School of Earth and Space Exploration at ASU

Lunar Outpost is proud to announce the formation of the Lunar Dawn Science Council, working with Arizona State University School of Earth and Space Exploration as the lead research organization.

In April 2024, the Lunar Dawn Team, led by Lunar Outpost, was awarded a NASA Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services contract, and we’re driving innovation by assembling a top-tier Science Council to ensure the LTV delivers maximum scientific value.

This team of experts from academia and industry will guide the mission to elevate the quality of lunar science throughout the LTV’s decade-long operation on the Moon. “It will take the best and brightest minds to create not only the first, but most scientifically viable off-road vehicle for living and working on the Moon's surface. ASU’s dedication to unlocking new scientific frontiers and extensive global reach make them a natural leader of the Science Council,” said AJ Gemer, CTO and co-founder of Lunar Outpost. “Drawing on the expertise of these individuals will ensure the greatest scientific and exploration potential as we develop our LTV with unparalleled technical capabilities.”

Space Apps Challenge Register today to join the largest annual global hackathon on Oct. 5-6, 2024: spaceappschallenge.org 🚀

The School of Earth and Space Exploration at ASU is launching TWO brand-new online programs in Earth and Environmental Sciences! 🌍🌱 Whether you're passionate about protecting our planet or exploring its mysteries, these programs are designed to empower you from anywhere in the world. Learn more and be part of this incredible journey:

ASU Online earth and environmental sciences programs allow students to forge unique academic paths | ASU News This fall, ASU Online is launching two new online programs that will open new horizons for students interested in our natural environment: a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science, both in earth and environmental sciences.

LAUNCH UPDATE:
NASA, Northrop Grumman and SpaceX are standing down from today's launch opportunity for the agency’s Northrop Grumman 21st commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station due to weather conditions.
More: http://go.nasa.gov/3Yvbwsf

LAUNCH UPDATE:

NASA, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX are standing down from today's launch opportunity for the agency’s Northrop Grumman 21st commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station due to weather conditions.

Teams are targeting NET 11:02am ET on Sunday, Aug. 4 for the next launch opportunity.

More: http://go.nasa.gov/3Yvbwsf

LAUNCH UPDATE:

NASA, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX are standing down from today's launch opportunity for the agency’s Northrop Grumman 21st commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station due to weather conditions.

Teams are targeting NET 11:02am ET on Sunday, Aug. 4 for the next launch opportunity.

More: http://go.nasa.gov/3Yvbwsf

On Saturday, Aug. 3, Northrop Grumman's next resupply mission is scheduled for launch to the International Space Station.

What's aboard? Science and research, including tests of water recovery technology, a process to produce blood and immune stem cells in microgravity, and a repair kit for our NICER X-ray telescope: https://go.nasa.gov/4d7aoiG

Watch with us here on Facebook, starting at 11:10 a.m. EDT (1510 UTC)!

NASA's ShadowCam sheds light on the Moon's permanently shadowed craters, revealing details hidden for billions of years. Prasun Mahanti, Associate Research Scientist at SESE, is leading this groundbreaking research, providing new insights into the Moon's geology and potential resources.

Dive into Prasun's insights and the future of lunar exploration in The New York Times! 📰👇

The Moon’s Most Shadowy Places Can’t Hide From NASA’s New Camera ShadowCam, a NASA instrument aboard a South Korean spacecraft, is taking pictures of the moon where the sun doesn’t shine.

Saturday is International Moon Day, celebrating the Moon's significance for Earth and humanity.

It honours the first human landing on the Moon on 20 July 1969 and aims to raise awareness of the importance of sustainable lunar exploration.

— via United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)

🚀🌕 Dive into the cosmic wonders of the July “Full Buck” Moon and celebrate the Apollo 11 anniversary with groundbreaking discoveries from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC)! Scientists recently confirmed the first direct evidence of a cave on the moon using LROC radar data. This cave is connected to a pit in Mare Tranquillitatis, the same region where Apollo 11 astronauts landed in 1969. Check out this fascinating article on CNN and explore the magic of the night sky:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/19/science/july-full-buck-moon-apollo-11-anniversary/index.html

🚀 ASU’s Career Catalyst is hosting a new eight-hour online course, “Countless Worlds in our Solar System: Asteroids, Comets and Meteorites,” developed by the esteemed Lindy Elkins-Tanton! 🌌🔭

Dive deep into the fascinating world of small celestial objects that offer insights into the formation of our solar system. This course will answer intriguing questions such as:
- What are the differences between asteroids, comets, and meteorites?
- What historical events have these celestial objects influenced?
- What career opportunities exist in the study of celestial objects?

Perfect for space enthusiasts and curious minds alike! 🌠
Mission To Psyche

👇Learn more and read the ASU News story below

9 months into a 6-year journey to a far-flung asteroid, NASA's Psyche mission cruising along | ASU News These days, Lindy Elkins-Tanton is living out a Talking Heads song lyric: She’s keeping her feet on the ground and her head in the sky.

🚀 Exciting News! 🚀

We are thrilled to announce the release of a groundbreaking research paper coauthored by our very own Luis Welbanks! 🌌✨ The press release covers all the details of this amazing discovery. Dive into the press release here: [Webb Telescope News Release](https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-129)

Be sure to read the full research paper published in Nature for an in-depth look at the discoveries: [Research Paper in Nature](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07768-4)

Congratulations to Luis and the entire team for this stellar achievement! 🌟 Let's celebrate and stay curious about the wonders of the universe.

