Lucy McFadden | |
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| Alma mater | Hampshire College (BA) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MS) University of Hawaiʻi (PhD) |
| Website | deepimpact |
Lucy-Ann Adams McFadden (born 1953) is an American astronomer and planetary scientist. An employee of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, she also founded the Science, Discovery & the Universe Program within the University of Maryland, and the Explore-It-All Science Center, a children's science program.
McFadden was born in New York City in 1952. [1] Her studies culminated in a bachelor's degree from Hampshire College (1974), Master's in earth and planetary science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1977), and a Ph.D. in geology and geophysics from the University of Hawaiʻi (1983) with the dissertation Spectral reflectance of near-Earth asteroids: implications for composition, origin and evolution. She has held positions at the University of Maryland, College Park, California Space Institute at the University of California, San Diego, and Space Telescope Science Institute. At NASA, McFadden has been an investigator for the Dawn mission to 4 Vesta and Ceres; and the Deep Impact and EPOXI programs. She has been a science team member for the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission; a member of the 2007-2008 ANSMET expedition; a member of the Almahata Sitta meteorite expedition (Northern Sudan, 2009); a leader of the NASA Goddard higher education and university programs (2010); and director of the Education and Public Outreach program for the Deep Impact and Dawn missions. [2]
An asteroid is a minor planet—an object that is neither a true planet nor an identified comet— that orbits within the inner Solar System. They are rocky, metallic, or icy bodies with no atmosphere, classified as C-type (carbonaceous), M-type (metallic), or S-type (silicaceous). The size and shape of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from small rubble piles under a kilometer across and larger than meteoroids, to Ceres, a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter. A body is classified as a comet, not an asteroid, if it shows a coma (tail) when warmed by solar radiation, although recent observations suggest a continuum between these types of bodies.
Vesta is one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, with a mean diameter of 525 kilometres (326 mi). It was discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers on 29 March 1807 and is named after Vesta, the virgin goddess of home and hearth from Roman mythology.
The Discovery Program is a series of Solar System exploration missions funded by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) through its Planetary Missions Program Office. The cost of each mission is capped at a lower level than missions from NASA's New Frontiers or Flagship Programs. As a result, Discovery missions tend to be more focused on a specific scientific goal rather than serving a general purpose.
Dawn is a retired space probe that was launched by NASA in September 2007 with the mission of studying two of the three known protoplanets of the asteroid belt: Vesta and Ceres. In the fulfillment of that mission—the ninth in NASA's Discovery Program—Dawn entered orbit around Vesta on July 16, 2011, and completed a 14-month survey mission before leaving for Ceres in late 2012. It entered orbit around Ceres on March 6, 2015. In 2017, NASA announced that the planned nine-year mission would be extended until the probe's hydrazine fuel supply was depleted. On November 1, 2018, NASA announced that Dawn had depleted its hydrazine, and the mission was ended. The derelict probe remains in a stable orbit around Ceres.
Deep Impact was a NASA space probe launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on January 12, 2005. It was designed to study the interior composition of the comet Tempel 1 (9P/Tempel), by releasing an impactor into the comet. At 05:52 UTC on July 4, 2005, the Impactor successfully collided with the comet's nucleus. The impact excavated debris from the interior of the nucleus, forming an impact crater. Photographs taken by the spacecraft showed the comet to be more dusty and less icy than had been expected. The impact generated an unexpectedly large and bright dust cloud, obscuring the view of the impact crater.
Christopher Thomas Russell is head of the Space Physics Center at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) at UCLA, professor in UCLA's Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, and Director of the UCLA Branch of the California Space Grant Consortium. He received a B.Sc. from the University of Toronto in 1964 and a Ph.D. from UCLA in 1968. In 1977 he was awarded the James B. Macelwane Medal and in 2003 the John Adam Fleming Medal by the American Geophysical Union (AGU). He is also a Fellow of the AGU. Asteroid 21459 Chrisrussell was named after him in 2008. In 2017, he was awarded the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal. He has three grandchildren.
Ceres is a dwarf planet in the middle main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It was the first known asteroid, discovered on 1 January 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi at Palermo Astronomical Observatory in Sicily, and announced as a new planet. Ceres was later classified as an asteroid and then a dwarf planet, the only one not beyond Neptune's orbit.
