Editors note: A photo of Lucas Moller and Markus Tuller is available by contacting Bill Loftus.
At 14, Lucas Moller already knows a thing or two about the uncertainties of space science.
A project he developed to measure the angle of repose of Martian dust has twice been bumped from missions to Mars. He's spent the past year refining his idea with the help of University of Idaho soil physicist Markus Tuller.
Early in April, Moller learned his project won first place in the NASA Student Involvement Program's Design a Mission to Mars competition.
"NSIP is theoretical. Now what I'm doing is carrying along with that idea," Moller said.
As U.S. military experience in Iraq showed, dust itself can be a serious adversary. NASA data show no reason to minimize the threat on the Red Planet. "Martian dust storms are very severe and can be global," Moller said.
Lucas, the son of Greg and Laurie Moller of Moscow, will travel in May to the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., with his Moscow Junior High science teacher Jim LaFortune.
Prospects are good that the ninth grader will have his high school diploma before his project lands on Mars aboard the Phoenix Mission in 2008. That is if Moller's project is part of the winning package selected later this year from among four proposals in a new NASA competition for the mission.
He's had two other shots at Mars. His experimental device was first scheduled for NASA's Mars Surveyor Mission in 2001. Two consecutive disasters for Mars landers, however, put that mission on ice. Then, Moller's experiment was scheduled for a European Space Agency Mars mission later this year but was shelved due to overall mission considerations.
With Tuller's help and a $10,000 NASA grant through the Idaho Space Grant Consortium, Moller built an environmental chamber to mimic conditions on Mars to refine his experiment.
"We can simulate everything pretty well except for gravity," Moller said. Since Mars is slightly smaller than Earth, its gravitational force is smaller, too.
For dust, Moller and Tuller are using Martian dust simulant manufactured to NASA standards.
The angle of repose, the point past which particles slide instead of stick, of Martian dust is vital information for researchers because it determines the correct alignment for solar panels.
If the angle is too shallow, dust could stick and reduce the panels' ability to produce electricity. Too steep an angle might reduce a panel's ability to capture solar energy.
Working with a team of researchers, including Kim Kuhlman from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Moller first proposed an experiment that would employ a series of spheres and a camera.
After observing the point on the sphere where dust could no longer stick, the experiment used trigonometry to determine the angle of repose. This year Moller's junior high studies focus on Earth science and geometry.
In 1999 Moller won the Student Nanoexperiment Challenge sponsored by the NASA/Jet Propulsion Lab and The Planetary Society. This spring, his first place finish in the NASA Student Involvement Program resulted from judging at the space agency's Ames Research Center in California.
Moller has presented papers about his idea at five scientific gatherings, including a solo foray to the 32nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston in March 2001. He revisited Houston for the 34th conference March 16 to 22. Idaho Space Grant Consortium awarded him travel grants to help pay his way to the conferences.
His trips to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston in recent years have given him some extraordinary opportunities to develop a taste for science and meet interesting people.
He had lunch with Jeffrey Ashby, the UI engineering graduate who has flown several Space Shuttle Missions. He also met Don Pettit, the U.S. astronaut who is now aboard the International Space Station.
More information about the NASA Student Involvement Program is available on the Internet at http://www.nsip.net/index.cfm
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