SLAS Regular Meeting
Friday, April 16, 2010
7:30pm
McDonnell Hall,
Washington University

MoonRise: A Sample-Return Mission to Investigate the Impact History of the Solar System and Formation of the Moon's Crust

by

Research Professor Brad Jolliff
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Washington University

The Moon is the most accessible astronomical object. The craters and lava "seas" that cover its surface are easily seen, even through small telescopes. But many of the great advances in un- derstanding the nature and origin of our natural satellite have been made by actually going to the Moon. Dr. Jolliff will talk about the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a robot spacecraft now in lunar orbit, and his work with its advanced camera system. He will discuss recent findings of water at the poles of the Moon and its importance to future human lunar exploration. And he will introduce the MoonRise spacecraft lander and sample return mission that he is proposing to NASA. MoonRise has been selected from dozens of proposals as one of three finalists in the competition for full funding under the NASA New Horizons program.

Brad Jolliff is a Research Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University, and a Fellow of the University’s McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences. He studies the geology, petrology, and geochemistry of the Earth, Moon, and Mars.