRETION INCLUDED THE FORMATION OF CHONDRULES IN THE INNER SOLAR NEBULA PROCESSES IN THE OUTER SOLAR NEBULA THAT AFFECT SUCH GRAINS DURING THE FIRST FEW MA OF SOLAR SYSTEM HISTORY REMAIN UNKNOWN.

CALCULATION OF HIGH-RESOLUTION IR SPECTRA, INCLUDING LINE LISTS AND INTENSITIES, FOR ASTRONOMICALLY INTERESTING MOLECULES AND THEIR ISOTOPOLOGUES: NH

ULTRASENSITIVE IN SITU RAMAN DETECTION OF BIOLOGIC AL ORGANICS

PLUTO IS A DYNAMIC WORLD. IT CURRENTLY POSSESSES A SIGNIFICANT GLOBALLY-EXTANT ATMOSPHERE THAT SHARES ITS COMPOSITION WITH N2-RICH VOLATILE SURFACE I

PLANETARY RINGS: OBSERVATION AND INTERPRETATION

THIS WORK WOULD DEVELOP A NEW METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF BIOBURDENS (AND THE DETECTION OF MICROORGANISMS AND LIFE) FOR PLANETARY PROTECTION PURPOSES. IT WOULD ACCOMPLISH THIS BY THE DETECTION OF AN ORGANISM'S PROTEIN THOUGH LABELING THEM WITH A RADIOACTIVE LABEL [125JI. THIS WOULD PROVIDE GREATER SENSITIVITY AND UNIVERSALITY WHILE PRESERVING A GOOD TURN-AROUND TIME FOR ANALYSIS. THIS METHOD WILL UTILIZE THE CURRENT NASA SAMPLING TECHNIQUES AND THUS COULD BE DIRECTLY COMPARED AGAINST EXISTING METHODS. RADIOLABELING TECHNIQUES ARE INHERENTLY SENSITIVE AND [125JI BENEFITS FROM A 60 DAY HALF-LIFE PROVIDING GREATER ACTIVITY AND SIGNAL PER UNIT NUMBER OF LABELS. ADDITIONAL SENSITIVITY CAN BE OBTAINED BY USE OF MULTIPHOTON DETECTION SCREENING OUT BACKGROUND EVENTS AND DETECTING [125JI AT BELOW BACKGROUND LEVELS. THIS SHOULD ENABLE DETECTION TO LOWER LEVELS THAN PREVIOUSLY POSSIBLE DOWN TO SINGLE CELL DETECTION. BY UTILIZING A UNIVERSAL BIOSIGNATURE (CELL PROTEINS) THIS METHOD PROVIDES BROAD GENERALITY WITH REGARD TO THE RANGE OF ORGANISMS THAT CAN BE DETECTED AND ISN'T RESTRICTED TO ANY TYPE(S) OF ORGANISM THE ABILITY OF THE ORGANISMS TO BE CULTURED ETC. THIS WORK WOULD DEVELOP A QUICK AND SIMPLE METHOD FOR DETECTING THE PROTEIN FROM CELLS.

CHARACTERIZATION OF THE MARTIAN SURFACE VIA ORBIT AND LANDED INVESTIGATIONS IS PROPOSED HERE. WE WILL BE ANALYZING DATA COLLECTED BY THE MARS RECONNA

UNDERSTANDING THE EVOLUTION OF SOLAR SYSTEM DIVERSITY IS A TOP-LEVEL QUESTION IDENTIFIED BY THE 2006 NASA SOLAR SYSTEM EXPLORATION ROADMAP. THE SATEL

UNDERSTANDING THE DISTRIBUTION OF COMPLEX ORGANIC MOLECULES ASSOCIATED WITH LIVING THINGS IS ESSENTIAL TO ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS EXPRESSED IN THE AS

