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7 April 2012
Pretty Picture: Huygens Crater
Check out what I made today! Actually, I can’t really take much credit. I am starting up a new project using ArcGIS, and I got this pretty picture by just downloading the global topography and daytime infrared datasets from this USGS page. It’s extremely gratifying to download datasets and have them just automatically be aligned and map projected properly. I spent a lot of time today just zooming around Mars and admiring the beautiful data.
28 March 2012
LPSC 2012 Highlights: Tuesday – Mars Hydrology and Climate
On the second day of this year’s Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, two of the most interesting talks that I saw were back to back in the morning session about planetary hydrology.
27 March 2012
LPSC 2012 Highlights – Masursky Lecture
Well folks, I’m back from another successful LPSC! I am going to approach my recap differently this time: instead of an attempt to exhaustively list talks that I found interesting, I’m just going to do a few posts about key highlights, starting with the Masursky lecture by Jim Head about the history of the Martian climate. I thought Jim’s talk was a great summary of the state of our understanding of the evolution of the climate on Mars, and I will do my best to summarize it here.
12 March 2012
Why explore Mars?
During my thesis defense, one of the questions that caught me most off guard was: “What would you say to a member of the public who asked you why we’re spending more than $2 billion on the Mars Science Laboratory rover?”
I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t answer very well. I was all prepared for my research methods and results to be picked apart, and so I went sort of brain-dead when this question came up. Now, with the brutal cuts to the planetary science budget in the president’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2013, I think it’s time I gave a proper answer.
8 March 2012
Spectacular Martian Dust Devil/Ghost Worm
This just in from Mars, a stunning image that appears to be the ghost of a giant sand worm! Of course, those eggheads at NASA would have you believe that this is actually a dust devil. This is by no means the first time that a giant sand worm/dust devil has been seen on Mars. Here are some more spectacular images:
7 March 2012
Ryan goes to Washington
I am pretty interested in politics and I had always sort of wanted to talk to people on the hill about space-related issues, but I could never justify making a trip to DC. But the National Space Grant meeting gave me the perfect excuse! So of course I accepted the invitation, and last week I found myself touching down at Reagan National Airport, with a view of the Capitol and the Washington Monument out the window of the plane.
14 February 2012
Proposed NASA Budget Cuts Mars Exploration by $226 Million
As you have no doubt heard, the proposed budget for fiscal year was announced today. Overall, NASA did alright, ending up with $17.71 billion as compared to the $17.77 billion estimate for fiscal year 2012. However, this number hides some painful changes, specifically in the Mars exploration program.The proposed budget would cut the Mars program from $587 million in FY 2012 to $360.8 million in FY 2013. That’s a cut of $226 million, or about 38%. Ouch.
24 January 2012
Graduate School Advice: Part 3 – Staying Sane and Happy
Grad school can be an emotional rollercoaster, and there are a lot of cultural forces at work in academia that don’t have grad students’ happiness and mental health as a high priority. Still, it is possible to get through graduate school while minimizing the low points, and I think things are generally getting better in the academic culture (though there is always room for improvement). This is a huge topic, so I’m going to focus on several particular sub-topics: Impostor syndrome, doubt, and guilt (a.k.a. work-life balance).
18 January 2012
Content Blocked by SOPA/PIPA
Click here, here, and here to learn more about these bills that could result in widespread internet censorship.
Rovers in the Mars Yard
Check out this great photo that I saw on the Curiosity Facebook page, showing models of Sojourner, MER and MSL, along with two engineers for scale. Curiosity is a really big robot!
