During the summers of 2020 and 2021 I interned (remotely!) at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory working for Dr. Matthew Golombek and Dr. Nathan Williams in the Planetary Geoscience group. I helped create orbital maps of different terrain types found along Mars 2020 rover traverses. I also was tasked with identifying candidate landing and sample tube depot sites for the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. We utilized ArcGIS Pro to examine Jezero crater and the surrounding areas in an effort to classify the most benign terrain available for the Sample Return Lander (SRL) to land, and the Mars 2020 rover to drop samples of scientific interest for retrieval and return to Earth.
The following summer, we continued to refine the previously mapped candidate sites for the Mars Sample Return mission. Additionally, we detected potential rock hazards in HiRISE orbital imagery, and used the higher-resolution Mars Helicopter images taken during its flights as a reference to calibrate the eye to identify these hazards. This research refined and added additional candidate landing and sample tube depot sites to the previous summer’s work by integrating data from the Mars 2020 rover and Mars Helicopter.
This past summer (2023) I worked on lab on a project quantifying the size-frequency distribution of secondary craters around Corinto crater in Elysium Planitia, Mars.
Associated Abstracts:
54th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference:
https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2023/pdf/2618.pdf
53rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference:
https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2022/pdf/2772.pdf
https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2022/pdf/2156.pdf
52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference:
https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2021/pdf/1325.pdf
Geological Society of America:
