University Students Join NASA on Trip to Hawaiian Volcano

A CLOSER LOOK

Full moon over lava lake The inspiring views at remote locations, such as Halema’uma’u Crater in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, are an extra reward for making the trip. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Kelsey Young In June, five student journalists from Stony Brook University packed their hiking boots and hydration packs and joined a NASA-funded science team for 10 days on the lava fields of Kilauea, an active Hawaiian volcano. Kilauea’s lava fields are an ideal place to test equipment designed for use on Earth’s moon or Mars, because volcanic activity shaped so much of those terrains. The trip was part of an interdisciplinary program called RIS4E – short for Remote, In Situ, and Synchrotron Studies for Science and Exploration – which is designed to prepare for future exploration of the moon, near-Earth

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