Dr. Anthony Colaprete

Dr. Anthony Colaprete is the Principal Investigator for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing (LCROSS) mission. Colaprete has worked on a variety of space projects ranging from sounding rocket and space shuttle flights, to micro and small satellites. In addition to his project and instrumentation work, Colaprete is internationally recognized for his work on the nature of the martian climate system. He has developed state-of-the-art cloud microphysical schemes and incorporated them into the NASA/Ames Mars General Circulation Model. He has used these models to show carbon dioxide ice clouds on early Mars do warm the surface through a scattering greenhouse, but not to the levels previously thought, impact events on early Mars can dramatically alter the planet's climate system and could provide an explanation for many of the fluvial features and atmospheric dynamics can explain the observed offset of the south polar residual ice cap. In addition to his scientific research, Colaprete has also contributed to various projects at Ames including the Pascal Scout Mission for which he is the deputy principal investigator, the Mars Polar Drill Scout mission for which he is leading the effort on the meteorology package, and the Lunar Robotic program for which he is the science / payload lead on one of the Ames proposals.

Dr. Colaprete will be speaking on his work on the LCROSS mission.