14 DAY TRIAL // At a conference held yesterday at the Delaware State University (DESU), the American space agency announced that it had awarded a $5-million grant to the institution, for the creation of a new NASA-URC Center for Applied Optics for Space Science (CAOSS) on campus. Speakers at the event included the Acting President of DESU, Claibourne D. Smith, Delaware Governor Jack Markell, and Dr. Noureddine Melikechim, who is the principal investigator for the new grant. The new center would make use of advancements in optical sciences to create new technologies that would benefit both space exploration and civil applications, the officials said.
In addition to enhancing the national aerospace science and technology workforce, the new center will also engage in a large number of collaborative efforts, alongside industry partners, other NASA research facilities, US federal laboratories, as well as other colleges and universities. CAOSS also directly addresses students of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and is meant to be an inspiration source for the young ones in pursuing careers in their respective fields. It's expected that the new center will consolidate the existing Center for Research and Education in Optical Sciences and Applications (CREOSA).
In fact, representatives from NASA and DESU say, the two institutes are scheduled to be merged within one year, creating the Optical Science Center for Applied Research (OSCAR) facility. “Since 1997, the University's optics faculty has been steadily developing the capability and infrastructure to take on more and more complex research projects. Today's announcement of another $5 million research grant reflects that America has a sound confidence in our optics scientists,” Smith says. CREOSA is funded under a US National Science Foundation (NSF) grant.
“CAOSS will also be involved with Mars exploration through its research and development of the ChemCam Mars Rover LIBS instrument and a remotely-operated laser scanning confocal microscope for analysis of extraterrestrial environment,” Melikechim adds. Among the most important facilities that CAOSS will cooperate with, representatives have included the Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland, the NASA/NSSTC Astrobiology Laboratory, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, at Caltech, in California, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Northwestern University, Juxtopia®, the Vassar College, and the Delaware Aerospace Education Foundation.