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Follow the link below to apply and learn more: https://epss.ucla.edu UCLA #planetaryscience #space #astronaut #geology #gobruins NASA Jessica Watkins was just selected for a mission on the International Space Station!! She got her Ph.D. in Geology in 2015 (advisor: Prof. An Yin), focusing on the emplacement mechanisms of large landslides on Mars and Earth.” As the keynote speaker during Commencement in 2021, Jessica remarked that the NASA Artemis lunar program relies heavily on the work of EPSS, helping her prepare for astronaut training: We are building off of our understanding of the Apollo samples analyzed in this department, planning landing sites and traverses using maps of lunar water ice developed within this department, and applying fundamental principles of geological field work taught in this department.” The UCLA Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences is happy to announce the initiation of a new graduate degree program in Planetary Science to add to its three existing graduate degree programs in Geology, Geochemistry, and Geophysics and Space Physics. UCLA has had a world-class research program in the field of Planetary Science for many years, and the department currently has eighteen faculty members who are actively engaged in planetary research on a full-time or part-time basis. The new degree program will focus on training the next generation of planetary scientists by providing a curriculum of graduate-level courses as well as opportunities to conduct research at the forefront of knowledge in the field. Applications are now being accepted for new M.S .and Ph.D. students for the 2022-2023 academic year. Financial support is available through merit-based and competitive fellowship awards, research assistantships, and teaching assistantships that provide stipends in varying amounts and may include tuition, fees and nonresident supplemental tuition. Posted on February 18, 2021 NASA’s $2.2bn Perseverance LANDS on Mars: Rover survives ‘seven minutes of terror’ to embark on 2-year mission to search for extra terrestrial life in crater that was once a lake In the third of a ‘trilogy’ of the latest missions to explore Mars, first China with Tianwen-1 successfully reaching the Red Planet (with plans to ambitiously deploy a rover to the surface in May/June of this year). Second was Dubai and the United Arab Emirates successfully sending their Hope spacecraft to Mars, being the very first Arab nation to make a stake in the field of planetary science with a successful mission, paving the way for other countries to do the same. Finally, today, it is with tremendous pleasure to announce that the United States and NASA has successfully launched, deployed, and landed another rover (Perseverance) this afternoon (Earth time) on Mars at Jezero Crater. Many UCLA scientists have a major stake in this mission such as fellow iPLEX member, Dr. David A. Paige, the Deputy Principal Investigator of the RIMFAX instrument. Paige, his research team, and his Graduate Students will lead the charge in new science found on Mars with this instrument, in easily, the heaviest, most scientifically capable, and best technology yet to land on Mars. As interestingly, another UCLA professor and iPLEX member, Dr. Mackenzie Day has led a team of students and researchers interested in studying Jezero Crater and the likelihood of water on Mars, and what this may mean geologically, and biologically for everything to be found at this scientifically fascinating location. The list goes on and on for other researchers in UCLA’s Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences Department (EPSS) where we are interested to know more about the origins of life, planetary science, geology, seismology, space physics, and how each of these fields are actually intertwined together. We hope that much great science will be done in the years to come and look forward to a treasure trove of data and scientific analysis that will come from this rover and mission. Not only is it a testament to the engineering teams at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, making another successful touchdown on Mars, but it is also to inspire others to do the same, and learn more about planetary science. -Dave Milewski NASA’s Perseverance rover has landed on Mars following a 239 million-mile journey through space It traveled around 12,000mph and will deploy a parachute to slow down before landing safely on the surface The sky crane performed the same landing maneuver as with Curiosity using long Nylon cords The crane released Perseverance from its grasp and flew to safety, allowing the rover to start its journey Perseverance will search for biosignatures in the Jezero crater that is said to be an extinct lake It will collected samples and cache them across Mars for a separate mission in 2023 to retrieve NASA’s Perseverance rover has successfully landed on Mars following a 239 million-mile journey.The rover survived the ‘seven minutes of terror’ when it endured tumultuous conditions that battered the craft as it entered the Martian atmosphere and approached the surface. ‘NASA works. When we put our arms together and our hands together and our brains together, we can succeed. This is what NASA does,’ says chief engineer and landing veteran Rob Manning. Perseverance shot like a speeding bullet through the atmosphere going 12,000mph and successfully deployed the sonic parachute which slowed it down to make a soft landing on the surface. It descended down on the parachute, the backshell separated and the sky crane maneuver carried Perseverance to the ground attached to long Nylon cables. Perseverance touched down at the base of an 820-foot-deep (250 meters) crater called Jezero, a former lake which was home to water 3.5 billion years ago. The Martian surface is littered with craters but what makes Jezero Crater so special is that it an inflow and outflow channel, which suggests it was filled with water some 3.5 billion years ago. Thomas Zurbuchen, of the NASA Science Mission directorate, said: ‘It was an exciting day to think we’re looking to bring samples of Mars back to Earth.’ ‘We’re turning our rover into a robotic geologist and astrobiologist, collecting samples that we will be bringing back to Earth, that is what we’re looking forward to.’ Figure Caption: NASA’s Perseverance rover has successfully landed on Mars following a 239 million-mile journey through space. Pictured is the first image the rover has taken on the Red Planet (Image credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)/California Institute of Technology (Caltech)) Figure Caption: The descent of the $2.2billion car-sized spacecraft was lived stream as it went through the ‘seven minutes of terror’ when it endured tumultuous conditions that battered the craft as it entered the Martian atmosphere and approached the surface (Image credit: Reuters) Radio signals between Perseverance and NASA took 11 minutes to be sent due to the time it takes for the signals to travel all the way to Mars and back again. As a...