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All talks of the series will be given in the von Karman Auditorium on the days and dates indicated in the program below. Starting at 11:50 a.m., program coordinators will be invited to make announcements before the introduction of the speaker and the start of the talk at noon. The sessions will end no later than 12:55 so that there will be time to clean up and vacate the conference room before 1:00 p.m. Note: One exception, on June 18, 2009 the talk will begin at 12:15 pm. Only
students with a JPL badge may attend.
Thursday, 18 June
Dr. John Callas, Project Manager, Mars Exploration Rovers (690)
The Second Copernican Revolution: Our Changing View of Our Place in the Universe
Five hundred years ago, Copernicus advanced the theory that the Earth was not the center of the Solar System. That theory revolutionized our understanding of the Universe. It was initially met with great opposition because of what it meant about our own significance. Today there is a second Copernican revolution underway that will once again alter our significance. Advances in technologies and techniques are enabling the detection, observation and study of Earth-like planets around other stars. And several deep-space missions are currently exploring potentially-habitable worlds within our Solar System as possible abodes for life beyond the Earth. As one such mission, the two intrepid robotic explorers, Spirit and Opportunity, have been exploring the surface of Mars for evidence of past habitable environments that could have supported life. The rovers have traversed great plains, climbed mountains, descended into deep craters and survived rover-killing dust storms and frigid winters. Both rovers have found clues that Mars was once Earth-like with a potential for life. As the rovers move, each day becomes a brand new mission with new sights and new locations to explore with more mysteries to solve. Within the next few years, we stand poised to answering the question, "Are we alone in the Universe?"
Friday, 26 June
Dr. Randii Wessen, Project Formulation Office Deputy Manager (154)
The Future of U.S. Robotic Planetary Exploration
As the millennium closed, so did the era of large planetary spacecraft that were launched once per decade. Future robotic spacecraft will have a wide range of capabilities, diverse mission objectives, and be launched almost one per year. Among the many types of missions, some will be the landers and sample return missions of tomorrow. To meet these bold endeavors, these ambassadors from Earth will require advanced mission concepts, new operational approaches, as well as technologies that have yet to be developed. To organize this effort, the United States robotic planetary exploration program has been divided into the following themes:
- Earth
- Mars
- Solar System
- Universe
This presentation will describe each of these areas, the major missions currently in operations, and those being planned. It will also have a special emphasis on the quest for extra-solar planets and the search for life in the cosmos.
Thursday, 9 July
Dr. Patricia Beauchamp, Strategic Missions and Advanced Concepts Office in the Solar System Exploration Directorate (416)
Missions to Titan, the Enigmatic Moon of Saturn
The Cassini-Huygens mission has revolutionized our understanding of the Titan system and its potential for harbouring the ingredients necessary for life. The discoveries reveal that Titan is rich in organics, possibly contains a vast subsurface ocean and has energy sources to drive chemical evolution. With these recent findings, the interest in Titan as the next scientific target in the outer Solar System is strongly reinforced. This presentation will discuss how results from the Cassini-Huygens mission have led to a future mission concept, which was completed in 2008 when NASA commissioned a new mission study of the Titan Saturn System.
Thursday, 16 July
Thomas Valdez, Research Engineer for the development of fuel cells and electrolyzers (346)
Hybrid Fuel Cell/ High-Power Battery Power Source for the All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer (ATHLETE) Robot
Human exploration of the Moon will require advanced robotic systems that can aid astronauts with scientific investigations and other operational activities. Fuel cell/ rechargeable battery hybrid power systems are proposed as the power source for the Lunar robots. In a fuel cell/rechargeable battery hybrid power source, the high energy density fuel cell system will provide the required steady state power and the high power battery will provide the peak power capability. The advantage of using such a hybrid power source is that the power system can be optimized for both size and efficiency. The All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer (ATHLETE) is a robot that has been developed as a pre-cursor to future Lunar mobility systems. The talk will discuss the testing of a fuel cell/rechargeable battery hybrid power source developed to power the ATHLETE robot during long traverse operation, and will specifically address power source performance during an ATHLETE 1 km traverse.
Thursday, 23 July
Dr. Pamela Conrad, Co-investigator & payload investigation scientist for the SAM suite, MSL (322)
21st Century Exploration: Preparing for Environmental Assessment on Other Planets
In 2011, NASA will launch the Mars Science Laboratory, with the most complicated set of payload investigations ever to visit the red planet. Its goal is to assess the habitability of the Martian environment, either past or present. But precisely how do we assess habitability? What does it even mean? In this talk, we will explore some concrete measurements one might make both on Earth and on Mars to understand how an environment’s potential to support life can be evaluated in quantitative terms.”
