FRIDAY, 19 SEPTEMBER 2008
SORRY! I've been super-busy since classes have
started, but I've decided to take a little break this morning and update the
blog so that all three or four of you that read it will know what I'm up to.
In the past 3 weeks, I've been taking classes, I've gone on a geology field
trip, and did I mention that I've been taking classes? Yeah, they take up
the majority of my time. And when I'm not doing work for class, I am
trying to do research. It's a constant battle of underachievement.
But that's okay, I gotta get used to this if I want to do research for the rest
of my career!
Our field trip last weekend was to eastern New York
State to take a look at rocks that formed during the first two (of the three)
tectonic events that created the Appalachian Mountains. I got to bring
back some cool rocks, including some fossiliferous limestone (limestone made
almost completely of shell and animal fossils) and conglomerate (rocks that
formed in high-energy river or alluvial fan environments). We also learned
of our professor's complete hatred of New Paltz, New York... it was a good time!
I had a lot of fun, despite all of the downpours at night, and the other creepy
campers at the KOA that we were staying at.
Besides that, I haven't been up to too much. I'm
trying to find some things to do in my down-time to make sure I don't go crazy -
so far, not much luck. The Andrew Bird concert in Massachusetts that I
thought I couldn't go to is actually now a possibility, so I'll be doing that in
a few weeks. Next weekend is the Geology Department field trip, so I will
be spending one night and two days wandering New England with some Ph.D.s
learning about geology. Then, the weekend after that is another class
field trip, but this time it's to central PA and not eastern NY. The class
may even stop by my house in Cresskill on the way back (if we take I-287 or
I-95), so mom and dad, get ready for about 20 EXTREMELY smelly geologists with
an apetite!
Okay, time to eat some breakfast and get ready for
class at 9:30. Sorry again for my laziness. Soon I will have a
website up and running on the Brown Geology website
(http://planetary.brown.edu). My name and information is already up there,
but I will soon get a personal page up there, so keep and eye out for that!
Take care, and please SEND ME SOME EMAIL!
Mark
TUESDAY, 26 AUGUST 2008
Hey! OK, so
scratch the Andrew Bird concert in Massachusetts... I have a geology field trip
that weekend and I won't be able to make it. BOOOO. So if anyone
wants an Andrew Bird ticket for an extremely reduced price (probably
free, unless I don't like you), let me know.
Classes start next Wednesday (Sept. 3), so I still have
a little time to relax and get as much research done as possible. Also,
both of my advisors are currently in Iceland, and they won't be back until next
Tuesday. So, I have some time to relax, take it easy, and do research at
my own pace (not like I didn't have that freedom when they were both here, but
it's a little more noticeable when your bosses aren't around).
I spent this past weekend in Maine at my friend Peter's
family cottage. It was awesome. We had a lobster bake (for which we
hand-picked seaweed off of rocks on the ocean), we went kayaking and swimming,
we slept a good amount, had some good beer, and ate as much as humanly possible.
There were only 5 of us, but that turned out to be a really good number to just
relax and not have to worry about logistics. I had a blast, if you can't
tell. Hopefully next summer we'll be able to go back for a weekend.
Anyway, time to take a shower and head into work.
Shoot me an email if you need anything. Talk to you all soon!
Mark
SUNDAY, 17 AUGUST 2008
I've been in Providence
6 weeks already... well, 5 if you don't count the week I was doing Habitat for
Humanity. But still, I've resided in Providence for 6 weeks. That's
insane. Only another 4 years and 46 weeks to go! HAHA.
I'm continuing to do as much research as possible
before classes start. This semester, I'll be taking four classes
(Planetary Cratering, Planetary Materials, Mineralogy, and Sed/Strat). I'm
fairly certain that research will be hard to do, but my advisors are thinking
that I can publish something by the end of the year if I keep on track and find
some time to do research. That will be a great resume boost - a
publication half-way through my first year of grad school. Nice.
I will soon be again left advisor-less for a little
bit. Mike has already left for just over two weeks in Iceland, while Jack
will be leaving early next week for Iceland as well. Also, our new
roommate is set to move in at some point next weekend. Then orientation
for new grad students starts, and then classes. These next few weeks are
going to be mighty busy, so please bear with me if this doesn't get updated for
a little bit (but from past experience, I usually update these things more often
when I'm busy, because it gives me a little break from reality).
