A Long Term ISU-UNISA Partnership: The SHSSP

Since 2011, the Southern Hemisphere Space Studies Program (SHSSP) has been held six times in Adelaide, Australia. The last program, which ran from January 9 to February 10, 2017, saw the engagement of 39 participants from around the world and over 45 international experts, whose backgrounds encompassed the entire spectrum of disciplines relevant to space exploration, industry and technology. The participants had a broad range of experiences, being represented by undergraduate students all the way to professionals employed in national space agencies, and entrepreneurs. This provided an exciting mix of motivations and abilities, which clearly epitomised the purpose of the program: to expose highly achieving students in training as well as accomplished professionals to a proxy of the multidisciplinary and multifaceted environment typical of space enterprises. The international, intercultural, and interdisciplinary philosophy of the program was reflected in a diversity of lectures, hands-on workshops, public events and team exercises, delivered by experts from Australia, America, Asia and Europe. A capstone project on the small satellite revolution involving participants, faculty and consulting experts, was synthesised in a paper entitled ‘Small Sats Big Shift: Recommendations for the Global South”. The 2017 program was highly successful, and the five week live-in program, complemented by one optional week of intensive English as second language program carried out before the commencement of the SHSSP, is now an established educational offering of the International Space University - University of South Australia (UniSA) consortium, which is presently exploring longer term agreements to continue and expand this productive educational collaboration beyond the next program, to be held at UniSA in January-February 2018

Epidemiology and geographical distribution of enteric protozoan infections in Sydney, Australia

© 2014 S. Fletcher et al., 2014. Results: Frequently detected protozoa were Blastocystis spp. (57%), Giardia intestinalis (27%) and Dientamoeba fragilis (12%). The age distribution showed that the prevalence of protozoa decreased with age up to 24 years but increasing with age from 25 years onwards. The geographic provenance of the patients indicates that the majority of cases of Blastocystis (53.1%) are clustered in and around the Sydney City Business District, while pockets of giardiasis were identified in regional/rural areas. The distribution of cases suggests higher risk of protozoan infection may exist for some communities.Conclusions: These findings provide useful information for policy makers to design and tailor interventions to target high risk communities Follow-up investigation into the risk factors for giardiasis in regional/rural areas is needed.Background: Enteric protozoa are associated with diarrhoeal illnesses in humans; however there are no recent studies on their epidemiology and geographical distribution in Australia. This study describes the epidemiology of enteric protozoa in the state of New South Wales and incorporates spatial analysis to describe their distribution.Design and methods: Laboratory and clinical records from four public hospitals in Sydney for 910 patients, who tested positive for enteric protozoa over the period January 2007 - December 2010, were identified, examined and analysed. We selected 580 cases which had residence post code data available, enabling us to examine the geographic distribution of patients, and reviewed the clinical data of 252 patients to examine possible links between protozoa, demographic and clinical features

An Analysis of MARSIS Radar Flash Memory Data from Lunae Planum, Mars: Searching for Subsurface Structures

Lunae Planum is a Martian plain measuring approximately 1000 km in width and 2000 km in length, centered at coordinates 294°E-11°N. MOLA elevations range from +2500 m to +500 m in the south, gently sloping northward to -500 m. The plain is part of a belt of terrains located between the southern highlands and the northern lowlands, that are transitional in character (e.g., by elevation, age and morphology). These transitional terrains are poorly understood, in part because of their relative lack of major geomorphological features. They record however a very significant part of Mars's geologic history. The most evident features on Lunae Planum's Hesperian surface are regularly spaced, longitudinally striking, wrinkle ridges. These indicate the presence of blind thrust faults cutting through thick stacks of layers of volcanic or sedimentary rocks. The presence of fluidized ejecta craters scattered all over the region suggests also the presence of ice or volatiles in the subsurface. In a preliminary study of Lunae Planum's subsurface we used the Mars Express ground penetrating radar MARSIS dataset [1], in order to detect reflectors that could indicate the presence of fault planes or layering. Standard radargrams however, provided no evidence of changes in value of dielectric constant that could indicate possible geologic discontinuities or stratification of physically diverse materials. We thus started a new investigation based on processing of raw MARSIS data. Here we report on the preliminary results of this study. We searched the MARSIS archive for raw data stored in flash memory. When operating with flash storage, the radar collects 2 frequency bands along-track covering a distance = 100-250 km, depending on the orbiter altitude [2]. We found flash memory data from 24 orbits over the area. We processed the data focusing radar returns in off-nadir directions, to maximize the likelihood of detecting sloping subsurface structures, including those striking parallel to the Mars Express sub-polar orbits. We plan to follow this study by applying a new processor aimed at improving the resolution and signal to noise ratio of the data. [1] Caprarelli et al. (2017), LPSC 48, 1720. [2] Watters et al. (2017), LPSC 48, 1693

Radar Sounding by MARSIS Over Lucus Planum, Mars

Probed by the MARSIS radar sounder, Lucus Planum is found to be laterally inhomogeneous, its central part consisting of denser, more radar-attenuating material

The state of planetary science in Australia

A head-count of Australia-based scientists doing research in planetary science was performed in the context of the drafting of the Decadal Plan for Space Sciences [1]. This paper builds on those findings. A search of papers published by Australia-based scientists in the period 2005-2008 was performed. The search returned 91 papers published in international journals by scientists distributed in 7 groups, of which 6 are identified by the affiliations of the researchers, and one, termed Others, is composed of individuals working independently. Correspondence analysis performed on the data returned distinctive associations of the ANU, UNSW and Others groups with the subdisciplines of cosmochemistry, astrobiology and mission data analysis, respectively. These associations are interpreted as indicating clusters of activity that are, or have the potential to grow into, areas of high productivity. A minimalist model to support and organise activity in the potential cluster represented by the Others is presented here

