Cosmochemistry Illustrated: Recruiting and Training the Next Generation of Cosmochemists

Ongoing and planned sample-return missions by the U.S. and other nations require that a strong cadre of specialists in the mineralogy, petrology, chemistry, and isotope chemistry of extraterrestrial materials is available to analyze these valuable samples. These fields are captured by the term cosmochemistry. To lure undergraduate and graduate students already interested in terrestrial geochemistry into cosmochemistry, I am creating a set of PowerPoint slides and related materials for use by college faculty members teaching geoscience courses. This effort, known as Cosmochemistry Illustrated, is funded by the Opportunities in SMD Education and Public Outreach program and is already hosted online at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology. Its goals are: (1) Increase the number of students studying cosmochemistry and related planetary geoscience topics. (2) Enhance the cosmochemical expertise of students studying planetary geology and geophysics, and astronomy and astrophysics. (3) Improve the effectiveness of cosmochemists in giving public presentations and courses for non-science majors by providing readily-accessible, up-to-date resources. In spite of cosmochemistry being a vibrant field, there is a shortage of people to work on the large number of meteorites we now have in our collections, the still-valuable lunar sample collection, interplanetary dust particles collected in the stratosphere, and samples returned by robotic missions (e.g., Stardust). Cosmochemists also contribute their expertise to interpreting data obtained by remote sensing and in situ analysis. They have been especially prominent in interpreting data from the Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions to the Moon, Mars orbital missions (especially Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey), and the landed Pathfinder and Mars Exploration Rover missions. We need enough scientists trained in cosmochemistry to continue to make full use of remote sensing data. The foundation of Cosmochemistry Illustrated is development of a set of short PowerPoint presentations in a wide range of geochemical topics, using up-to-date illustrations. The note pages of the presentations provide background information and appropriate references for more detailed study. The notes are meant for college professors teaching mineralogy, petrology, and geochemistry, so are more technical than something written for the public. The presentations developed to date can be viewed at: http://www.higp.hawaii.edu/cosmoeye/.