P44A-06
Exploring the Integration of Field Portable Instrumentation into Real-Time Surface Science Operations with the RIS4E SSERVI Team
Thursday, 17 December 2015: 17:00
2007 (Moscone West)
Kelsey E Young1,2, Jacob E Bleacher3, Deanne Rogers4, William Brent Garry2, Amy McAdam2, Stephen P Scheidt5, Lynn M Carter2 and Timothy D Glotch4, (1)University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD, United States, (2)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (3)NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (4)Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States, (5)University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States
Abstract:
The Remote, In Situ, and Synchrotron Studies for Science (RIS4E) team represents one node of the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) program. While the RIS4E team consists of four themes, each dedicated to a different aspect of airless body exploration, this submission details the RIS4E work underway to maximize an astronaut’s effectiveness while conducting surface science. The next generation of surface science operations will look quite different than the EVAs (extravehicular activities) conducted during Apollo. Astronauts will possess data of much higher resolution than the Apollo reconnaissance data, and the EVAs will thus be designed to answer targeted science questions. Additionally, technological advancements over the last several decades have made it possible to conduct in situ analyses of a caliber much greater than was achievable during Apollo. For example, lab techniques such as x-ray fluorescence, x-ray diffraction, and multi-spectral imaging are now available in field portable formats, meaning that astronauts can gain real-time geochemical awareness during sample collection. The integration of these instruments into EVA operations, however, has not been widely tested. While these instruments will provide the astronaut with a high-resolution look at regional geochemistry and structure, their implementation could prove costly to the already constrained astronaut EVA timeline. The RIS4E team, through fieldwork at the December 1974 lava flow at Kilauea Volcano, HI, investigates the incorporation of portable technologies into planetary surface exploration and explores the relationship between science value added from these instruments and the cost associated with integrating them into an EVA timeline. We also consider what an appropriate instrumentation suite would be for the exploration of a volcanic terrain using this ideal terrestrial analog (see Rogers et al., Young et al., Bleacher et al., and Yant et al., this meeting).