Maria T. Zuber is an American geophysicist who is the E. A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics at Brown University and a current trustee. Zuber has been involved in more than half a dozen NASA planetary missions aimed at mapping the Moon, Mars, Mercury, and several asteroids. She was the principal investigator for the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) Mission, which was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
EPOXI was a compilation of NASA Discovery program missions led by the University of Maryland and principal investigator Michael A'Hearn, with co-operation from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Ball Aerospace. EPOXI uses the Deep Impact spacecraft in a campaign consisting of two missions: the Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI) and Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization (EPOCh). DIXI aimed to send the Deep Impact spacecraft on a flyby of another comet, after its primary mission was completed in July 2005, while EPOCh saw the spacecraft's photographic instruments as a space observatory, studying extrasolar planets.
3066 McFadden, provisional designation 1984 EO, is a stony background asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 15 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 1 March 1984, by American astronomer Edward Bowell at the Anderson Mesa Station near Tucson, Arizona. It was named for American planetary scientist Lucy-Ann McFadden. The assumed S-type asteroid has a rotation period of 13.8 hours.
Carle McGetchin Pieters is an American planetary scientist. Pieters has published more than 150 research articles in peer-reviewed journals and was co-author of the book Remote Geochemical Analyses: Elemental and Mineralogical Composition along with Peter Englert. Her general research efforts include planetary exploration and evolution of planetary surfaces with an emphasis on remote compositional analyses.
Adriana C. Ocampo Uria is a Colombian planetary geologist and a Science Program Manager at NASA Headquarters. In 1970, Ocampo emigrated to California and completed her Master in Sciences at California State University, Northridge and finished her PhD at the Vrije Universiteit in the Netherlands. During high school and graduate studies she worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she serves as the science coordinator for many planetary missions.
The geology of Ceres is the scientific study of the surface, crust, and interior of the dwarf planet Ceres. It seeks to understand and describe Ceres' composition, landforms, evolution, and physical properties and processes. The study draws on fields such as geophysics, remote sensing, geochemistry, geodesy, and cartography.
Christina "Chrissy" Richey is an American planetary scientist and astrophysicist working at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, California. Richey is a project staff scientist for the Europa Clipper mission and is a research technologist in the Astrophysics and Space Sciences Section. Prior to working at JPL, Richey worked as contractor for Arctic Slope Regional Corporation at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. They were a program officer in NASA's Planetary Science Division, the deputy program scientist for the OSIRIS-REx mission, and the deputy science advisor for research and analysis for the Science Mission Directorate.
The Planetary Missions Program Office is a division of NASA headquartered at the Marshall Space Flight Center, formed by the agency's Science Mission Directorate (SMD). Succeeding the Discovery and New Frontiers Program Office, it was established in 2014 to manage the Discovery and New Frontiers programs of low and medium-cost missions by third-party institutions, and the Solar System Exploration program of NASA-led missions that focus on prioritized planetary science objectives. The Discovery and New Frontiers programs were established in 1992 and 2001 respectively, and have launched fourteen primary missions together, along with two missions launched under the administration of the Planetary Missions Program Office. The Solar System Exploration Program was established alongside the office, with three missions planned for launch under the new program.
Carrie Anderson is an American planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
MANTIS is a mission concept that would flyby 14 asteroids covering a wide range of types and masses, and obtaining remote sensing and in-situ data. This mission would explore the diversity of asteroids to understand the Solar system's history, its present processes, and hazards. The concept was proposed in 2019 to NASA's Discovery Program to compete for funding and development.
Lynnae C. Quick is an American planetary geophysicist and Ocean Worlds Planetary Scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Her research centers on theoretical modeling of cryovolcanic processes on the icy moons and dwarf planets in the Solar System as well as modeling volcanic activity on Venus and the Moon. Quick is a member of the Dawn, Europa Clipper, and Dragonfly Mission science teams. She is also a member of the NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) Toolbox for Research and Exploration (TREX) team, and serves as co-chair of the Earth and Planetary Systems Sciences section of the National Society of Black Physicists.
Kelly E. Fast is an American astronomer, program scientist, and science communicator who currently serves as the Acting NASA Planetary Defense Officer, the Program Manager for NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observations program, the Program Scientist for the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF), and the Program Officer for NASA’s Yearly Opportunities for Research in Planetary Defense (YORPD) research solicitation. The portfolio Fast oversees is part of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, which manages asteroid impact avoidance activities across NASA and coordinates U.S. interagency and international efforts to study and plan a response to the asteroid impact hazard. In 2003, main belt asteroid 115434 was renamed “Kellyfast” in honor of her contributions to planetary science.
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