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The Atmospheric Experiments Laboratory in the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is a research group that conducts experiment-basedresearch on the atmospheres and surfaces of planets and planetary satellites inour solar system, and on small solar system bodies such as comets. Experiments areperformed using atmospheric entry probes and from orbiting satellites. Instrumentsare developed to measure the chemical and isotopic composition of these bodies. Branch members participate in all phases of these investigations, from instrument definition and development to data analysis, distribution, archiving, and scientific interpretation of data received from the spacecraft experiments. The instruments produced are designed, fabricated, assembled, and tested in the Branch. Collaborations with many institutions, including universities and private industry, provide significant contributions to the development of experiments and to the analysis and interpretation of data received from flight missions.
Presently our research group is analyzing data from the Cassini Huygens Probe gas chromatograph mass spectrometer experiment that entered the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan and data from the Cassini Orbiter Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (INMS) that was developed in our laboratory. The INMS has flown by the upper atmosphere of Titan multiple times and recently obtanied data from Saturn's icy moon Enceladus.
Our major development effort at this time is theSample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite of instruments that will be part of the 2011Mars Science Laboratory. Follow SAM's progress withUpdates.
Parallel laboratory and field research complements the space flight experiments. We have recently analyzed samples of a comet returned by the Stardust mission and in August 2006, 2007, and 2008 contributed to a field campaign in aMars analog site in Svalbard.
This site provides an overview of the experiments the Branch has contributed to various space flight missions, as well as some of the results obtained with theseexperiments.