WE WILL ADDRESS THREE KEY SCIENCE QUESTIONS RELEVANT TO THE FORWARD CONTAMINATION OF ROBOTIC AND HUMAN EXPLORATION ZONES (EZS) ON MARS: 1. HOW ARE MICROORGANISMS REMOVED FROM SPACECRAFT SURFACES BY CLEAR DUST-LADEN AND SAND-LADEN WINDS AND WHAT SPACECRAFT MATERIALS AND CONFIGURATIONS BEST PROTECT AGAINST THIS REMOVAL? 2. HOW QUICKLY WILL BACTERIAL AND FUNGAL SPORES BE INACTIVATED UNDER SIMULATED MARTIAN CONDITIONS? 3. HOW FAR MIGHT VIABLE MICROORGANISMS BE TRANSPORTED BY THE WIND ON MARS? THE FIRST QUESTION WILL BE ADDRESSED WITH THE NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER'S MARS WIND TUNNEL (MARSWIT) WHICH CAN SIMULATE ASPECTS OF WIND-DRIVEN PARTICLE TRANSPORT AT MARS-LIKE AIR PRESSURES. VARIOUS TYPES OF COUPONS DOPED WITH FLUORESCENT MICROSPHERES (FLMS) COATED WITH SIMULATED EXTRACELLULAR POLYMERIC SUBSTANCES (EPS) TO PRODUCE ADHESION WILL ACT AS PROXIES FOR SPACECRAFT SURFACES CONTAMINATED WITH MICROORGANISMS. THE COUPONS WILL BE PLACED AT VARIOUS POSITIONS ON A RANGE OF MOCK-UP SPACECRAFT COMPONENTS AND SUBJECTED TO AEOLIAN ABRASION. MARSWIT WILL BE RUN AT A RANGE OF WIND SPEEDS AND WITH A RANGE OF DUST AND SAND SIZES AS EROSIONAL AGENTS. THESE EXPERIMENTS WILL EMPIRICALLY DEFINE THE CONDITIONS THAT LEAD TO REMOVAL OF MICROBIAL SURROGATES THEREBY DEFINING THE LIKELIHOOD OF FORWARD CONTAMINATION FROM LANDED SPACECRAFT ON MARS. SPECIFIC EXPERIMENTS WILL UTILIZE INACTIVATED (DEAD) SPORES TO VERIFY THAT THE FLMS ARE MIMICKING MICROBIAL ADHESION AND WIND REMOVAL PROCESSES IN THE MARSWIT TESTS. TO ADDRESS THE SECOND QUESTION WE WILL STUDY THE SURVIVAL OF BACTERIAL AND FUNGAL SPECIES NOT PREVIOUSLY TESTED UNDER SIMULATED MARTIAN CONDITIONS. THE PROPOSED WORK WILL TEST THE SURVIVAL RATES OF 4 BACTERIAL AND 2 FUNGAL SPECIES EXPOSED TO MARS-LIKE CONDITIONS OF SOLAR UV IRRADIATION AIR PRESSURE (10 MBAR) TEMPERATURE (-60 TO +20 DEGREES C) AND A GAS COMPOSITION CONSISTING OF THE TOP 5 GASES IN THE MARTIAN ATMOSPHERE. THE MICROBIAL STRAINS WILL BE SELECTED FROM ISOLATES RECOVERED FROM MARS SPACECRAFT SURFACES PRIOR TO LAUNCH. FOR EXAMPLE B. SAFENSIS (INSIGHT) B. AMYLOLIQUEFACIENS (INSIGHT) AND ACINETOBACTER RADIORESISTENS 50V1 (ODYSSEY) WILL ACT AS NEW SPECIES TESTED FOR SURVIVAL UNDER MARTIAN CONDITIONS. THE FUNGAL SPECIES ASPERGILLUS NIGER AND FUSARIUM OXYSPORUM WILL BE INCLUDED IN THE ASSAYS TO INCLUDE EUKARYA THAT HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED ON SPACECRAFT SURFACES. THE THIRD QUESTION WILL BE ADDRESSED WITH LARGE-EDDY SIMULATIONS (LES) USING THE MARS REGIONAL ATMOSPHERIC MODELING SYSTEM (MRAMS) A NUMERICAL CLIMATE MODEL CAPABLE OF SIMULATING MICROSCALE ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA ON MARS. AEOLIAN TRANSPORT OF MICROORGANISMS WILL BE REPRESENTED IN THE LES AS TRACERS USING SPACECRAFT REMOVAL CONDITIONS DETERMINED FROM MARSWIT TESTS TO PARAMETERIZE A POINT SOURCE IN THE CENTER OF THE LES DOMAIN (E.G. THE RESULT FROM QUESTION #1). AS THEY ARE TRANSPORTED BY THE WIND MICROORGANISM VIABILITY WILL BE DETERMINED BY APPLYING BIOCIDAL KILL KINETICS TO THE TRACERS (E.G. THE RESULT FROM QUESTION #2). LES WILL BE CONDUCTED FOR THREE LOCATIONS ON MARS AT FOUR DIFFERENT SEASONS AND TWO DIFFERENT LOCAL TIMES EACH (I.E. DAYTIME AND NIGHTTIME) IN ORDER TO MODEL A BROAD RANGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS. RESULTING DATA PRODUCTS FROM THE LES WILL CONSIST OF ISOPLETHS OF MICROBIAL CONCENTRATIONS (I.E. MASS PER UNIT AREA) OVER TIME. THIS WORK WILL PRODUCE THE FIRST BOUNDS ON THE LIKELIHOOD AND DISTANCE OF VIABLE MICROBIAL TRANSPORT ON MARS PROVIDING A RESOURCE FOR FUTURE REASSESSMENTS OF PLANETARY PROTECTION POLICY AND FOR MISSION PLANNERS SEEKING TO AVOID FALSE-POSITIVES WHEN DESIGNING AND PLANNING OPERATIONS FOR INSTRUMENTS TO INVESTIGATE MARTIAN LIFE.