Inhomogeneous terminators on the exoplanet WASP-39 b - Nature Transmission spectroscopy has been a workhorse technique over the past two decades to constrain the physical and chemical properties of exoplanet atmospheres 1–5. One of its classical key assumptions is that the portion of the atmosphere it probes — the terminator region — is homogeneous. Seve...

🔍 Breaking new ground in forensic science! Traditional bullet analysis methods often face limitations, especially in complex scenarios. Groundbreaking research led by Gwyneth Gordon, in collaboration with the Mesa Police Department’s Forensic Services, unveils a novel technique. This approach explores the chemical associations between bullets, bullet fragments, and evidence lifts, allowing for more definitive links between specific bullets and wound tracks or ricochet marks.

Read the full story on ASU News!

Breakthrough chemical analysis links bullets, fragments in shooting investigations | ASU News Traditional techniques for analyzing bullets in shooting investigations — such as striae comparison, trajectory analysis and shooting-distance determinations — often face limitations, particularly in complex scenarios involving multiple fi****ms or moving targets. These methods become even more ...

🚀 An exoplanet located just 64 light-years away, known for its extreme weather, now has another claim to fame — a distinctive rotten-egg odor. 🪐

Astronomers Luis Welbanks and Mike Line used data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to discover that the Jupiter-sized gas giant HD 189733 b has an atmosphere rich in hydrogen sulfide.

Read the full story on ASU News!

Astronomers sniff out pungent exoplanet using James Webb Space Telescope | ASU News An exoplanet located a mere 64 light-years away, with a reputation for its extreme weather conditions, is now known for something else — a distinctive rotten-egg odor.A team of astronomers has used data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to uncover a surprising aspect of the Jupiter-sized ...

After earning his PhD in geoscience from SESE in 2021, Jon Lima-Zaloumis joined the Microbiology of the Deep (MOD) Lab, led by Assistant Professor Elizabeth Trembath-Reichert. Building on his PhD research, he's now developing methods to detect signs of life in extreme environments in Earth's atmosphere and potentially those of other planets. 🌍🔬✨

Lima-Zaloumis is the lead author of a new paper in the Journal of Sedimentary Research, co-authored by Trembath-Reichert and Jack Farmer, focusing on preserving evidence of life in carbonate rocks. This work honors the legacy of his late mentor, Jack Farmer. 🙌

Read the full story on ASU News 👇

Research on how rocks preserve signs of life honors late ASU mentor | ASU News Building from his PhD work at Arizona State University, Jon Lima-Zaloumis is developing methods to look for signs of active life occurring in extreme environments, namely in the Earth’s atmosphere and potentially those of other planets.

🚀 Exciting news! A joint proposal from a team of institutions, including Arizona State University, has been selected for concept studies for NASA’s DYNAMIC mission! Led by the University of Colorado, Boulder, this collaboration includes Johns Hopkins APL, NASA’s JPL, Clemson, University of Alaska Fairbanks, NCAR, and MIT’s Haystack Observatory.

Special shoutout to Co-Investigator Katrina Bossert from ASU! The team is one of three selected to receive funding for a nine-month concept study, after which NASA will choose a winning proposal. 🌌✨

Read the full story here

ASU scientist part of NASA DYNAMIC mission proposal team to study space weather | ASU News A joint proposal from a team of institutions including Arizona State University has been selected for concept studies for NASA’s Dynamical Neutral Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling (DYNAMIC) mission.

🌌 Exciting advancement! Since 1979, astronomers and volcanologists have been fascinated by Jupiter's volcanic moon Io.

Recently, the SHARK-VIS instrument, installed on the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) on Mount Graham, AZ, has captured the highest-resolution optical images of Io from Earth. 🌋 SESE’s David Williams shared, "Detecting large-scale surface changes by volcanic activity on Io in visible light using SHARK-VIS is a major advance. We can now identify surface changes from Earth."

Read the full story on ASU News!

Arizona telescope's sharper optics reveal spectacular images of Io, Jupiter's volcanic moon | ASU News Since 1979, when Jupiter's moon lo was found to be covered in volcanoes, astronomers and volcanologists have been fascinated by what this reddish satellite could reveal about the evolution of the Jovian system and Earth's early volcanic history. However, the study of Io's eruptions and lava flows ha...

🌟 With initial funding from the Office of the President and Knowledge Enterprise, ASU’s new Digital Discovery Initiative (DDI) is set to revolutionize observational scientific research. DDI will bridge the gap between cutting-edge tech like VR, remote sensing, and data visualization, enabling the creation of virtual natural environments. 🥽

"Recent advances in virtual reality make it possible to reimagine scientific field research," says DDI Director Kip Hodges, a Foundation Professor at SESE.

Read the full story on ASU News!

Accelerating science through immersive virtual reality | ASU News With initial funding from the Office of the President and Knowledge Enterprise, the newly established Digital Discovery Initiative at Arizona State University is poised to revolutionize observational scientific research. It will bridge the gap between technological advances like virtual reality, rem...

🚀 Exciting news! The Europa Clipper spacecraft has successfully traveled from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in FL. 🌟 This summer, it’ll get ready for launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, set for October! 🚀 Shoutout to the Arizona State University graduates and scientists playing crucial roles in this mission. 🌌

Read the full story below! 👇

ASU team cheers arrival of NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft in Florida | ASU News The Europa Clipper spacecraft has successfully made the journey from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Over the summer, the spacecraft will prepare for launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Launch is currently scheduled for...