Shannon Curry
CitizenshipUnited States
EducationB.S., Tufts University
M.S., University of Michigan
Ph.D., University of Michigan
OccupationDeputy Assistant Director of Planetary Science
EmployerUniversity of California, Berkeley
Known forplanetary atmospheres, Mars exploration, Venus exploration, atmospheric escape, planetary science, plasma physics

Shannon Curry is the Principal Investigator of the NASA Mars Scout mission MAVEN. She is a planetary physicist and the Deputy Assistant Director of Planetary Science at the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley.

Education

Curry received her Bachelors of Science from Tufts University in Astrophysics. Following, she received a fellowship through NASA's Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP) and completed her Ph.D at the University of Michigan in 2013; her thesis was titled "Test Particle Analysis of High Altitude Ion Transport and Escape on Mars".[1]

Research and career

Curry's research focus is on terrestrial planetary atmospheres, primarily in atmospheric escape and dynamics at Mars, Venus and other weakly magnetized bodies.[2]

She is involved in instrument development and mission concept development for future flight exploration of the solar system. Her research uses statistics, applied mathematics, modeling and machine learning in order to better understand spacecraft observations of the solar system.[3] Before completing her Ph.D., she was a systems engineer at Lockheed Martin.

In 2020, Curry participated in two Planetary Mission Concept Studies as part of NASA's preparations for the 2023 Planetary Science Decadal Survey: MOSAIC (a mission concept at Mars) and the Venus Flagship Mission Concept.[4]

Curry also leads the science campaigns for the Venus gravity assists performed by the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft[5][6][7] and is a collaborator on NASA’s Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) program.[8]

She is the Project Scientist on the SIMPLEx mission EscaPADE,[9][10] which is a spacecraft mission to Mars consisting of two spacecraft set to launch in 2024 to study the Martian magnetosphere.[11]

On August 31, she became the Principal Investigator of NASA's MAVEN mission, which launched in 2013 and orbits Mars to study the loss of atmospheric gases to space, providing insight into the history of the planet's climate and water.[3][12]

References

  1. ↑ Curry, Shannon M. (2013). Test Particle Analysis of High Altitude Ion Transport and Escape on Mars (Thesis thesis). hdl:2027.42/97939.
  2. ↑ "shannon curry". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2021-06-10.
  3. 1 2 "Sun-Stripped Mars Can Help NASA's MAVEN Provide Exoplanet Insights". Space.com. July 5, 2016.
  4. ↑ "MOSAIC" (PDF). Nasa.gov. August 1, 2020.
  5. ↑ "Hello, Venus! Parker Solar Probe Makes Second Planetary Flyby". Space.com. Dec 26, 2019.
  6. ↑ Bartels, Meghan (May 18, 2021). "Venus views from NASA sun probe show potential of hitchhiking science instruments". Space.com.
  7. ↑ "NASA's Parker Solar Probe swings through Venus 'tail' in flyby today". Space.com. July 10, 2020.
  8. ↑ mars.nasa.gov. "Shannon Curry - Principal Investigator of MAVEN | People Profile - NASA". mars.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
  9. ↑ "SIMPLEx Small Satellite Concept Finalists Target Moon, Mars and Beyond". Nasa.gov. June 19, 2019.
  10. ↑ "EscaPADE". NASA.gov.
  11. ↑ Foust, Jeff. "ESCAPADE confident in planned 2024 New Glenn launch".
  12. ↑ "NASA Mars Mission Begins a New Chapter of Science With a New Leader". NASA.gov. 7 September 2021.
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