N CONTEMPORARY ORGANISMS PROTEINS PERFORM THE VAST MAJORITY OF CELLULAR FUNCTIONS. IT WOULD APPEAR THAT LARGE AND COMPLEX STRUCTURES ARE REQUIRED TO ACCOMPLISH THESE FUNCTIONS AS THESE ARE CHARACTERISTICS OF MOST CONTEMPORARY PROTEINS. IT IS NATURAL TO ASSUME THAT THE EARLIEST ANCESTORS OF CONTEMPORARY PROTEINS MUST HAVE BEEN CONSIDERABLY SIMPLER WHILE STILL BEING ABLE TO CARRY OUT MANY ESSENTIAL CELLULAR FUNCTIONS PRESUMABLY WITH LESS EFFICIENCY AND SELECTIVITY. ON ONE HAND WE WANT ADDRESS THE LIMITS IMPOSED BY SUCH SIMPLICITY BY STUDYING ION CHANNELS. ION CHANNELS ARE PROTEIN ASSEMBLIES THAT MEDIATE THE TRANSPORT OF IONS ACROSS CELLULAR MEMBRANES THROUGH A WATER-FILLED PORE. IN THEIR ABSENCE THE LOWDIELECTRIC HYDROPHOBIC CORE OF THE MEMBRANE WOULD BE NEARLY IMPERMEABLE TO CHARGED SPECIES. ON THE OTHER HAND A RICH LITERATURE EXISTS ON CONTEMPORARY ION CHANNELS. WHILE THESE CHANNELS ARE TOO LARGE AND COMPLICATED TO BE DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO THE ORIGINS OF LIFE THEY PROVIDE AN IMPORTANT BENCHMARK FOR COMPARING CALCULATIONS WITH EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS ON KNOWN PROTEIN STRUCTURES. ION CHANNEL PROTEINS FORM A LARGE FUNCTIONALLY DIVERSE GROUP THAT IS UBIQUITOUS TO ALL FORMS OF LIFE. IN HUMANS AND OTHER HIGHER ORGANISMS THEY PLAY THE KEY ROLE IN MANY ESSENTIAL PHYSIOLOGICAL PROCESSES SUCH AS CONDUCTING NERVOUS IMPULSES CARDIAC FUNCTIONS MUSCLE CONTRACTION APOPTOSIS AND SENSORY FUNCTIONS (1). THEIR ACTIVITY IS PRECISELY REGULATED BY ONE OF SEVERAL FACTORS SUCH AS ELECTRIC FIELD SPECIFIC LIGANDS PH OR SHEAR PRESSURE. ANY MALFUNCTION IN THIS ACTIVITY CAN HAVE A SIGNIFICANT ADVERSE AND SOMETIMES DELETERIOUS EFFECTS ON THE PARENT ORGANISM (2). FOR THESE REASONS ION CHANNELS ARE IMPORTANT TARGETS OF PHARMACEUTICAL INTERVENTION (3-5). RATIONAL DRUG DESIGN OFTEN AIMED AT IDENTIFYING DIRECT OR ALLOSTERIC BLOCKERS AGONISTS OR ANTAGONISTS OF SPECIFIC ION CHANNELS CAN BE GREATLY ASSISTED BY THE KNOWLEDGE OF THEIR HIGH RESOLUTION STRUCTURES (6). EVEN THOUGH THIS KNOWLEDGE HAS EXPANDED CONSIDERABLY IN THE LAST TWO DECADES MANY AMBIGUITIES STILL REMAIN AS IT IS OFTEN UNCLEAR WHETHER X-RAY STRUCTURES CORRESPOND TO OPEN CLOSED DESENSITIZED OR NONNATIVE STATES. MOREOVER STRUCTURAL INFORMATION ABOUT PHYSIOLOGICALLY RELEVANT STATES IS OFTEN MISSING AND THEREFORE IT IS NECESSARY TO RESORT TO MODEL BUILDING THE ACCURACY OF WHICH REMAINS UNKNOWN. A PROMISING APPROACH TO RESOLVING THESE AMBIGUITIES IS TO COMBINE ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY WITH COMPUTER SIMULATIONS. THIS APPROACH WHICH HAS BEEN PURSUED BY US (7-10) AND OTHERS (11 12) IS CALLED COMPUTATIONAL ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY . STARTING WITH A STRUCTURAL MODEL OF A POTENTIALLY OPEN CHANNEL THE AIM IS TO REPRODUCE COMPUTATIONALLY THE MEASURED ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES SUCH AS IONIC SELECTIVITY AND CONDUCTANCE OVER THE EXPERIMENTALLY STUDIED RANGE OF VOLTAGES. IF GOOD AGREEMENT IS FOUND IT WOULD GREATLY INCREASE OUR CONFIDENCE THAT THE CHANNEL STRUCTURE WAS DESCRIBED SUFFICIENTLY ACCURATELY. IN MOLECULAR DYNAMICS (MD) BOTH CONDUCTANCE AND SELECTIVITY CAN BE OBTAINED BY WAY OF APPLYING AN EXTERNAL ELECTRIC FIELD TO THE SYSTEM AND COUNTING THE NUMBER OF IONS THAT TRAVERSE THE CHANNEL PER UNIT TIME. WHILE DOING SO AT PHYSIOLOGICALLY RELEVANT VOLTAGES IS NECESSARY TO MATCH EXPERIMENT AND AVOID DISTORTING THE CHANNEL CAPTURING A SUFFICIENT NUMBER OF CROSSING EVENTS AT THESE VOLTAGES IS COMPUTATIONALLY EXPENSIVE. FOR THIS REASON WE HAVE DEVELOPED AN EFFICIENT ALTERNATIVE IN WHICH MD IS COMBINED WITH THE ELECTRODIFFUSION (ED) EQUATION (7-10). IN THIS APPROACH THE ASSUMPTIONS OF THE ED EQUATION CAN BE RIGOROUSLY TESTED AND THE PRECISION AND CONSISTENCY OF THE CALCULATED CONDUCTANCE CAN BE DETERMINED. WE HAVE PREVIOUSLY DEMONSTRATED THAT THE FULL CURRENT/VOLTAGE (I-V) DEPENDENCE AND THE UNDERLYING FREE ENERGY PROFILES FOR SIMPLE CHANNELS CAN BE RELIABLY CALCULATED FROM NON-EQUILIBRIUM MD SIMULATIONS AT A SINGLE VOLTAGE

