Welcome

Welcome to my science home page. Information on my research projects, the NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) missions that I am involved with, and links to relevant planetary science sites are contained on these pages.

Currently I am working as a Research Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. My research specialties include the geology of Mars and the icy satellites of the outer Solar System.

Mars Exploration

Mars has more active spacecraft missions than any other planet in the Solar System, except for Earth. Forty years ago, we knew very little about the surface, history, geology and weather of Mars. Now we are receiving new high-resolution data every day from the Red Planet! Planetary scientists who currently study Mars have access to data from the following current missions:

• Instruments on board the Mars Exploration Rovers, named Spirit and Opportunity. These rovers arrived at Mars in January, 2004.
• Instruments on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA's newest spacecraft at Mars.
• Instruments on board the Mars Express, the European Space Agency's orbiter. NASA also participates in this mission.
• Instruments on board the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft, from NASA-JPL.

Icy Satellites

• The New Horizons mission to Pluto. I am on the imaging team for this mission. In 2010, the spacecraft is almost halfway to Pluto, a journey that will take more than ten years!
• The Cassini mission to Saturn. With its beautiful, complex rings, Saturn has over 60 satellites, including Enceladus, an icy moon that spews water into space from cracks on its surface.

Links

The following web sites will help you begin to explore the Solar System:

• Visit the Mars exploration home page for NASA and the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL).
• Check out The Nine Planets, a survey of the Solar System.

More later!