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Welcome to the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology.
HIGP is a multi-disciplinary institute engaging in advanced research, teaching, and service in cutting-edge oceanographic, atmospheric, geophysical, geological, and planetary sciences. We are a part of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at the Manoa (Honolulu) campus of the University of Hawai‘i. Our Institute is home to over 130 faculty, staff, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students with access to state-of-the-art laboratories and instrumentation. HIGP expertise spans the globe from pole to pole, from the depths of the seas to the tops of volcanoes and extends to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
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NASA's LRO / LCROSS MISSIONS ARE BOUND FOR THE MOON.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) launched at 5:32 p.m. EDT (11:32 a.m. HST) Thursday, June 18, 2009 and entered orbit around the Moon four and a half days later. LRO will perform reconnaissance of Earth's nearest neighbor in space in preparation for human return around 2020. LRO will accomplish its mission using a suite of seven powerful instruments. Three UH researchers from the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) are participating scientists on three of the instruments.
Dr. B. Ray Hawke will work with data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC), which will acquire high-resolution images, with resolutions down to 1 m, of the lunar surface in order to help identify landing sites for future explorers and characterize the Moon's topography and composition. The Principal Investigator of LROC, Mark Robinson, graduated from UH Manoa with his PhD.
Dr. Jeffrey Gillis-Davis is part of the Mini-RF (Miniature Radio Frequency) team. Mini-RF is a radar device that will focus on the lunar poles, looking for evidence of ice deposits. If Mini-RF locates ice deposits, future lunar explorers could use these resources. Dr. Gillis-Davis will use the radar data to investigate pyroclastic deposits on the Moon. These deposits, which are volcanic materials that erupted into space and fell back to the Moon's surface as tiny glass beads, may be another type of resource for future human bases and may contain materials of scientific value for understanding the interior composition of the Moon.
Dr. Paul Lucey is working with the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter or LOLA. This instrument will generate a high resolution 3-D map of the Moon that will be used to measure the slopes and roughness of potential future landing sites, characterize the polar lighting environment, and use its laser to image permanently shadowed polar regions of the Moon to identify possible locations of surface ice crystals in shadowed polar craters. Dr. Lucey will compare the laser reflectivity of the Moon's day and night sides to produce maps of the abundance of minerals that change color with temperature.
The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS is scheduled to impact the lunar south pole on October 9. See the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission homepage and LCROSS Mission homepage for more information.
Congratulations to Anders Meibom, our colleague and former HIGP Postdoctoral Researcher (1997-2000), for being awarded the Research Excellence Medal by the European Mineralogical Union. The medal is awarded annually to young scientists who make significant contributions to research and who are active in strengthening European scientific links. After leaving HIGP, Dr. Meibom held a Research Associate position at Stanford University and since 2005 has worked as a Professor at the Laboratoire de Minéralogie et Cosmochimie at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. In addition to his cosmochemistry laboratory investigations Dr. Meibom has participated in meteorite recovery expeditions to Greenland and Antarctica.
Find out what else is happening through the SOEST News and Press Releases.
HIGP Mission Statement
HIGP solves fundamental problems in Earth and Planetary Science by the development and application of state-of-the-art exploration, measurement, and data analysis technologies. HIGP serves society and the State of Hawai‘i by acquiring and disseminating new knowledge about the Earth and other planetary bodies, and developing and introducing leading edge technologies and a highly trained workforce to the State economy.
Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology
School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology
University of Hawai‘i
1680 East-West Road, POST 602
Honolulu, HI 96822
Office Phone: 808.956.8760
Fax: 808.956.3188 Dr. Peter J. Mouginis-Mark, Director
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Updated 26 June 2009.
