Project Overview
Development of the DIMPLE Lunar Payload
Department(s)
Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
The DIMPLE experiment has been selected by NASA to fly to the Moon later this decade. Professor Levine (Physics and Astronomy) is the Deputy Principal Investigator.
The goal of the experiment is to measure the age of an enigmatic landform on the Moon called Ina. Apparently a volcanic landform, Ina has unusually few impact craters, which suggests that it is relatively young. Whereas the surrounding areas of the Moon have so many impact craters that they seem to be about 3.75 billion years old, Ina's age looks like 0.03 billion years. That's outrageously young, for the Moon. If Ina really is that young, then we have no idea how the Moon's interior works, because it should have long ago cooled to the point that volcanic activity stops.
We are building and testing the DIMPLE hardware, first in a prototype version called the Engineering Development Unit, and then ultimately the flight module. Most of the actual construction happens at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. However, a lot of support work happens here at Colgate.
This year, I need student help in two specific areas. 1) Development of the real-time data analysis software that the DIMPLE science team will be using during the experiment in order to guide decision making during the limited time we have on the surface of the Moon. We get only one lunar day (about 280 hours) of operations time; we can't be using too much of that time to ask things like whether we have enough data points on a given rock yet...we need to know at a glance. 2) As team members are giving many DIMPLE talks at meetings, seminars, and conferences, we would like to have effective visualizations of the resonance ionization process that lies at the heart of our instrument. It is a non-standard technique in the planetary sciences, but it involves some beautiful physics. I expect to have two students, one working mostly on data analysis software, and one mostly on visualization. However, I look forward to the students and I working collaboratively on both these tasks.
Student Qualifications
Interest in atoms, light, and (ideally) rocks.
Some scientific coding experience in any language (Matlab or Python ideal).
Students must be US nationals to work on this project, as it involves spaceflight hardware.
Project Length
8 weeks
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