Returning Thermal Advantage Instrument’s DSC 2920 and SDT 2960 to Functioning Order

Thermal Advantage (TA) Instruments DSC 2920 and SDT 2960 require a computer running Windows NT 2000 and an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) expansion card to output and record data. Due to the lack of availability for this older software and hardware, a virtual machine running Windows NT 2000, using Oracle VM VirtualBox as the virtualization software, and a GPIB-USB-SH converter were used to allow a modern computer to interface with the DSC an SDT. The Windows NT virtual machine ran the necessary TA software to communicate with the DSC and SDT and USB pass-through was used to allow the virtual machine to see the instruments via the GPIB-USB-SH converter. Both the DSC and SDT successfully communicated and output data to the modern computer

In situ detection of boron by ChemCam on Mars

We report the first in situ detection of boron on Mars. Boron has been detected in Gale crater at levels Curiosity rover ChemCam instrument in calcium-sulfate-filled fractures, which formed in a late-stage groundwater circulating mainly in phyllosilicate-rich bedrock interpreted as lacustrine in origin. We consider two main groundwater-driven hypotheses to explain the presence of boron in the veins: leaching of borates out of bedrock or the redistribution of borate by dissolution of borate-bearing evaporite deposits. Our results suggest that an evaporation mechanism is most likely, implying that Gale groundwaters were mildly alkaline. On Earth, boron may be a necessary component for the origin of life; on Mars, its presence suggests that subsurface groundwater conditions could have supported prebiotic chemical reactions if organics were also present and provides additional support for the past habitability of Gale crater

Simulation of the GRETINA Scanning Table at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

We developed a geant4 simulation of the GRETINA scanning table at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The GRETINA gamma-ray tracking array consists of 28 highly segmented coaxial germanium crystals. Each of the crystals is segmented into 36 electrically isolated ele- ments. The scanning table is primarily used to determine how GRETINA records the information pertaining to the position of a gamma-ray hit. Since the gamma-ray source is collimated, events are produced at known locations. Then the data are analyzed to determine a process of turning raw data into useful positions. The data can also be analyzed to better understand aspects of GRETINA like its geometry, resolution, efficiency, and the effects of various parts on gamma ray detection. Complex components of the scanning table were implemented in the simulation using STL files created from CAD drawings which were imported to the code using the open source package CADMesh