Lunar and Planetary Institute








Dr. Katherine Joy


Dr. Katherine Joy

Visiting Scientist
E-mail:joy@lpi.usra.edu

The Center for Lunar Science and Exploration
The Lunar and Planetary Institute, USRA
3600 Bay Area Blvd
Houston, Texas 77058, USA

I am a visiting scientist in the LPI-JSC Center for Lunar Science and Exploration. My research includes the petrology and geochemistry of lunar meteorites and as part of the NLSI effort, I will extend these studies to Apollo samples of the lunar regolith and the impact processes they represent. I am also a Co-Investigator of the D-CIXS and C1XS miniaturized X-ray fluorescence instruments that were/are part of the scientific payload on ESA’s SMART-1 and India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar missions.

Research Interests

Lunar Bombardment History Preserved in the Lunar Regolith

  • NASA Lunar Science Institute Postdoctoral Fellow working in the Center for Lunar Science and Exploration at LPI and at NASA Johnson Space Center.
  • Identifying the nature and source of projectiles to the lunar surface preserved in lunar regolith samples.

Lunar Meteorite Petrography, Petrology and Geochemistry

  • I use a range of analytical techniques to investigate the geological history of lunar meteorite samples.
  • I have studied both hot and cold desert samples originating from the lunar highlands, lunar mare basalts and complex regolith breccia samples.

Compositional Diversity of the Surface of the Moon and Mercury

  • Co-Investigator - Demonstration of a Compact Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (D-CIXS), which was a payload on the European Space Agency's SMART-1 mission to the Moon.
  • Co-Investigator - Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS), with an involvement in the instrument calibration, development of laboratory testing and lunar science data processing and interpretation.
  • Co-Investigator - Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (MIXS) instrument that will fly aboard ESA's BepiColumbo mission to Mercury.
  • Member of the UK Penetrator Consortium

Lunar Citizen Science


Please click here for a copy of my CV

 

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Last updated
September 27, 2012