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| Members of the
Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) met at Woodhead
Lounge July 20-22. Martha Gilmore, assistant professor of earth and
environmental sciences, (pictured second from left in the first row)
coordinated the meeting. |
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| Posted 08.17.05 |
Planetary Group Discusses NASA, Spaced-Based Achievements
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Martian oceans, solar system exploration and
telescopic studies of Neptune were all topics of discussion during a
planetary committee meeting at Wesleyan.
The Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) met at Wesleyan’s
Woodhead Lounge July 20-22. COMPLEX advises the National Academies’ Space
Studies Board on the entire range of planetary system studies that can be
conducted from space as well as on ground-based activities in support of
space-based efforts.
The 10-member committee assists the board in carrying out studies,
monitoring the implementation of strategies, and providing evaluations of
programs and strategic priorities for NASA and other government agencies.
Martha Gilmore, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences and
COMPLEX member, coordinated the Wesleyan meeting. The committee meets about
three times a year in various locations.
“Some of the work we performed in this meeting is to consider some of the
consequences of the change to a new NASA administrator and the president's
Vision for Space Exploration on solar system exploration priorities as they
were defined by the community prior to these changes,” Gilmore says. “It is
anticipated that the group will formulate and participate in studies to
address this issue.”
Andrew Dantzler and Douglas McCuistion of NASA Headquarters provided a Mars
Exploration Program status report and the status of NASA solar system
exploration activities.
In addition, Gilmore spoke about the geology and rocks from the opening of
the Atlantic Ocean; James Greenwood, research assistant professor and
visiting assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, spoke
about geochemistry of a martian ocean; and William Herbst, the John Monroe
Van Vleck Professor of Astronomy, chair of the Astronomy Department and
director of the Van Vleck Observatory, discussed the circumstellar disk of
KH15D.
Members of the board included representatives from NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, University of Michigan, University of Texas,
University of Arizona, University of Hawaii, University of California, Los
Angeles and Johns Hopkins University.
For more information on the committee or their projects, visit:
http://www7.nationalacademies.org/ssb/complex1.html or
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/explore_main.html. |
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| By
Olivia Bartlett, The Wesleyan Connection
editor |
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