WE PROPOSE TO PERFORM A HOMOGENEOUS AND ACCURATE RE-DETERMINATION OF FUNDAMENTAL PROPERTIES OF THE FULL KEPLER TARGET SAMPLE, WITH AN EMPHASIS ON PRE

ELECTRIFICATION OF THE CLOUDS OF PLANETS

A STUDY OF MULTIPLICITY IN SMALL SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES

21-XRP21-0091 CHARACTERIZING THE PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL STRUCTURE OF PROTOPLANETARY DISKS FROM THEIR GAS LINE EMISSION.

PI- RACHEL MASTRAPADETAILED STUDIES OF AMORPHOUS AND CRYSTALLINE ICE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEMWATER ICE SPECTRA HAVE BEEN OBTAINED FROM MANY OUTER SOLA

ACCRETION DISK PROCESSES: FROM DUST TO PLANETESIMALS AND FORMATION AND EVOLUTION OF SATELLITE SYST ,

"EVEALING THE CLAYS ON MARS: A SPECTRAL UNMIXING STUDY OF PHYLLOSILICATES, ZEOLITES, HYDRATED SILICA AND GLASS" IMPORTANCE OF PROJECT: PHYLLOSILICATE

SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES: COMETS AND PRIMITIVE ASTEROIDS LOOSE MASS MOSTLY IN THE FORM OF LARGE CM-DM SIZED DUST GRAINS. MOST MASS IN THE ZODIACAL CLOUD IS IN THE FORM OF TINY 0.1-MM SIZED GRAINS. WHAT PROCESSES ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR TURNING ONE INTO THE OTHER? METHODS/TECHNIQUES: WE PROPOSE TO INVESTIGATE THE DYNAMICS OF EVOLVED METEOROID STREAMS THAT SHOW MOTION IN SUN-CENTERED ECLIPTIC COORDINATES OF THE RADIANT AS ENCOUNTERED AT EARTH. 18 SHORT-PERIOD JUPITER-FAMILY AND 27 LONG-PERIOD HALLEY-TYPE METEOROID STREAMS ARE KNOWN TO DO THIS. EACH STREAM HAS SIGNIFICANTLY EVOLVED BY GRAVITY FROM PLANETARY PERTURBATIONS OVER VARYING TIMESCALES FROM A FEW HUNDRED TO HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS AND NOW HAS A DISPERSED DUST CLOUD THAT REFLECTS THIS DYNAMICAL EVOLUTION. AT THE SAME TIME GRAIN-GRAIN COLLISIONS OR DISRUPTIVE FORCES OTHER THAN COLLISIONS (SUCH AS THERMAL STRESSES AND HEATING COSMIC RAY HITS AND ELECTRIC CHARGING) WILL DISRUPT THE LARGE GRAINS INTO SMALLER GRAINS DECREASING THE DENSITY OF LARGE METEOROIDS OVER TIME. THE THEORETICAL MODELING PART OF THIS WORK WILL COMPARE THE EXPECTED SPATIAL DISTRIBUTIONS OF DUST FROM GRAVITY ALONE TO THOSE OBSERVED IN THE PRESENCE OF SUCH DISRUPTING PHENOMENA FROM LOW-LIGHT VIDEO OBSERVATIONS OF METEOR SHOWERS AND COMPARE THE EFFECT ON DIFFERENT TYPES OF METEOROID STREAMS TO UNDERSTAND WHAT PROCESSES ARE AT WORK. THE DATA ANALYSIS PART OF THIS WORK WILL ANALYZE AN EXISTING LARGE DATABASE OF METEOR SPECTRA TO INVESTIGATE THE LARGE GRAIN MAIN ELEMENT COMPOSITION OF THESE STREAMS TO STUDY HOW VOLATILE MINERALS ARE LOST OVER TIME. RELEVANCE TO THE SSW CALL: THE WORK ADDRESSES THE GOALS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM WORKINGS PROGRAM BY SEEKING TO UNDERSTAND PROCESSES THAT OCCUR THROUGHOUT THE SOLAR SYSTEM SPECIFICALLY THE FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES THAT DETERMINE THE EVOLUTION OF DUST GRAINS AFTER EJECTION. THE WORK WILL IDENTIFY AND CHARACTERIZE THE DUST POPULATIONS RELEASED FROM COMETS AND PRIMITIVE ASTEROIDS AND UNDERSTAND THEIR DYNAMICS WITHIN THE SOLAR SYSTEM. THE WORK IS RELEVANT TO NASA BY HELPING UNDERSTAND THE METEOROID IMPACT HAZARD TO SATELLITES AND THE DYNAMICAL PROPERTIES OF METEOROIDS IMPACTING PLANETARY SURFACES.

TOWARDS ACCURATE ROVIBRATIONAL LINE LIST FOR USE IN MODELING AND INTERPRETING OBSERVATIONS OF ISM AND (EXO) PLANET ATMOSPHERES: N2O

SETI INSTITUTE ORGANIC AEROSOLS IN THE EARLY EARTH ATMOSPHERE: REACTION NETWORK AND ITS ISOTOPE SIG

PLANETARY SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT

UNIQUE SURFACE MATERIALS HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED RECENTLY IN SEVERAL LOCATIONS ON MARS THAT HAVE CRISM FEATURES DISTINCT FROM THOSE OF ANY KNOWN MINERA