Thursday, 30 July
Dr. Randall Friedl, Chief Scientist for JPL’s Earth Science and Technology Directorate (800)
A Cold Look at a Warming Earth
Change is occurring in Earth’s climate at an unprecedented rate, already manifesting itself in record warm years, increasing sea level, and decreasing snow and ice extent. Scientific understanding has reached the point where the cause of a substantial portion of observed climate change can be attributed to human activities. Even as attention is now turning to dealing with our vulnerability to the effects of climate change, our adaptations to likely changes, and our efforts to anticipate and mitigate future impacts, current global CO2 emissions are exceeding the most pessimistic emissions scenario developed just 8 years ago and many climate change impacts are now projected to be larger and occur sooner.
The inextricable links between climate change, energy, water, and food needs, human health, economic growth and national security make the task of developing an effective complement of mitigation and adaptation solutions particularly daunting. The nation is faced with resolving competing interests such as mitigating climate change impacts by limiting fossil fuel emissions at the same time as providing affordable energy. Acceptance of any specific future CO2 stabilization level means planning across sectors for increases in extreme weather events, and shifts in temperature and precipitation patterns. An effective complement of solutions must be built on a strong foundation of integrated impact analysis done comprehensively across the linked socio-economic facets. The integrated analyses, in turn, must rest on accurate scientific and technological information, provided by observing systems that view the Earth globally at regional and local scales, and delivered by models and tools that turn observations into useful information products for decision-makers.
This talk will focus on the current understanding of climate change and the need for an effective national response to the challenges of climate change focusing on building a mature Earth observing and prediction system and delivering practical solutions, with understood risks and benefits.
Thursday, 6 August
Dr. Richard Terrile, Director of the Center for Evolutionary Computation and Automated Design (410)
Rise of the Machines: Exploring Space with Intelligent Robots
This talk will examine the field of evolving intelligent machines to explore space and directly address how close we are to creating true artificial intelligence. Evolutionary computation is changing the way humans interact with computers and may bring us to the threshold of conscious machines. Today’s advances in science and technology will be contrasted with predictions based in science fiction and movies.
Monday, 10 August
Dr. Anita Sengupta, Senior Systems Engineer, EDL and Advanced Technologies Group (313)
Enabling Technologies for Mars, Venus, and Beyond
NASA missions take us into orbit around interplanetary objects; allow us to traverse the terrain of Mars, and land on the inhospitable surface of Venus. Spacecraft technology development and infusion into flight missions continues to be on the forefront of research at NASA. At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory we are researching, developing, and improving critical technologies to enable a new class of missions. We have developed high specific impulse and long life electric propulsion systems for missions to comets, asteroids, the Jovian system, and beyond. We have designed and implemented entry system technologies to deliver a massive nuclear-powered robotic geologist to the surface of Mars in 2012. We are currently developing the entry system to land a pressurized sphere on the surface of Venus, in order to learn about the atmospheric and geologic evolution of our sister planet.
This talk will focus on research and development of technologies for near term NASA missions in the areas of cruise, entry, descent and landing. The NSTAR ion thruster, first flown on Deep Space 1, was the subject of extensive research to improve its plasma production efficiency and understand wear and degradation processes. The result of our research enabled the 2007 Dawn Mission which is currently flying a suite of three ion thrusters on a journey to the Main Asteroid Belt. The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) will deliver a 950 kg rover, requiring the use of a supersonic aerodynamic decelerator and a novel propulsive-tethered landing approach. Our research into supersonic fluid structure interaction enabled the qualification of a 21.5 meter parachute system, the largest ever built for an off earth application. The MSL terminal descent engines create a plume impingement induced landing site alteration. Our research into under expanded supersonic jet interaction with Martian media has yielded new experimental measurements of bearing capacity failure, entrainment, and saltation. Finally, we are developing an entry system for a Venus lander that will see heat flux and peak deceleration levels ten times above Mars entry and experience surface pressure and temperature up to 100 times that of Earth. We are developing an ablative thermal protection system that must accommodate high levels of convective and radiative heating during atmospheric entry. The research in each of these areas will de discussed including new findings, flight implementation, and future work.
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