Gallery of space research
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- From left, Purdue doctoral students Zach Hallum, Michael Bedard and Eric Meier have worked on a team to design, build and test part of a new rocket engine for a spacecraft to land on the moon, Mars and asteroids. (Purdue University photo/Mark Simons)
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- The image shows the orbits of the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos and the spread of potential particle trajectories from an asteroid impact on Mars. (Purdue University image/courtesy of Chappaz)
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- Prof. Jeff Volenec, at right, and Shane, his graduate assistant, have been growing a variety of grasses, legumes and food crops in soil close to what astronauts may find on Mars. (Purdue Agricultural Communications photo/Tom Campbell)
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- Supriyo Datta, right, directs the Purdue-based NASA Institute for Nanoelectronics and Computing. Mark Lundstrom, left, directs another new federally funded center, the Network for Computational Nanotechnology.
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- Barrett Caldwell conducts research in applying human factors and industrial engineering principles to team performance in complex task environments.
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- Purdue graduate student Samantha Alberts and professor Steven Collicott discuss details of a zero-gravity flight experiment that flew in June on NASA’s “vomit comet,” an airplane that induces short periods of weightlessness by flying in steep parabolic maneuvers. (Purdue University photo/Andrew Hancock)
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- Lisa Mauer, a Purdue University professor of food science; Lynne Taylor, a professor of industrial and physical pharmacy; and graduate student Rebecca Lipasek study deliquescence, a reaction in which humidity causes a crystalline solid to dissolve. They wanted to understand how anti-caking agents protect substances such as vitamin C from humidity.
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- Footprint on the moon. Photo courtesy of NASA. Purdue has produced 23 astronauts who have been chosen for space flight, including the first and last men to step on the moon.
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- Prof. Cary Mitchell, director of the NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training for Advanced Life Support, is experimenting with tiny light strips for growing plants in space. (Agricultural Communications photo by Tom Campbell)
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- Purdue astronaut Jerry Ross on his last trip in space.
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- George Chiu, professor of mechanical engineering; Rebecca Kramer, assistant professor of mechanical engineering; and postdoctoral research associate J. William Boley examine a rubber-like polymer that could be used for robots. Purdue University photo/Charles Jischke.
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- Prof. Jay Melosh led a study of large concentrations of mass on the lunar surface. The team confirmed that the mass concentrations, or “mascons,” were caused by massive asteroid impacts billions of year ago and determined how these impacts changed the density of material on the moon’s surface and, in turn, its gravity field. (Purdue University photo/Mark Simons; image of lunar gravity field courtesy of NASA)