THE ORIGIN OF THE CURRENT ORBITAL RESONANCE BETWEEN ENCELADUS AND DIONE IS NOT ADEQUATELY EXPLAINED BY THEORY. THIS RESONANCE IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT CAUSES GEOLOGICAL ACTIVITY ON ENCELADUS. MODELS BASED ON THE STANDARD THEORETICAL ASSUMPTION OF CONVERGENT TIDAL EVOLUTION PREDICT A DIFFERENT SUB-RESONANCE WHICH WOULD EXCITE DIONE'S ECCENTRICITY RATHER THAN THAT OF ENCELADUS. IN TASK 1 WE WILL TEST A PROMISING SCENARIO WHICH FEATURES MIMAS AND ENCELADUS IN A MUTUAL RESONANCE WHEN THEY ENCOUNTERED THE RESONANCE WITH DIONE. WE HYPOTHESIZE THAT A "RESONANCE HANDOFF" OCCURRED WITH MIMAS MIGRATING AWAY AND ENCELADUS AND DIONE REMAINING IN RESONANCE. THE CO-ORBITAL MOONS JANUS AND EPIMETHEUS ARE WIDELY THOUGHT TO HAVE BEEN FORMED AT THE EDGE OF SATURN'S RINGS RECENTLY IN THE LAST FEW TENS OF MYR. HOWEVER BETWEEN THE RINGS AND CO-ORBITALS' PRESENT ORBIT THERE IS A STRONG 2:1 MEAN-MOTION RESONANCE WITH ENCELADUS. OUR PRELIMINARY SIMULATIONS SHOW THAT THE RESONANCE WOULD HAVE DESTABILIZED THE CO-ORBITALS. IN TASK 2 WE WILL EXPLORE THE CONSTRAINTS FROM THIS RESONANCE AND DETERMINE HOW LONG JANUS AND EPIMETHEUS COULD HAVE EXISTED IN THEIR CURRENT CONFIGURATION. THE MIMAS-TETHYS 4:2 RESONANCE MUST HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED AFTER THE RESONANT ENCOUNTERS PROPOSED IN TASK 1 BUT LIKELY BEFORE THE REACCRETION OF JANUS AND EPIMETHEUS (TASK 2). THIS RESONANCE CURRENTLY HAS A LARGE LIBRATION AMPLITUDE WHICH IS UNLIKELY IN THE CURRENT SCENARIOS OF RESONANCE CAPTURE. IN TASK 3 WE WILL EXPLORE THE POSSIBILITY THAT THE INITIAL MIMAS-TETHYS RESONANCE WAS ESTABLISHED WITH A LOW LIBRATION AMPLITUDE BUT WAS SUBSEQUENTLY PERTURBED BY CHAOS AND COLLISIONS DURING A VERY RECENT DISRUPTION AND RE-ACCRETION OF JANUS AND EPIMETHEUS. IN OUR PRELIMINARY WORK ON THE MOONS OF URANUS WE FIND THAT THE RECENT ARIEL-UMBRIEL 5:3 RESONANCE INDIRECTLY AFFECTS MIRANDA APPARENTLY THROUGH SECULAR INTERACTIONS. IN TASK 4 WE WILL VARY MIRANDA'S AND ARIEL'S TIDAL PROPERTIES AS THE RESONANCE EVOLVES AND DETERMINE WHETHER THIS PAST RESONANCE IS COMPATIBLE WITH THE OBSERVED SYSTEM INCLUDING THE HIGH INCLINATION OF MIRANDA AND LOW INCLINATIONS OF ARIEL AND UMBRIEL. SEVERAL VERY CLOSE PAIRS OF URANIAN INNER MOONS APPEAR TO BE UNSTABLE ON SUB-MYR TIMESCALES. WHILE THE STANDARD APPROACH TO MODELING THIS SYSTEM HAS BEEN TO FIT ORBITS TO OBSERVATIONS AND THEN INTEGRATE THEIR EVOLUTION IN TASK 5 WE PROPOSE TO USE THE REVERSE IDENTIFYING THE RELATIVELY STABLE ORBITS FIRST (IF THEY EXIST AT ALL) AND THEN COMPARING THEM TO OBSERVATIONS. EVEN IF WE CAN AVOID SUB-MYR INSTABILITIES THE CLOSELY-PACKED INNER MOONS OF URANUS WOULD STILL HAVE STRONGLY-CHAOTIC ORBITS AND ARE PREDICTED TO COLLIDE WITH EACH OTHER WITHIN 100 MYR. HOWEVER CURRENT MODELS UNDERESTIMATE TIDAL DISSIPATION WITHIN THESE MOONS. IN TASK 6 OUR NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS WILL INCLUDE FORCED LIBRATIONS DUE TO THESE MOONS' ELONGATED SHAPES AS WELL AS THE MOONS' RUBBLE-PILE STRUCTURE BOTH OF WHICH ACT TO INCREASE TIDAL DISSIPATION. WE WILL INVESTIGATE WHETHER TIDAL ECCENTRICITY DAMPING ON FEW-MYR TIMESCALES CAN HELP STABILIZE THE ORBITS OF URANUS'S INNER MOONS.

