Lunar Research and Exploration

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced the funding of the $7.5M Center for Lunar Environment and Volatile Exploration Research (CLEVER), led by Prof. Thom Orlando of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.  CLEVER is the successor to Prof. Orlando’s pioneering REVEALS (Radiation Effects on Volatiles and Exploration of Asteroids and Lunar Surfaces) center, both part of NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) program.

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The “smell” of space!

Georgia Tech graduate student Christina Buffo was on-hand at the 2023 Atlanta Science Festival to explain how far away Pluto is, and so that attendees could smell what space smells like. Read more about the festival and Georgia Tech’s involvement in the article by Decaturish! To read the full story, click here.

Tech Leads Lunar Research Center

Georgia Tech researchers have been selected by NASA to lead a $7.5 million center that will study the lunar environment and the generation and properties of volatiles and dust. The Center for Lunar Environment and Volatile Exploration Research (CLEVER) will be led by Thomas Orlando, professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

CLEVER is the successor to Orlando’s pioneering REVEALS (Radiation Effects on Volatiles and Exploration of Asteroids and Lunar Surfaces) center, and both are part of NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) program.

REVEALS and CLEVER look ahead to the return of humans to the moon for sustained periods — a key part of NASA’s plan for space exploration in the coming decade. Volatiles such as water, molecular oxygen, methane, and hydrogen are crucial to supporting human activity on the moon. Dust is also important since the space-weathered particles can pose health effects to astronauts and hazards to the technology and hardware.

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