Oh, and I just bought a ticket to see Andrew Bird in
Northampton, Mass. on October 10th. So, after work, I will make the two
hour drive, see a concert, and then drive back. Even though it sounds like
a waste of time or just too much of a hassle, I'm totally excited for it.
He was amazing the first time I saw him, and so I can only imagine that he's
going to be even better this time around.
Alrighty, today is laundry day. I'm going to try
to start running again too (we'll see how that goes). Please drop me an
email if you get bored (Mark_Salvatore@brown.edu) - I'd love to talk to you all!
Take care!
Mark
SUNDAY, 10 AUGUST 2008
Hello everyone!
Sorry again for the delay in blog updates... I've been gone this past week on a
Habitat for Humanity trip to Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. I go every year
(well, almost every year) and it's always a great experience. I met a lot
of nice people (both from Waynesburg and from the Cresskill area), and we got a
lot of work done. My jobs included building a roof, shingling said roof,
shoveling gravel and dirt, and building interior walls. We also went on
our traditional paintballing excursion, which gave us the opportunity to exhaust
ourselves even further while inflicting bodily harm on others. It was
magical.
I am currently in Cresskill and will be driving up to
Providence later today. From this point forward, I am not too sure how
often I will be back home in NJ - it all really depends on my class and research
schedules. That doesn't mean ya'll can't come up and visit though!
I'm only 3 hours away, and Providence is a great place to get away for the
weekend.
Anyway, I'm gonna run. Give me a call if you ever
want to come up and visit. Take care!
Mark
MONDAY, 21 JULY 2008
INTERNET IN MY
APARTMENT! SUCCESS! Turns out that because my wireless card was "too
advanced" for our wireless network, it just doesn't work - it's not
down-compatible. Booooo. That's okay, though. Ian, our
landlord, had an extra wireless card that works on our network, and so I'm using
that for the time being. So I'm online! YAY!
My advisors are back from Paris, and so I've been able
to meet with them and plan my research and classes for the next few months.
It looks like I will be taking a full course-load of four classes, on top of
whatever research I can do in the meantime and in the gaps in work that I have
during the semester.
Anyways, I have to go shower. I played softball
with some of the geology people today, and so I'm tired and sweaty and wet (it
poured in the middle of our game). I'll try to stay in touch more often
now that I have internet everywhere I go! Talk to you all later!
Mark
TUESDAY, 15 JULY 2008
Week two here at Brown
has successfully started. I've still been catching up on reading while my
advisors are still in (or just leaving) Paris working with the French portion of
the OMEGA instrument (a spectrometer on Mars Express). I've also
been looking into classes for the next year, and getting back into coursework
(especially coursework that I am not familiar or comfortable with) is scaring me
a little - no worries though, I'm sure it'll all work out in the end. I
need to make up some ground on the material that I wasn't exposed to at Penn
State because I was a Geography (not Geology) major. As a result, I'll
need to take classes like mineralogy, petrology (the study of magma and lava and
how they produce rocks), and sedimentology (how soils and sediments solidify to
form rocks) as soon as possible to make sure that I have them under my belt.
We've finally been able to slow down our work on the
apartment. From our end, there's not much more that needs to be done.
All of the furniture is assembled, we have an air conditioner, etc. etc. I
think the only things that need work now are problems with appliances and
plumbing and stuff, all of which I believe must be dealt with by the landlord.
Unfortunately, she is in Hawaii until sometime later this week, and so we can't
make any decisions until then. Not only that, but our refrigerator is
broken, so we can't even store food in there! The refrigerator doesn't
refrigerate, the oven doesn't bake, and both drains in the bathroom take FOREVER
to drain. Besides that, we're all set!
Friends from Cresskill are coming up to visit in two
weekends. The weekend after that, I will be driving home before going on
Habitat for Humanity for the first week of August. When I come back from
that, I will spend a night at home before coming back up to Providence.
Then, it'll be only a few weeks before classes start and I get right back into
the swing of things with school and research.
Anyway, I have to finish some reading before my
advisors get back. Take care!
Mark
TUESDAY, 08 JULY 2008
Hello hello! I
know, you're all mad that I haven't posted on here for quite a while. But
in my defense, this is the first time that my laptop has been connected to the
internet. Long story ahead of me, so bear with me.
