This position may have additional semesters if the allocation of further funding is available. Most positions involve 40 hrs/week during the summer and 10-20 hrs/week when classes occur. The guaranteed semesters for this position are:
RedWater is a project under leadership from Honeybee Robotics where our lab is investigating the efficiency of ice melt probes for melting glacier ice on Mars. The PSTDL uses the smaller of our vacuum chambers to do thermal melt tests under Martian pressure and temperature conditions. Classifying these probes requires ice block preperations, ogranizing test setups, and the use of passive and active actuated melt probes to melt ice. Measurement of power use, displacement rate, and total volume of melted water under different power levels and with different probes materials/geometries are major goals of this project.