SCIENCE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES: RECENT NEW HORIZONS RESULTS AND GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS SUPPORT THE PRESENCE OF NH3 ON THE SURFACE OF CHARON PLUTO S LARGEST MOON. NH3 HAS ALSO BEEN FOUND ON THE SURFACES OF THE SMALLER MOONS NIX AND HYDRA AS WELL AS ON THE SURFACES OF ORCUS AND QUAOAR. THIS IS UNUSUAL SINCE NH3 SHOULD NOT SURVIVE ON THE SURFACE OF THESE ICY BODIES FOR LONGER THAN A FEW MILLION YEARS DUE TO THE PROTON RADIATION FLUX IN THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM. AS OF TODAY NO MECHANISM FOR PRESERVING NH3 ON THE SURFACE OF THESE BODIES HAS BEEN ACCEPTED AS DEFINITIVE. FOR CHARON MECHANISMS SUCH AS CRYOVOLCANISM HAVE BEEN SUGGESTED TO EXPLAIN THE PRESENCE OF THIS ICE BUT THESE ARE NOT CONSISTENT WITH A MOON TOO SMALL TO SUSTAIN A SUBMERGED LIQUID OCEAN. ANOTHER POSSIBLE EXPLANATION IS THAT NH3 IS ONE OF THE PRIMORDIAL CONSTITUENTS OF CHARON. SUBSURFACE NH3 WOULD THEN BE DIFFUSING UP INTO CHARON S SURFACE H2O ICE LAYER. BASED UPON THE BROADENED SHAPE OF CHARON S 2.21 M BAND NH3 ALSO APPEARS TO BE COMPLEXED IN H2O IN DIFFERENT WAYS AND IN DIFFERENT AMOUNTS THUS ADDING TO THE UNCERTAINTY OF ITS ORIGIN. THIS PROPOSAL SEEKS TO IMPROVE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE STABILITY OF NH3/H2O ICES AS A FUNCTION OF ICE STRUCTURE CONCENTRATION AND TEMPERATURE AND TO PROVIDE NEAR-IR SPECTRAL DATA OF NH3 IN H2O ICES THAT WILL BE CRITICAL FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF OBSERVATIONS OF OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES.

SETI INSTITUTE ASTROBIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF MARTIAN PERCHLORATE AND CARBONATE CONTAINING SOILS SEVERAL REMARKABLE DISCOVERIES MADE BY THE MARS

REU SITE: LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE - ASTRONOMY AND PLANETARY SCIENCE AT THE SETI INSTITUTE

WE PROPOSE TO USE HIGH-RESOLUTION SPATIAL AND SPECTRAL OBSERVATIONS OF MARS TO PROBE THE FORMATION AND EARLY EVOLUTION OF ITS CRUST. GIVEN THE LACK O

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 AGE

STRUCTURE AND EVOLUTION OF JUPITER S RING SYSTEM: OUR KEY DATA SETS ON THE JOVIAN RING SYSTEM---FROM VOYAGER, GALILEO, CASSINI, HST AND NOW NEW HORIZ

ABSCICON 2008 FOR ASTROBIOLOGY SCIENCE CONFERENCE 2008NEW RESEARCH GRANT AWARD TEN (10) MONTH PER

THE INTERACTIONS OF STARS WITH THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM OF GALAXIES

23-PDART23-0033 PRECISION POINTING RECONSTRUCTION AND BACKPLANES IN SUPPORT OF LEGACY OUTER PLANET MISSIONS

POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS (PAHS) ARE NOW THOUGHT TO BE ONE OF THE MOST PLENTIFUL AND WIDESPREAD CLASSES OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS IN THE UNIVERSE.

