Hi from DC,

My name is Maggie. I am going into my senior year at Mount Holyoke College. I study Astronomy and Physics.

This summer I was accepted to the Lunar and Planetary Science Academy. I’m working on a project with three other super awesome people. We’re looking at water and helium-3 in the permanently dark craters on the moon. It’s a really interesting project that is proving challenging for all the members. My task is to design mirrors that will vaporize the water, forming a cloud, then, using a special mirror I want to try and detect the Extreme Ultra Violet light emitted from Helium-4. If there is Helium-4 in these shadowed areas, there may also be Helium-3. Helium-3 is like a normal helium atom, but missing a neutron. If we find Helium-3 we could bring it back to Earth to use in controlled fusion reactions as well as fusion propulsion. I like this project because I get to learn about Quantum Mechanics, Optics and Atomic Physics. I also get a chance to work with and learn from some experts in fields including Solar Physics, Solar wind and robotics. In addition, there is a real, pertinent goal if this mission were successful. I look forward to continuing my research over this summer.

When I was a senior in high school I took a class from Doc Gordon—he was my Honors Physics teacher and my astronomy teacher. I took astronomy as an elective during the chilly New Hampshire winter. This astronomy class was the first class that I was genuinely excited about. I enjoyed every section we did from the moon’s effect on earth to dark matter. I especially loved the section on the sun. A few times a week we would go out with two little four-inch telescopes and look stars and interesting objects that were visible. We’d stand on top of the hill in the snow shivering and looking at the stars. My favorite was the Horse-head nebula and Orion’s nebula. Doc Gordon really inspired me to study astronomy. He was a dorm parent in the dorm I lived in my senior year so I would come down to the common room and he would sit and talk to me and talk me through issues facing me—like what I want to do with my life, what I wanted to study and where I wanted to go to school. He was the first person to tell me about planetary science which helped me choose Mount Holyoke College. Since my senior year, I’ve been all over the place learning about everything I can get my hands but I’ve always come back to Astronomy and Planetary science.

I am really thrilled about our trip to Canada. When I heard that we were taking a trip to the place where the astronauts learned how identify rocks and take samples, I got really excited. Beyond that, the place we’re going is an impact crater—which in my opinion is really cool. We’re going to learn from the geologist, Dr. Lowman, who taught the astronauts about geology. I feel pretty lucky to get this opportunity to take this trip.

My goals for the trip include: getting some field experience in geology; some star gazing (if we’re sufficiently far away from major cities); getting heaps of pictures of the crater and also to commemorate our trip.

I’ll be posting more in the following weeks and while we’re in Canada.

Sincerely,

Maggie