Introducing and discussing a novel diagrammatic representation of impact crater dimensions

Impact craters on the surface of Mars are degraded by erosion and infilling due to combinations of geological processes. These result in modifications of relative crater dimensions, including diameter increase and reduction of rim-floor depths. In principle, the longer a crater is exposed to geological processes, the more pronounced the modifications. Visualization and analysis of these effects are achieved by plotting the measured depths (M) of impact craters vs the corresponding theoretical depths (predicted: P) calculated from the crater diameters using depth/. Diameter power laws. This type of diagram is referred to as MPD (measured depth vs predicted depth diagram). The advantage of using the MPD representation consists in the fact that the data plot along linear regressions, more easily interpreted than standard depth vs diameter diagrams.As an example of application of the method, the MPD was used to discriminate different generations of impact craters in Terra Sabaea into four groups: T0 (fresh craters), T1, T2 and T3 (from younger to older), all located on the most ancient geological unit in the area (Npld). Other units in the area are Hpl3 and Hr, impacted only by craters belonging to group T0, suggesting that these units are stratigraphically correlated. The data of 5 craters in superposition relationships with the eastern reaches of Evros Vallis, one of the major valley networks in the area, were plotted in the diagram and assigned each to a regression depending on the location of their data points in relation to the prediction bands of the regressions. The craters superposed to the valley all belonged to T0, indicating that Evros Vallis has the same relative age of units Hpl3 and Hr.A conceptual discussion of the results demonstrates that MPD statistics (a) are unaffected by the procedures used to acquire depths and diameters of impact craters and by the power laws used, and (b) can be interpreted irrespective of the sequence or combination of processes leading to modification of the crater morphometric data. These properties make the diagram a powerful statistical tool. © 2014 Elsevier Inc

Geochemical evidence from Lower Permian volcanic rocks of Northeast New South Wales for asthenospheric upwelling following slab break off

The ca280 Ma Alum Mountain Volcanics and Werrie Basalt were erupted in northeast New South Wales, Australia, during Early Permian lithospheric extension that separated discrete episodes of subduction of Carboniferous and Late Permian - Triassic age. The Alum Mountain rocks, which are preserved in two major synclines in the southeast Tamworth Belt, are mostly basalt, but andesite and rhyolite are also present. The Werrie Basalt found further north in the Tamworth Belt and in the floor of the Gunnedah Basin is composed mainly of basalt, but includes more evolved rocks in the vicinity of several eruptive centres. The Alum Mountain rocks have REE abundances similar to N-MORB, with flat REE patterns, (La/Sm)N ratios ranging from 0.54 to 1.07, and (La/Yb)N ratios from 0.94 to 2.78, suggesting an origin by large degrees of partial melting of asthenosphere at a depth < 75 km. The εNd values range from +5.61 to +8.73. The latter value corresponds to that of the depleted mantle at 0.2 Ga. Werrie Basalt samples have positive εNd values, ranging from +2.05 to +6.00, suggesting an asthenospheric origin for these rocks. Spider diagrams show a clear negative Nb anomaly, typical of subduction zones, but LREE/HREE [(La/Sm)N = 1.61 to 2.20; (La/Yb)N = 5.07 to 8.81), Ti/Zr, and Ti/P ratios are close to OIB values. The enriched character of the Werrie Basalt has resulted from either asthenospheric melts being progressively modified during ascent of fractionating magmas through the lithosphere, or by partial melting of a mantle metasomatised by subduction. The presence of a significant depleted-mantle component in the signature of the Lower Permian volcanic rocks indicates rise of the local mantle geotherm to allow extensive melting. We therefore propose a model of asthenospheric upwelling and lateral flow following breakoff of the Carboniferous subducting slab. Our model of asthenospheric convection as derived from eastern Australia suggests a major role for the asthenosphere in subduction zones: not only is the asthenosphere the reservoir from which magmatic arc melts originate, but we surmise that the behaviour of asthenospheric mantle at subduction zones may have far-reaching implications for the overall thermal state of the planet

MORB-like rocks in a Palaeozoic convergent margin setting, northeast New South Wales

The Devonian mafic rocks from the Folly Basalt, northeast New South Wales, were emplaced in the forearc section of the Devonian-Carboniferous magmatic arc preserved in the western part of the New England Fold Belt. Trace-element abundances in fractionated metadolerites (maximum concentration of Ni=85 ppm) from the Folly Basalt outcropping near Nundle demonstrate that these rocks have MORB affinity. Chondrite-normalised rare-earth element patterns are smooth and quasi-horizontal; Ce/Yb ratios are 3.34-7.98; (La/Yb)N ratios range from 0.69 to 2.23; (La/Sm)N ratios of the rocks range from 0.63 to 1.55. The data are compatible with an origin of the melts from large degrees (> 15%) of partial melting of mantle peridotite. A plausible mechanism for the production and emplacement of depleted magmas in the forearc zone of the Middle Palaeozoic eastern Australian magmatic arc involves the subduction of a hot oceanic spreading centre, which could cause the presence of a region of asthenospheric temperatures below the upper plate. It is also suggested that sustained high-temperature conditions may have prevailed in the eastern Australian mantle for at least the last 400 million years