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  • Mission to Mars: what a student-designed, student-built camera can teach us about the red planet

Christopher Edwards

Mission to Mars: what a student-designed, student-built camera can teach us about the red planet

Posted by Ed on May 1, 2024

Fully assembled and flight qualified VISIONS Flight 1 and Flight 2 instruments prior to packaging for shipping. Credit: APS/NAU

Not many people in the world can say that something they built is orbiting Mars—especially not college students. Soon, a cross-disciplinary team of about 35 NAU students—most studying planetary science, astronomy, mechanical engineering or electrical engineering—led by faculty members at NAU will be able to claim that accomplishment. The team’s VISIONS (VISible and Infrared ObservatioN System) camera is… Read more

Filed Under: Astronomy and Planetary Science

Flagstaff’s Team Snuffed competes for a shot at $11 million with its space-based wildfire detection project

Posted by Ed on April 18, 2024

A Flagstaff team made up of NAU and Flagstaff-based engineers, scientists and fire professionals has been selected to advance to the next stage of the Space-based Detection and Intelligence Track of the XPRIZE Wildfire competition.

Read the full article at The NAU Review.

Filed Under: Astronomy and Planetary Science

Flagstaff team advances in global competition with proposal for fire-detecting satellites

Posted by Ed on

A NASA satellite captured this view of smoke from a wildfire in Nova Scotia in 2023.

The team proposes to put a ‘constellation’ of 90 small satellites into Earth orbit equipped with heat-seeking sensors built at Northern Arizona University. The network would continuously monitor wildfire-prone areas in parts of the Southwest including Flagstaff and the Pacific Northwest, Canada, and Alaska.

Read the full article at KNAU.

More information about the XPRIZE Wildfire… Read more

Filed Under: Astronomy and Planetary Science

SPACED OUT

Posted by Author on Source on September 30, 2023

The Pine Magazine of the NAU Foundation, Fall 2023 Edition, spotlights “NAU professors, students and researchers [that] are working to answer important questions about Life on Earth … and possibly beyond.“

Filed Under: Astronomy and Planetary Science

New Emirates Mars Mission observations hint at the origins of Mars’ mysterious moon

Posted by Ed on April 27, 2023

Emirates Mars Mission composite photo of Deimos and Mars.

The Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), the first interplanetary exploration undertaken by an Arab nation, has unveiled a series of groundbreaking observations of Mars’ smaller moon, Deimos. The observations, shared during a special session at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU23) in Vienna, used all three of the mission’s science instruments (EMUS, EMIRS and EXI) to reveal new details of Mars’ most mysterious moon and where it came… Read more

Filed Under: Astronomy and Planetary Science

NAU professor, students assisting in mission to Mars to learn about its 2 moons

Posted by Ed on April 19, 2023

It’s a project that could also improve life here on Earth.

“If you think about this project—it’s pretty ambitious,” said Dr. Christopher Edwards, associate professor in NAU’s department of astronomy and planetary science.

He’s over the moon about this opportunity.

“We’re going to send a spacecraft to orbit another planet, land on its moon, pick up samples and bring it back to Earth,” Edwards explained.

Read the article and see the video of the interview at FOX 10 Phoenix

Filed Under: Astronomy and Planetary Science

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