General Meeting – November 2018

6:30 pm – NO Introductory Presentation

7:30 pm – Main Presentation

Title:  Hayabusa2: Exploring Asteroid Ryugu and Implications for the Future

Speaker:  Adriana Mitchell is an undergraduate senior majoring in Optical Sciences and Engineering at the University of Arizona. She works with Professor Vishnu Reddy at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and Dr. Lucille Le Corre at the Planetary Science Institute, on the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)’s Hayabusa2 mission.

Visiting Near Earth Asteroids helps scientists understand conditions during the formation of the solar system and might help uncover where Earth’s water and organic materials originated. Adriana will discuss the large strides being made in asteroid exploration with the current asteroid sample-return missions; NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex mission to Bennu and JAXA’s Hayabusa2 mission to the asteroid Ryugu. She will explain the implications for these cutting edge missions and her involvement in the creation of imaging products critical for characterizing potential landing sites on Ryugu for JAXA.