NASA recently funded the projects that will help scientists better understand the nature of lunar dust so that its potentially damaging effects to equipment and spacecraft during lunar landings can be minimized.

Addie Dove, an assistant professor in 麻豆原创鈥檚 , is an investigator on both projects.

On one, she will lead an effort to study charged dust behavior in microgravity and test sensors that will characterize the charging behavior of dust in a lunar-like environment. She received $500,000 for the project, and the experiment will fly on future flights by Blue Origin, a commercial space company.

For the other project, Dove is co-principal investigator with Phil Metzger, a planetary scientist with 麻豆原创鈥檚 . This project will test and improve a laser-based sensor designed to measure the density and particle size of dust and rocks ejected from a lunar landing.

麻豆原创 received about $125,000 for this project, which will be completed in conjunction with Masten Space Systems, a space transportation company in Mojave, California.

The projects are funded as part of NASA鈥檚 Flight Opportunities Program, which allows researchers to use suborbital flights and other flight platforms to test and refine technology that may one day be used on missions to the moon and beyond.

The charged-dust project will test sensors that examine how charged dust reacts in low gravity, which can inform strategies to keep lunar dust from damaging electronics, solar cells and mechanical equipment during moon missions.

鈥淲e’re very interested in the dust on the lunar surface, how it behaves and how it will behave when people are walking around or rovers are driving around,鈥� Dove says. 鈥淵ou’re going to get a lot of complicated electrical and dynamical interactions.鈥�

The lunar lander laser will be tested and optimized aboard Masten rockets next year, which can mimic lunar descent trajectories. This will help researchers determine where to place the sensor and how to best integrate it into a lander on future missions to the moon.

This work is important to not only determine strategies to mitigate the effects of lunar dust ejected from the moon鈥檚 surface at more than five times the speed of sound during a landing, but also to help establish blast zones for landings, Metzger says.

鈥淲e have to share the moon so that we’re not sandblasting each other’s hardware,鈥� Metzger says. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to damage our own hardware, but we have an international obligation not to damage the hardware of other nations as well. The Outer Space Treaty puts that obligation upon every spacefaring nation to do no harm.鈥�

Dove received her doctorate in astrophysical and planetary sciences from the University of Colorado at Boulder and her bachelor鈥檚 degree in physics and astronomy from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She joined 麻豆原创 in 2012.

Metzger received his bachelor鈥檚 degree in electrical engineering from Auburn University and his master鈥檚 and doctorate in physics from 麻豆原创. Before joining 麻豆原创 in 2014, he worked at NASA鈥檚 Kennedy Space Center for nearly 30 years.

Physics Professor Daniel Britt built two calibration targets that sit on the Curiosity rover now exploring the red planet. The rover captured America鈥檚 imagination when it used a complex landing scenario that might be more at home in a Hollywood movie than NASA engineering plans.

After the landing, which scientists nicknamed the 7-minutes of terror, the rover turned on its cameras and began beaming images to earth. The colors that scientists and the world saw were the direct result of Britt鈥檚 innovation.

That鈥檚 because the materials used to portray the actual colors 鈥� through calibration targets 鈥� were made in 麻豆原创 labs.

鈥淎ll the Mars landers carry color calibration targets for the same reason photographers worry about color balance,鈥� Britt said. 鈥淒ifferent lighting conditions can change the apparent color of objects. On Mars, we are 50 percent farther from the Sun looking through an atmosphere of carbon dioxide and yellow dust at an alien landscape.聽Having known red, green and blue color targets makes it possible to return to true color.鈥�

One of Britt鈥檚 calibration targets is used to ensure proper color and exposure balance for the MastCam seen on top of the rover. That camera took the 360-degree breathtaking panoramic photo NASA released late last week to the general public.

The other is a UV-sensitive target for MAHLI (the Mars Hand Lens Imager). MAHLI will provide scientists with close-up views of the minerals, textures and structures in Martian rocks and the surface layer of rocky debris and dust, according to NASA.

The self-focusing, 1.5-inch-wide camera will take color images of features smaller than the diameter of a human hair. MAHLI also carries an ultraviolet light that will be used to induce fluorescence to help detect carbonate and evaporite minerals, both of which indicate that water helped shape the landscape on Mars.

This is not the first time Britt鈥檚 calibration targets have landed on Mars. Similar targets are on the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on Mars in 2004; the Mars Phoenix lander, which arrived in 2008; Mars Pathfinder, which landed in 1997; and the Mars Polar Lander, which crashed on landing in 1999.

Britt is the chair of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. He also led the writing and editing of the major NASA planning document for the study of main belt asteroids. This work will form part of the basis of the National Academy of Sciences鈥� report on plans and objectives for planetary science during the next decade.

Britt joined 麻豆原创 in 2003. His research revolves around using remote-sensing tools to determine the composition and evolution of solar system objects, including asteroids, comets and Mars. He has worked on several NASA projects, including the Mars Pathfinder mission 1993-1998 and the Deep Space 1 mission to a comet 1996-2002.

