October 18, 2007
Peer Portfolio
MARTIAN DUST-UP: A University of Michigan atmospheric scientist thinks NASA’s Phoenix Mars probe, launched in August and set to land on the Red Planet next May, might disturb the very thing it’s meant to study, according to a recent edition of the university’s newspaper, The Record.
The Phoenix probe aims to sample frozen soil from the surface of Mars and determine whether it has the potential to sustain microbal life. But Nilton Renno, an associate professor in the U-M Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, worries that the exhaust plumes from the spacecraft could interfere with its main task. So he and graduate student Manish Meta built a “thruster test chamber” to study the problem. They also are concerned that Martian winds might prevent the probe from effectively gathering its soil sample. Next, the researchers will share their tests with NASA. “These experiments are mainly run to provide insight to the Phoenix team, so they can know what to exect and can somewhat prepare for it,” Meta told the newspaper.
PIGSKIN PRESCHOOL: Since 1977, the University of Missouri-Columbia has offered child care on game days for fans attending home games, according to the campus newspaper, Mizzou Weekly. They call it Pigskin Preschool. For $45 or $50, fans can drop off their young ones with students who provide care under the guidance of instructors for the university’s Child Development Lab. Even parents from rival teams use the service.
“We average anywhere from 30 to 45 children for each home game,” said Karen Kelley, a Child Development Lab instructor. “How much our service is utilized is in direct correlation with how well the football team is performing each year.” The service must be booming this fall — the Tigers are off to a 5-1 start.
UC RETIREMENT FUNDING — The University of California system has rescheduled the resumption of employee contributions to its retirement fund after a contribution “holiday” of more than 15 years, according to Dateline, the UC-Davis newspaper. The contributions had been scheduled to resume on July 1. The university system had planned to pay a percentage, and toward that end had requested $60 million from the California state Legislature, but the funding was not approved. The new date for restarting contributions has not yet been set.
