Week Six and LPSC Conference!

Last week we had trouble with the QGIS software saving and uploading the maps so we decided it would be best to just use photoshop. But this week I was able to actually map! I used the processed mafic minerals map and NiS map. I made a new layer in photoshop and used the polygon selection tool and the paint bucket tool to map the areas of interest. On the mafic mineral map I mapped each of the darkest areas of red, blue, and green. On the NiS map I mapped the lightest and darkest areas. Once I completed this I layered both maps on top of each other and mapped the areas where the mafic minerals and nickel sulfides overlapped. The reason for this is that mafic minerals alone are not strong indicators of PGMs so areas that have mafic minerals and NiS are more likely to indicate PGMs.

On Thursday I also went to the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference! I was part of the poster session. This means I stood by my poster while scientists that were interested in my research asked me questions. Explaining my project to so many people and answering their questions really helped me understand it more and will help me in my other presentations. I was able to meet so many interesting people and I am so grateful I was able to go! Here is what my poster looked like!

Week Five

This week I did some more background research. I continued reading "Mining the Sky" by John S. Lewis. The book explains how we can mine for precious metals on asteroids, comets, and planets. It also explains why this is a good option because earths growing population. He says there billions of dollars worth of metals, fuels, and life-sustaining substances that await in nearby space. At first I didn't love the book, but now that I have read more of it I am starting to find it very interesting. It is a book about space that is written in a way that catches your attention. I also worked more on my literature review for my AP Research paper. 

I was not able to work on mapping the marker minerals this week because my advisor is out of town. I was going to start data without him, but he had technical difficulties while traveling and was not able to upload the needed materials. 

Week Four

Last week I organized the layers for the geological features map of Vesta. This week I tried to upload the actual map that goes along with the layers but it was unsuccessful. When I uploaded it as a rastor layer to the existing layers to QGIS, it says there is an error. The map gets imported but does not actually show up. So hopefully we can figure out a way to fix it so that the map is visible. I was going to start the mineral mapping this week but unfortunately my advisor is out of town he could not get me the maps. But next week I am hoping to start on the marker mineral mapping!

I also read through a study done on the surface of Vesta. The research focused on figuring out more about the the orange material on Vesta. These orange areas were seen from the visual and infrared spectrometer on the Dawn mission. There are also many different maps of Vesta and its features included in the reaearch. There is even a mineral map. This research will help me know how to format my research and it will give me an idea of what some of the colors on the Vesta map mean.