With a possible $300 million cut to planetary science projects donating a dollar for a cookie might have the impact of a pebble striking Jupiter. But 麻豆原创 students and professors who are holding the bake sale and car wash on Saturday 鈥� and nearly 20 groups of their peers throughout the country who organized similar events — hope to send a clear message to Congress.

The 麻豆原创 group鈥檚 Planetary Exploration Car Wash and Bake Sale will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 9, at the Chevron adjacent to campus, 1640 E. McCulloch Road. Donations will cover the costs of the event and help the group fund future education outreach efforts.

Students, professors and scientists around the nation say the cuts proposed by the Obama administration will cripple the country鈥檚 future in space exploration by eliminating almost all non-manned planetary space missions through the next two decades. Those missions, which send unmanned robots or probes to space, have produced captivating discoveries this decade, including the first evidence of water on the moon and the first glimpse of the Mars surface. In a few years, they鈥檙e expected to offer the first real look at Pluto and beyond.

The proposed budget calls for a reduction of about $300 million in the area of planetary science, with no cuts to earth sciences, heliophysics and astrophysics area.

鈥淲e’re not asking for more of the pie, we’re asking for less of a bite out of the pie,鈥� said Laura Seward, a graduate research assistant and a doctoral candidate at 麻豆原创 who organized the event. 鈥淎 strong robotic planetary exploration program is essential for a strong human planetary exploration program.鈥�

The nationwide event was organized by the , an independent, nonprofit applied research and development organization.

鈥淭his is being done to attract media attention and to help focus Congress on repairing the damage of the deep cuts planned to NASA’s planetary science program,鈥� said Alan Stern, the institute鈥檚 associate vice president for research and development. 鈥淚t’s important these cuts be repaired to maintain U.S. leadership in this area of science, to prevent mission cuts, and to prevent student and research job losses.鈥�

The nation is enjoying a Golden Age of non-manned space missions that resulted in incredible results thanks to investments made years ago, Seward said. They include:

The car wash groups have the full support of the , a division within the (AAS) devoted to solar system research. It鈥檚 the largest organization on the planet dedicated to understanding how the solar system works and what that means for the Earth鈥檚 future.

鈥淧lanetary science delivers great results for the United States,鈥� said Daniel Britt, chair of the Division of Planetary Sciences and a professor at 麻豆原创. 鈥淭his is one major way that we maintain our world-wide technological leadership.鈥�

For more information, contact Tracy Becker at tbecker@knights.ucf.edu .

鈥淭his discovery suggests that this region of our solar system contains more water ice than anticipated,鈥� said 麻豆原创 Professor Humberto Campins. 鈥淎nd it supports the theory that asteroids may have hit Earth and brought our planet its water and the building blocks for life to form and evolve here.鈥�

Campins will present the teams鈥� findings during the in Pasadena, Calif., which concludes Oct. 8.

Asteroid 65 Cybele is somewhat larger than asteroid 24 Themis 鈥� the subject of the teams鈥� first paper. Cybele has a diameter of 290 km (180 miles). Themis has a diameter of 200 km (124 miles). Both are in the same region of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The academic article reporting this new finding has been accepted for publication in the European Journal 鈥淎stronomy and Astrophysics.鈥�

Co-authors of the paper are Zoe Landsman and Kelly Hasgrove of the 麻豆原创;聽 Javier Licandro of Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Spain, Michael S. Kelley of Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, Noemi Pinilla-Alonso and Dale Cruikshank of the NASA Ames Research Center; Andrew S. Rivkin of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Joshua Emery of the Earth and Planetary Science Department, University of Tennessee.

Campins is an expert on asteroids and comets. He received national attention for an article published in Nature showing the first evidence of water ice and organic molecules on asteroid 24 Themis.聽 He鈥檚 also worked on several science missions with NASA and the European Space Agency.

Campins holds degrees from the University of Kansas and the University of Arizona. He joined 麻豆原创 in 2002 as the Provost Research Professor of Physics and Astronomy and head of the Planetary and Space Science Group.

Britt joined 麻豆原创 in 2003 and was the director of the on-campus Robinson Observatory. His research revolves around using remote sensing tools to determine the composition and evolution of solar system objects, including asteroids, comets and Mars. He has worked on several NASA projects, including the Mars Pathfinder mission in 1993.

Britt will serve as vice-chair of the DPS through the fall of 2011. That鈥檚 when he takes over as chair. Britt is not the only 麻豆原创 representative to help the organization鈥檚 leadership. 麻豆原创 Associate Professor Josh Colwell is a DPS committee member.

麻豆原创 helped bring the DPS annual conference to Florida for the first time in 2007. Professor Humberto Campins and Britt helped organize the DPS conference that year. More than 1,000 scientists from around the world attended that conference.