I flew home from Houston two Saturdays ago. The
first part of that week was filled with relaxation and doctors appointments, for
the most part. Then, on Thursday, Leah and I came up to Providence with
Brian and Chris to move a bunch of our furniture up three flights of stairs and
into our apartment. Things went about as smoothly as they could have,
considering the possibilities. So we then came back that same night, and
then Leah and I drove up for good this past Saturday.
Since Saturday, we have pretty much been scrambling to
unpack, buy any last-minute items that we may need, hammer out the cable TV and
wireless internet situations, and the like. Our apartment looks like it's
in great shape. We have plenty of room (maybe even too much - but we'll
see). The only comments that I have at the moment are that the hot water
doesn't last too long (typical) and that our stove/oven is a little "jammed",
but nothing that can't be delt with in time.
We also started our first day of work yesterday.
Most of my other job experiences have been fairly hectic on the first day, but
Brown knew how to plan well and such. We got here, immediately picked up
our keys and ID cards, got our mailboxes and offices, and I met with my advisors
to discuss my project for the next few months (at least). I will be
looking at how the volcanic composition of the Martian crust varies as you
travel north from the end of the outflow channels (I know, it's complicated, but
I'll make a figure sometime soon to show you exactly what I mean...).
So, things are going great. We've been running
around like decapitated chickens, but it's much better to go through this
process now as opposed to right before classes start and such. I'll
hopefully make a big dent in my research before the majority of the other
graduate students get here, and then I can focus almost totally on my classes
come the fall. We're also making plans to adapt my project to the
Antarctica research, so hopefully I will be involved in that as well!
Anyway, I will post again shortly (especially after my
laptop is PERMANENTLY hooked up to the internet). There's also a good
chance that this web address will change once again, so I will surely post a new
link if that does. Sorry again for the delay, and I hope you all are doing
well!
Mark
THURSDAY, 26 JUNE 2008
So today was a pretty hectic day. As my second-to-last day on base, I had to give an exit presentation on all of the work that I have done over the past four weeks. I also had to be interviewed to make sure that I got something out of the program, wasn't lying about all of my work, etc. Lastly, the afternoon was filled with a 3-hour class on advanced space systems (inaccurately named Spaceflight 101). We learned a lot of interesting facts about the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, and space flight in general, including:
- There are over 2,200 switches and
levels in the cockpit of the Space Shuttle.
- The Shuttle's solid rocket boosters burn 3 tons of solid fuel per
second each.
- After 3 seconds of flight, the Space Shuttle is traveling over
100 mph straight up.
- Any space vehicle has to travel 7.78 kilometers per second to
enter Earth's orbit.
- The external fuel tank of the Space Shuttle contains 2 Olympic
swimming pools worth of liquid oxygen as propellant; at main engine cut-off (MECO),
there is less than one bathtub of liquid oxygen left - there is no extra fuel
carried.
So yeah, it was an
interesting class. It was a little difficult to sit still and take notes
for three hours straight, but it was definitely worth it.
My flight leaves on Saturday a little after 4:30 in the
afternoon, and I should be home late Saturday night. It'll be good to get
home and to be able to relax for a little before going up to Providence, despite
a few doctors' appointments scheduled in there somewhere. But first, we
have to finish this research and the planning necessary to start writing this
journal article. I really don't want my project to fall apart when I leave
Houston, and as long as my advisor and I can plan appropriately (which we have
already done for the most part), we should have no trouble writing an article
and getting our theories out in the open.
Anyway, I'm tired and ready for sleep. I just got
back from dinner with Scott and Jeremy (my friends from last summer) and my
belly is filled with chicken enchiladas (mMmMmmMMMm). Peace!
Mark
MONDAY, 23 JUNE 2008
After a relatively
relaxing weekend, I've jumped right into my last week here at NASA. I fly
back to Eastern Standard Time on Saturday afternoon, so now it's time to
doggie-bag my project so that it will last for a little while in the fridge -
either someone (me or my advisor) will eat it soon or it will go bad in a few
months. Hopefully, the former. In all reality, it looks like we've
made too much progress on this project to let it go to waste, so I'm going to
guess that by the end of the year or early next year, we will have a publication
of some sort to show for the work that we've done.