OBJECTIVES: TO PRODUCE HIGHER-RESOLUTION DIGITAL TERRAIN MODELS OF PLUTO AND CHARON THAN WILL BE DEPOSITED BY THE NEW HORIZONS TEAM INTO THE PDS BY USING ADDITIONAL HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGES AND PHOTOCLINOMETRY IN NEAR-TERMINATOR AREAS. WE WILL ALSO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF LIMB PROFILES THAT TRANSECT AREAS OF BOTH BODIES WHERE HIGH-RESOLUTION COVERAGE IS NOT AVAILABLE TO EXTEND TOPOGRAPHIC INFORMATION TO THE NON-ENCOUNTER HEMISPHERES OF PLUTO AND CHARON. METHODOLOGY: NEW HORIZONS REVEALED COMPLEX AND DIVERSE GEOLOGIC PROCESSES ON THE ICY DWARF PLANET PLUTO AND ITS MOON CHARON. THE TOPOGRAPHIC EXPRESSIONS OF THESE WORLDS REVEAL THEIR GEOLOGIC HISTORIES AND ARE EQUALLY COMPLEX WITH RELIEF OF MULTIPLE KILOMETERS OVER SHORT DISTANCES. THE CHARTER OF THE NEW HORIZONS MISSION TO PLUTO WAS TO COMPLETE A GLOBAL BASE MAP AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAP OF PLUTO AND CHARON USING STEREOGRAMMETRY WHICH HAS NOW BEEN DONE AND WILL BE SUBMITTED TO THE PDS THIS FALL. IN THIS PROPOSED WORK WE WILL AUGMENT AND IMPROVE ON THESE MAPS USING ADDITIONAL HIGH-RESOLUTION IMAGES FROM THE NEW HORIZONS IMAGING SYSTEMS TO BOTH IMPROVE THE RESOLUTION OF THE THE TOPOGRAPHY LOCALLY BY 3-TO-5 TIMES THE CURRENT VALUE AND TO EXTEND OUR TOPOGRAPHIC MAPPING TO AREAS NOT COVERED BY STEREOGRAMMETRY. FIRST WE WILL PRODUCE HIGH-RESOLUTION STEREO PRODUCTS FOR THE 3 LORRI "NOODLES" THAT TRACK ACROSS SPUTNIK PLANITIA AND THAT WERE NOT PROCESSED AS PART OF THE OFFICIAL NEW HORIZONS ARCHIVAL DATA SETS. EVEN SO AS STEREOGRAMMETRIC TOOLKITS RELY ON SCENE-RECOGNITION WHICH BLUR THE TOPOGRAPHY BY 3-5 TIMES THE LOW RESOLUTION COMPONENT OF THE STEREO OBSERVATIONS THIS DEGRADES THE MAP RESOLUTION SIGNIFICANTLY. WE WILL USE SHAPE-FROM-SHADING (PHOTOCLINOMETRY) TO MAP AREAS WITH LOW SUN ILLUMINATION NEAR THE TERMINATOR DURING THE ENCOUNTER TO LOCALLY IMPROVE DEM RESOLUTION TO ALMOST THE ORIGINAL PIXEL-SCALE OF THE ORIGINAL IMAGES ~315 M/PIXEL USING THE MVIC SCAN AND 125-TO-80 M/PIXEL IN THE LORRI IMAGE "NOODLES". THESE WILL PROVIDE