Planetary Science Institute

Short description: Research institute in Tucson, Arizona

Planetary Science Institute

Logo of the Planetary Science Institute

Abbreviation| PSI
Formation| 1972
Founders| William Kenneth Hartmann
Type| Nonprofit 501(c)(3)
Focus| Planetary science
Headquarters| Tucson, Arizona, United States
Location|

* 1700 East Fort Lowell, Suite 106

Official language

| English

Director

| Mark V. Sykes
Website| psi.edu

The Planetary Science Institute (PSI) [1] is a 501(c)(3) non-profit research institute based in Tucson, Arizona, focusing on planetary science.[2] As of 2018[update], its director is Dr. Mark V. Sykes.[3] PSI, along with Space Science Institute (SSI) Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), and Eureka Scientific, were listed as 501(c)(3) organizations in the US in a special report by Nature in 2007, which facilitate federal grant applications of non-tenure-track astronomers.[4]

## Contents

* 1 Description
* 2 Notable people
* 3 See also
* 4 References
* 5 External links

## Description

Founded in 1972 by William Kenneth Hartmann,[5] PSI is involved in many NASA missions, the study of Mars, asteroids, comets, interplanetary dust, the formation of the Solar System, extrasolar planets, the origin of life, and other scientific topics. It actively participated in the Dawn mission,[6][7] which explored Vesta between 2011 and 2012, and Ceres between 2015 and 2018. It managed the GRaND[8] a Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector spectrometer,[9] which mapped the surfaces of the two minor planets to determine how they were formed and evolved.

PSI's orbit@home was a distributed computing project through which the public could help in the search for near-Earth objects. The institute is also involved in science education through school programs, popular science books and art.

## Notable people

* Aileen Yingst, geologist and senior scientist for the Planetary Science Institute
* Pamela L. Gay, Senior Education and Communication Specialist and Senior Scientist

## See also

* Space Science Institute
* Space Studies Institute
* Southwest Research Institute

## References

1. ↑ Demers, Jasmine. "Tucson's Planetary Science Institute to assist NASA with Saturn moon mission" (in en). https://tucson.com/news/local/tucsons-planetary-science-institute-to-assist-nasa-with-saturn-moon-mission/article_6efda1f8-ef4f-563b-9bf8-aff2ee68488e.html.
2. ↑ "Phys.org - News and Articles on Science and Technology" (in en). https://phys.org/partners/planetary-science-institute/.
3. ↑ "Leadership". https://www.psi.edu/about/leadership.
4. ↑ Bjorn, Genevive (2007). "Freedom of the skies". Nature 449 (7163): 750–751. doi:10.1038/nj7163-750a.
5. ↑ "About Us". http://www.psi.edu/about.
6. ↑ Mace, Mikayla. "NASA's Dawn spacecraft runs out of fuel, but Tucson scientists say discoveries will go on" (in en). https://tucson.com/news/local/nasas-dawn-spacecraft-runs-out-of-fuel-but-tucson-scientists-say-discoveries-will-go-on/article_d407fae6-4dfd-5808-984e-c658d2450e82.html.
7. ↑ "Overview | Dawn". https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/dawn/overview.
8. ↑ "Dawn - NASA Planetary Data System". https://arcnav.psi.edu/urn:nasa:pds:context:investigation:mission.dawn_mission_to_vesta_and_ceres.
9. ↑ "GRaND Instrument | Technology". https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/dawn/technology/grand-instrument.

## External links

[ ⚑ ]  32°15′51″N 110°56′47″W﻿ / ﻿32.2643°N 110.9464°W﻿ / 32.2643; -110.9464

0.00

(0 votes)

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Organization:Planetary_Science_Institute&oldid=3866289"