For those of you that aren't Mars researchers
(everyone?), I'll explain my project for you. Last summer, I geologically
mapped a part of Mars that had seven of thirty-something candidate landing sites
for the next Mars rover, which is planned to launch in the fall of 2009
(although that's a VERY flexible date). Anyway, I mapped this area using a
hodge-podge of satellite data - regular photographs, infrared energy emitted
directly from the surface, high-precision laser measurements that can tell you
the surface elevation within a meter, spectrometers, etc. etc. - lots of cool
stuff that totally surpasses my level of understanding. So anyway, I
mapped the area, and we found a funny-looking geologic unit that has all of
these ridges cutting across it. Many scientists have said that they're
surface fractures and faults that have been filled with lava, or solidified dirt
caused by groundwater, or lots of other things. We think that they look
like river channels that have been inverted - or turned inside out - by BILLIONS
of years of wind erosion. That's right, if there was liquid water on Mars,
it was there probably sometime between 4.2 and 3.5 billion years ago, and since
then, only wind. So anyway, our job for this summer was to collect as much
data as possible on this area of Mars, and also to look here on Earth for
analogs, or examples that we can look at here instead of having to look only at
Mars.
Below is an image from one of my abstracts that shows
what we're looking at. The top image is of these ridges on the surface of
Mars that I was just talking about. They're all different lengths and
widths, and they're spread over a pretty big region. The image below that
is of the Earth (made black-and-white to look more like Mars); these are river
channels in southern Sudan in Africa. They're a part of a geologic feature
called a "megafan", which is pretty much like an alluvial fan except much bigger
and, hence, different stuff goes on. It's where a river goes from eroding
to depositing. We think of rivers as confined in valleys (think of the
Grand Canyon). But, when the ground is REALLY flat, the river doesn't want
to erode - it doesn't want to make a canyon. Instead, it builds up natural
levees and slowly flows downhill. Both scale bars are 8 km (about 5 miles
for you Americans/Brits).
So yeah,
that's a brief summary of what I've been spending most of my time on here in
Houston. I also occasionally take part in teaching some astronauts about
geography and what they're going to be looking at when they fly in space
(primarily, the Earth). Tomorrow I get to brief Col. Wheelock again, but
this time we're talking about megafans (what I was just talking about) and
glaciers. We like to get the astronauts to take pictures of megafans for
us because then we get data that is a.) free, and b.) AWESOME.
Anyway, enough boring you all. I'll post again before I leave
(hopefully), and soon I will be posting from Providence. This website is
going to change yet again in a few weeks or months - whenever Penn State decides
to cut off my account and force me to get a Brown website, but I will post a
link. Take care everyone!
Mark
FRIDAY, 20 JUNE 2008
Hello everyone.
Sorry for the lapse with my old blog - it was giving me a lot of problems and
was just easier to scrap it and start a new one. Anyway, I just finished
my second-to-last week at NASA for this summer; I fly home next Saturday
afternoon.
So this past week was pretty good. My advisor was
still on vacation until Thursday, so I was just finishing up some of the stuff
that I was working on from the week before (looking at satellite images, reading
through some scientific journals, etc. etc.). We're still trying to gather
as much data and information as possible before we write our paper about
megafans on Mars, so that's where I come into play. Next week, I have to
present my work in front of some administration, and then I'm free to leave and
start my work up at Brown!
I got to brief another astronaut this week, Colonel
Doug Wheelock. He just got back from a shuttle flight last year, and he's
not expected to fly on the International Space Station for a few more years, so
we were able to work our way into his schedule and teach him about river deltas
and ocean processes. We do this so that when they get into space, they
know what they're looking at and they can take educated photos with us having to
tell them as little as possible once they're up there.
I also met with the head of the science department
behind the new Constellation program, which is the rockets that are going to
replace the Space Shuttle over the next decade or so. He's a really nice
and funny guy, and I was able to pick his brain about how NASA is doing in
transitioning from the Space Shuttle to the Constellation program. I also
got to ask him about how science is being considered in the development of the
new rockets, and he assured me that despite NASA's poor history of making
rockets that no scientists want to use, the Orion spacecraft will be practical
from an engineering AND a science standpoint.
Lastly, the Mars Phoenix mission finally proved that
they have found water ice on Mars. Go to
www.nasa.gov to find out more about it. Satellites have detected water
ice, all models predicted it would be there, and so it's good that we now have
hard evidence that both the satellites and computer models were right - just
another pat on the back to all the scientists involved with Mars research.
Anyway, I'm going to go relax for a little bit.
It's been a pretty busy week, and it's only going to get busier now that I have
to start wrapping my work up. I hope everyone is doing well. Take
care!
- Mark