THE ONLY USABLE TOPOGRAPHIC INFORMATION IN "GLACIAL" VALLEYS SMALL CRATERS AND FOR THE CELLULAR PATTERN AND SMALL PITS COMMON ACROSS SPUTNIK PLANITIA. BOTH THE STEREOGRAMMETRY AND PHOTOCLINOMETRY TECHNIQUES PRODUCE RESULTS ONLY OVER THE HIGH-RESOLUTION ENCOUNTER HEMISPHERE WHICH IS ABOUT 40% OF THE SURFACES OF EACH BODY. IN OTHER POORLY RESOLVED AREAS OF THE SURFACE SIGNIFICANT RELIEF WAS APPARENT (OR ITS ABSENCE WAS APPARENT) IN AREAS VIEWED ON THE LIMB OF THE DISK OF EACH BODY. IN SOME CASES BACKLIGHTING DUE TO BRIGHT ATMOSPHERIC HAZE REVEALED RELIEF ALONG LIMB VIEWS OF THE DISC OF PLUTO THAT WOULD OTHERWISE HAVE BEEN UNSEEN. WE WILL USE LIMB PROFILES AS NARROW STRIPS OF TOPOGRAPHIC DATA TO EXAMINE THE RUGGEDNESS AND RELIEF OF AREAS AND GEOLOGIC UNITS THAT ARE NOT OTHERWISE RESOLVED WELL OR WERE EVEN IN DARKNESS IN 2015. THESE TECHNIQUES WILL ALLOW RESEARCHERS TO CHARACTERIZE THE TOPOGRAPHY OF AS MUCH OF PLUTO AND CHARON AS IS POSSIBLE FROM THE NEW HORIZONS DATA SET. RELEVANCE: THE RESULT OF FUNDING THIS PDART PROPOSAL WILL BE SEVERAL TERRAIN PRODUCTS AND DATA SETS OF PLUTO AND CHARON DERIVED FROM SPACECRAFT DATA THAT WOULD NOT OTHERWISE BE PRODUCED AND ARCHIVED BY THE NEW HORIZONS PROJECT. ENSURING THAT THESE DATA GET CREATED BY OUR PROPOSAL TEAM (WHO ARE INTIMATELY KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT THE INSTRUMENTS AND THE MISSION) AND RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC WILL ENSURE THAT ANY SCIENTIST WHO WANTS TO PERFORM TOPOGRAPHIC STUDIES OF THESE WORLDS WILL HAVE ACCESS TO THE BEST POSSIBLE TERRAIN DATA AVAILABLE. THESE PROPOSED OUTCOMES ARE DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO THE PDART CALL WHICH SEEKS "TO INCREASE THE AMOUNT AND QUALITY OF DIGITAL INFORMATION AND DATA PRODUCTS AVAILABLE FOR PLANETARY SCIENCE RESEARCH AND EXPLORATION ..." THE RESULTING DATA PRODUCTS WILL BE ARCHIVED ACCORDING TO THE PDART REQUIREMENTS.

OUR OBJECTIVE IS TO UNDERSTAND HOW SATURN'S RINGS' COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE EVOLVE OVER TIME DUE TO THE EFFECTS OF MICROMETEOROID BOMBARDMENT AND SU