Diana Blaney

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Diana Lee Blaney is an American planetary scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and a former chair of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society.

Contents

Research

Blaney's research focuses on instrumentation for space missions to determine the chemical composition of bodies in our solar system, including "directing the infrared instrument" on the Spirit rover on Mars, [1] and serving as principal investigator for the Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa, a planned mission to study the surface and internal water ocean of Europa. [2]

Education and career

Blaney is originally from Ashville, Ohio, the daughter of two teachers, and grew up dreaming of becoming a scientist of some sort before settling on space science. [3] She majored in mechanical engineering at the Ohio State University, graduating in 1984. She completed a PhD in geology and geophysics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 1990; [4] her doctoral research involved Earth-based observation of Mars, [3] [5] supervised by Thomas B. McCord. [6]

She came to JPL for postdoctoral research as a National Research Council Research Associate in 1990. [4] Initially, she intended to work on a spectrometer for the Mars Observer, but after that instrument was cancelled she quickly switched to other projects involving unmanned landers on Mars and comets, eventually including the Chemistry and Camera complex of the Mars rover missions. [3] [5] She has remained at JPL as a scientist since 1992, [4] and is Deputy Project Scientist for the Mars Exploration Rover project. [7]

She chaired the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society for the 2021–2022 term. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jet Propulsion Laboratory</span> Research and development center and NASA field center in California, United States

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center in La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in 1936 by Caltech researchers, the laboratory is now owned and sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and administered and managed by the California Institute of Technology.

<i>2001 Mars Odyssey</i> NASA orbiter for geology and hydrology

2001 Mars Odyssey is a robotic spacecraft orbiting the planet Mars. The project was developed by NASA, and contracted out to Lockheed Martin, with an expected cost for the entire mission of US$297 million. Its mission is to use spectrometers and a thermal imager to detect evidence of past or present water and ice, as well as study the planet's geology and radiation environment. The data Odyssey obtains is intended to help answer the question of whether life once existed on Mars and create a risk-assessment of the radiation that future astronauts on Mars might experience. It also acts as a relay for communications between the Curiosity rover, and previously the Mars Exploration Rovers and Phoenix lander, to Earth. The mission was named as a tribute to Arthur C. Clarke, evoking the name of his and Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

<i>Mars Pathfinder</i> Mission including first robotic rover to operate on Mars (1997)

Mars Pathfinder is an American robotic spacecraft that landed a base station with a roving probe on Mars in 1997. It consisted of a lander, renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, and a lightweight, 10.6 kg (23 lb) wheeled robotic Mars rover named Sojourner, the first rover to operate outside the Earth–Moon system.

<i>Spirit</i> (rover) NASA Mars rover, active from 2004 to 2010

Spirit, also known as MER-A or MER-2, is a Mars robotic rover, active from 2004 to 2010. Spirit was operational on Mars for 2208 sols or 3.3 Martian years. It was one of two rovers of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Spirit landed successfully within the impact crater Gusev on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC on January 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin, Opportunity (MER-B), which landed on the other side of the planet. Its name was chosen through a NASA-sponsored student essay competition. The rover got stuck in a "sand trap" in late 2009 at an angle that hampered recharging of its batteries; its last communication with Earth was on March 22, 2010.

<i>Curiosity</i> (rover) NASA robotic rover exploring Gale crater on Mars

Curiosity is a car-sized Mars rover exploring Gale crater and Mount Sharp on Mars as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral (CCAFS) on November 26, 2011, at 15:02:00 UTC and landed on Aeolis Palus inside Gale crater on Mars on August 6, 2012, 05:17:57 UTC. The Bradbury Landing site was less than 2.4 km (1.5 mi) from the center of the rover's touchdown target after a 560 million km (350 million mi) journey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adriana Ocampo</span> Colombian planetary geologist

Adriana C. Ocampo Uria is a Colombian planetary geologist and a Science Program Manager at NASA Headquarters. In 1970, Ocampo emigrated to California and completed her Master in Sciences at California State University, Northridge and finished her PhD at the Vrije Universiteit in the Netherlands. During high school and graduate studies she worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she serves as the science coordinator for many planetary missions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Europa Clipper</span> Planned NASA space mission to Jupiter

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Bonnie J. Buratti is an American planetary scientist in the Division of Earth and Space Sciences at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where she leads the Comets, Asteroids, and Satellites Group. Her research involves the composition and physical properties of planetary surfaces, and volatile transport in the outer solar system.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christina Richey</span> American planetary scientist and astrophysicist

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael H. Hecht</span> American astronomer

Michael H. Hecht is a research scientist, associate director for research management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Haystack Observatory, and former deputy project director of the Event Horizon Telescope. He served as lead scientist for the Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer instrument on the Phoenix Mars lander, and as principal investigator for the Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE) instrument on the Mars 2020 rover.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa</span> Near infrared spectrometer

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Milkovich</span> Scientist

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethany Ehlmann</span> American planetary scientist

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Melissa McGrath is an astronomer whose expertise is the atmosphere and magnetosphere of the Solar System planets and their moons. Her main interest has focused on imaging and spectroscopic studies of Jupiter’s Galilean moons. She is currently co-investigator on the ultraviolet spectrometer instrument on ESA JUICE mission to Ganymede, and co-investigator on two proposed instruments on the NASA Europa Clipper mission. McGrath is senior scientist at SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.

References

  1. Chong, Jia-Rui (September 24, 2005), "At ABBA, Go Left to SpongeBob", Los Angeles Times, retrieved 2024-05-06
  2. McKinnon, Mika (May 26, 2015), "Here Are The 9 Instruments We'll Use To Reveal The Secrets Of Europa", Gizmodo, retrieved 2024-05-06
  3. 1 2 3 "Diana Blaney", NASA Science: People (Interview), NASA, retrieved 2024-05-06
  4. 1 2 3 Curriculum vitae (PDF), Jet Propulsion Laboratory, April 2018, retrieved 2024-05-06
  5. 1 2 Niebur, Susan (September 24, 2010), "Diana Blaney: Play to Your Strengths", Women in Planetary Science, retrieved 2024-05-06
  6. "Diana Lee Blaney", AstroGen, American Astronomical Society, retrieved 2024-05-06
  7. "Diana Blaney", People, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, retrieved 2024-05-06
  8. "Past DPS Officers", Division for Planetary Sciences, American Astronomical Society, retrieved 2024-05-06