A Memorial University researcher has received $150,000 from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) for research that is literally out of this world.
CSA awards only two grants per year under its Planetary Exploration and Space Astronomy Program, and Dr Liam Morrissey from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences is one of the latest recipients.
In recent years, he has worked with multiple space agencies, including NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), on the challenges of overcoming the harsh environment of space.
harsh environment
Dr. Morrissey and his team study how materials such as those used to build exploration spacecraft interact with the notoriously poorly understood space environment.
“In celestial bodies like the Moon and Mercury, matter is constantly exposed to a stream of high-energy plasma called the solar wind,” he says. “On Earth, we are protected by our atmosphere, and we see this solar wind as auroras. But in space, these solar winds are essentially beams of high-energy atoms that can cause damage to the surfaces they collide with. It has enough energy stored in it.”
At this time, the physics and energetics of what happens during these collisions are not well understood.
This is where Dr. Morrissey’s work comes into play.
“Memorial is now NASA’s lunar environment and dynamics partner for exploration research.”
His team uses an “atomistic modeling” approach to understand these processes at the developmental scale.
“If we are to have a sustained presence on another planet, we need a deeper understanding of how the environment interacts with the things and people we send there.”
As he points out, we haven’t been to the moon since the 1970s.
Collaboration with NASA and ESA
Dr. Morrissey is the only Canadian collaborator on ESA’s Mercury BepiColombo mission, providing a theoretical model that can explain observations made during flybys of this famous planet.
Mercury’s proximity to the Sun makes it difficult to study.
Additionally, he spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at NAS’s Goddard Space Flight Center, studying solar wind interactions on exposed surfaces and materials. This research was applied to both Mercury and Earth’s moon.
He is currently working on several NASA programs.
“For example, Memorial is now NASA’s lunar environment and dynamics partner for exploration research,” he said. “We work with NASA scientists to understand experimental observations, provide valuable information for global models, and provide modeling support for a variety of theories.”
“I’ll take it all home.”
Dr. Morrissey is passionate about the “two-way street” being developed between Memorial University and NASA.
“As a faculty member, I will bring these collaborations back to Memorial so that we can begin in earnest to establish Memorial as a hub for theoretical research on space weathering and space plasmas.”
He can now co-supervise his graduate students by sending them to NASA and giving them access to the world’s most advanced experimental equipment.
Dr. Morrissey credits his interest in studying harsh environments to growing up as a Newfoundlander.
“I mean, Newfoundland is basically one of the harshest environments, so it felt natural!”
Chad Pelley is Manager of Communications and Media Relations in Memorial’s Marketing and Communications Department. Contact him at chad.pelley@mun.ca.
