Raymond E. Arvidson, Ph.D., professor and chair of earth and planetary sciences in Arts and Sciences, and four of his student researchers will give a special Assembly Series presentation titled "The Solo Spirit Mission: From Argentina to the Coral Sea" at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23, in Graham Chapel. The event is free and open to the public.
Arvidson and the student researchers were directly involved in adventurer Steve Fossett's August attempt to fly solo in a balloon around the world, serving as key members of Fossett's mission control team.
Arvidson served as mission control science coordinator for the Fossett flight and for the payload aboard the flight. A scientist who has made significant contributions to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) missions to Mars and Venus, Arvidson said that the payload was prepared as a prototype of the kind of instrumentation NASA may eventually fly into the atmosphere of Mars or Venus on a robotic balloon called an aerobot. The payload consisted of instruments to measure position, temperature, pressure, vertical wind velocity and sky radiance. It is because Fossett carried this payload that his flight qualified as a mission.
Arvidson, a 25-year NASA veteran, directs NASA's Geoscience Node, located on the University campus. It is the chief storehouse and distribution center for NASA-derived data from the surfaces and interiors of Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars and the larger satellites of the outer planets. He played a significant role in the Viking and Magellan missions. He is currently an interdisciplinary scientist on the Mars Global Surveyor and the deputy principal investigator for the Athena Mars 2001 Rover Mission. He has published in numerous journals and magazines, including Science, Planetary and Space Sciences, Geology and Scientific American.
Arvidson earned a bachelor's degree in the geological sciences from Temple University in 1969 and master's and doctorate degrees in geological sciences from Brown University in 1971 and 1974, respectively. He joined Washington University in 1974.
The student researchers participating with Arvidson in the Assembly Series presentation -- Heather Brouillet, Bloomington, Ill.; Brian Ebel, Chesterfield, Mo.; Sarah Johnson, Lexington, Ky.; and Stephanie Nelson, Livonia, Mich. -- are all sophomores enrolled in the Hewlett Program in Environmental Sustainability, a cross-disciplinary, two-year program offering intensive studies of environmental topics. The students won places in the program because of their keen interest in the environment and their academic ability. During the Solo Spirit Mission, they worked around the clock, helping handle and post data that came in from the NASA payload.
For more information about the Assembly Series, call 935-5285 or visit the Web page, http://wupa.wustl.edu/assembly.
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