Get Herald RSSOne small step for Brown, one giant leap for mankind.
NASA has chosen a team of geologists from Brown and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to participate in the Lunar Science Institute, an organization created to support and extend its lunar science programs, research and education.
Carle Pieters, professor of geological sciences and the team's principal investigator, said the project will study the moon to understand the evolution of the solar system, illuminate the geological processes at work on Earth and train the next generation of lunar scientists. NASA will provide the institute with over $1 million per year in funding for the next four years.
Brown's joint proposal with MIT, "The Moon as Cornerstone to the Terrestrial Planets: The Formative Years," was one of seven selected from 33 proposals by academic institutions, nonprofit research institutes and private companies.
The Lunar Institute comes at a time of increasing prominence for Earth's closest celestial neighbor. After the Apollo program in the early 1970s, NASA's focus shifted to exploring other planets.
But recently, "the exploration of the moon is having a renaissance," Pieters said.
This return to lunar studies is significant because "the moon is one of the few bodies that preserves the evolution of the early solar system," said Michael Wyatt, assistant professor of geological sciences and deputy principal investigator. The moon's well-preserved geology can reveal the development of rocky planets like the Earth, and their earliest histories, he said.
Brown and MIT will be investigating the moon from its surface to its interior. The Brown team will focus on the moon's surface, while the MIT group will study its core.
"One person doesn't have the expertise to understand the moon as a whole - from the upper surface all the way to the core of the moon," Wyatt said. "The institute makes it more feasible for everybody to come together."
The Brown-MIT team was forged out of the "incestuous" relationship shared by the two schools' geological studies departments, Pieters said. Geologists at both schools have worked together on many projects, classes and lecture series. One of the major themes of the proposal, which included 10 Brown researchers, six MIT researchers and five others, was multidisciplinary collaboration.
Brown's proposal also reflected its emphasis on training future scientists and lunar researchers. In the future, the University might host a summer consortium for planetary researchers from NASA and other academic institutions.
"It is an exciting time to study the moon," Wyatt said. "We do know a lot about the moon, but (the project) will redefine the moon. It will be a whole new moon."
