NASA Psyche Mission and Jupiter Moon
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Part 1: NASA Psyche Mission: Exploration of a Metal World
Main Belt asteroid (16) Psyche is the largest metallic object in the Solar System, and NASA is sending the ASU-led Psyche there to explore it. Join Professor David Williams of ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration for a discussion of asteroids, the importance of Psyche, and how it will be studied by the Psyche spacecraft.
Part 2: World of Fire: Exploring Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io with New Results from NASA’s Juno Mission
Jupiter’s Moon Io, slightly larger than Earth’s Moon, is the most volcanically active object in the Solar System. For the first time NASA’s Juno Jupiter orbiter has provided unique views of previously unexplored terrain. Join Professor David Williams for a discussion of new findings about this wonderous moon.
Dr. David A. Williams is a Research Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona
State University, Tempe, Arizona. Dr. Williams is the Director of the Ronald Greeley Center for Planetary Studies, a
NASA-supported planetary data center at ASU. He is also the Director of the NASA Planetary Aeolian Laboratory,
which administers wind tunnels the Ames Research Center in California. David is currently performing research in
volcanology and planetary geology, with a focus on planetary mapping, geochemical, and remote sensing studies.
His current research focuses on planetary geologic mapping of bodies across the Solar System, and computer
modeling of the physical and geochemical evolution of lava flows in a variety of planetary environments. He was
involved with NASA’s Magellan Mission to Venus, Galileo Mission to Jupiter, Dawn Mission to asteroid Vesta and
dwarf planet Ceres, and ESA’s Mars Express orbiter mission. He is a member of the Janus camera team for the
ESA JUICE mission, and he is currently Deputy Imager Lead and a Co-Investigator on NASA’s Psyche Mission,
scheduled to launch in October 2023. In 2014 David was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America,
and asteroid 10,461 DAWILLIAMS was named in his honor.