Colloquium Series
The goal of the Space Studies Colloquium Series is to bring guest researchers from the astronautical and space science communities, in both industry and academia, to support space-related scholarships in the Department of Space Studies at UND and other North Dakota institutions of higher education. Guest researchers will be invited by the Department of Space Studies to give a seminar in their area of professional expertise, guest lecture in existing courses offered through the department, and consult on space-related research with faculty and students. Guest researchers will be invited from a variety of backgrounds and research areas, such as space engineering, space life sciences, planetary sciences, astrobiology, earth system sciences, and space policy. In addition to the Department of Space Studies, guest speakers will interact with faculty, researchers, and students in a number of programs at UND including the School of Aerospace Sciences, College of Business, and the Departments of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Geography, Geology, Physics, and Political Science.
2020
Surface Composition and Thermal Evolution of Asteroids: Results from the Observatory and Laboratory
February 10, 2020
(watch)Michael Lucas
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Michael Peter Lucas was born in Leesburg, Virginia and was raised in his hometown of Annandale, Virginia. Michael attended St. Michael's Catholic School in Annandale through the eighth grade. Despite very little coursework in science at catholic school, Michael realized when he was "knee-high" that he would become a scientist. Michael attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, VA, where he joined the astronomy club and competed in athletics on the track team.
Michael became a founding staff member of Florida Gulf Coast University, where he co-founded the Evelyn L. Egan Astronomical Observatory that was built on the campus of that institution in 2002. Shortly thereafter in 2003 he earned his B.A. in Geology at the University of South Florida (USF). Before returning to USF for graduate studies, Michael enjoyed a successful laboratory career, first as a chemist at the lab bench, then as a manager in various private and governmental laboratory settings. Michael earned his M.S. in Geology at USF in 2011 and afterward moved to Knoxville, TN to pursue a Ph.D. in Planetary Science in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences at the University of Tennessee (UTK), where he earned his doctorate in 2017.
Michael has held numerous fellowships throughout his academic career, including a Florida Space Grant Fellowship and the Richard H. Davis Endowed Fellowship in Geology during his master's program. During his doctoral program at UTK, he was awarded an Oscar R. Ashley Fellowship and was also a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellow. Michael currently is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, UTK, where he uses the mineralogic, geochemical, and spectral analyses of meteorites, integrated with astronomical observations of their asteroid parent bodies using ground-based telescopes, to explore the petrogenesis, composition, and evolution of the early Solar System. Michael owns too many backyard telescopes, enjoys music, backpacking, and model rocketry. Michael believes strongly in public service and stays active in cancer patient advocacy and outreach.
Most asteroids are very far away, making it difficult to ascertain their compositions. The direct method to determine the composition of an asteroid is to send a spacecraft to grab a sample from its surface and deliver it back to Earth. But, sample return missions are expensive, and presently only a few asteroids are targeted for sample return missions. Conveniently, meteorites are pieces of asteroids and therefore represent essentially "free" asteroid samples. These samples represent "time capsules" for the study of the early evolution of the Solar System. Furthermore, the study of asteroids is greatly aided by ground-based telescopes, which are highly useful in the field of asteroid science because the number of objects is so great (~1.5 x 106 asteroids >1 km in the Main Belt) that only a tiny fraction can ever be visited by spacecraft. In lieu of asteroid sample return missions, the mineralogical and spectral study of meteorites in the laboratory, combined with ground-based telescopic spectral observations of asteroids, affords the best possibility of linking meteorite groups with the surface composition of their parent asteroid(s).
In his presentation, Dr. Lucas will begin with background material on establishing asteroid-meteorite connections using both ground-based telescopes and the laboratory analysis of meteorites. The presentation will then focus on asteroid science using ground-based observatories. Dr. Lucas will describe the results of his comprehensive telescopic spectral survey entitled Hungaria Asteroid Region Telescopic Spectral Survey (HARTSS), where he investigated the surface compositions and meteorite analogs of 92 Hungaria asteroids. Next, the focus of the presentation will shift to the laboratory to describe Dr. Lucas' work on developing correlations between the mineralogy and spectral properties of primitive achondrite meteorites, specifically the acapulcoite-lodranite clan. Finally, Dr. Lucas will present his latest research regarding the thermal histories of ordinary chondrite (H, L, and LL) parent asteroids. This work uses a novel Rare-Earth-Element (REE) thermometric method to show that parent bodies of ordinary chondrite meteorites most likely experienced violent thermal histories, which involved fragmentation-reassembly, rather than quiescent thermal histories required by the classic onion shell model.
Remote Sensing from Space: A Time of Extreme Growth
January 27, 2020
(watch)Jon Christopherson
Principal Systems Engineer, USGS Earth Resources Observations and Science Center
Jon Christopherson is a Principal Systems Engineer with KBR, the technical services contractor to the USGS EROS Center. At EROS he is a lead in the New Missions area where they work to stay abreast of the many new Earth observing satellites being launched, their data quality, and usefulness to Science.
Prior to EROS, Christopherson worked for an Aerospace and Defense company building the sensor for Landsat 7 in Santa Barbara. His career has taken him to 24 countries and all fifty states while he has lived in Southern California, Silicon Valley, Georgia, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and now South Dakota.
Christopherson has a Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering and was in the first UND Space Studies class to get their Master's degrees via distance learning in 1998.
Shankar Ramaseri
Systems Engineer, USGS Earth Resources Observations and Science Center
Shankar Ramaseri holds a Master's Degree in Space Studies from UND. He currently works as a Systems Engineer for KBR, a technical contractor to USGS EROS Center. His work at EROS is focused on researching remote sensing systems and assisting with system characterization. He also works on orbit analyses of remote sensing satellites. Shankar holds a Bachelors in Aeronautical Engineering from JNTU, India. While in India, he worked as a project engineer for Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO) researching orbits and sensors. Shankar's interests lie in studying orbital dynamics of satellites around asteroids, remote sensing, and space policy.
Observation of Earth's land areas from space began with the launch of the first Landsat in 1972. In recent years there has been almost explosive growth in Earth Observation (EO) from space as hundreds of satellites have been launched in the last several years. The presenters, both from the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center in Sioux Falls will introduce the colloquium to EROS and what it does, and also discuss the recent rapid growth in remote sensing from space and its implications and opportunities.