Natalie Curran

NASA · Planetary Geology, Geophysics and Gemochemistry Lab

At a Mars analog site in Utah, we tested two science operation methods for data acquisition and decision-making protocols: a scenario where the tactical day is preplanned, but major adjustments may still be made before plan delivery; and a scenario in which the sol path must largely be planned before a given tactical planning day and very few adjus...

The Heliophysics Decadal survey should embrace the coming opportunity of sustained lunar surface exploration and facilitate cross-disciplinary efforts to unlock the secrets of the Sun that are held by the lunar surface. With planned Artemis efforts that include prioritization of samples of high interest and protocols for sample handling and analysi...

Geochronology is an indispensable tool for reconstructing the geologic history of planets, essential to understanding the formation and evolution of our solar system. Bombardment chronology bounds models of solar system dynamics, as well as the timing of volatile, organic, and siderophile element delivery. Absolute ages of magmatic products provide...

Geochronology, or determination of absolute ages for geologic events, underpins many inquiries into the formation and evolution of planets and our Solar System. Absolute ages of ancient and recent magmatic products provide strong constraints on the dynamics of magma oceans and crustal formation, as well as the longevity and evolution of interior he...

The lunar regolith provides a temporal archive of the evolution of the Moon and inner Solar System over the last ∼4 billion years. During this time, noble gases have been trapped and produced within soils and rocks at the lunar surface. These noble gas concentrations can be used to unravel the history of lunar material and shed light on processes t...

While the Earth and Moon are generally similar in composition, a notable difference between the two is the apparent depletion in moderately volatile elements in lunar samples. This is often attributed to the formation process of the Moon and demonstrates the importance of these elements as evolutionary tracers. Here we show that paleo space weather...

Miller Range (MIL) 13317 is a heterogeneous basalt‐bearing lunar regolith breccia that provides insights into the early magmatic history of the Moon. MIL 13317 is formed from a mixture of material with clasts having an affinity to Apollo ferroan anorthosites and basaltic volcanic rocks. Noble gas data indicate that MIL 13317 was consolidated into a...

Lunar meteorites provide a potential opportunity to expand the study of ancient (>4000 Ma) basaltic volcanism on the Moon, of which there are only a few examples in the Apollo sample collection. Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) was used to determine the Pb isotopic compositions of multiple mineral phases (Ca-phosphates, baddeleyite K-feldspar...

Halogens and noble gases within submarine basaltic glasses are critical tracers of interactions between the surface volatile reservoirs and the mantle. However, as the halogens and noble gases are concentrated within seawater, sediments, and the oceanic crust this makes the original volatile signature of submarine basaltic lavas susceptible to geoc...

The howardite-eucrite-diogenite (HED) clan of meteorites, which most likely originate from the asteroid Vesta, provide an opportunity to combine in-depth sample analysis with the comprehensive remote-sensing data set from NASA's recent Dawn mission. Miller Range (MIL) 11100, an Antarctic howardite, contains diverse rock and mineral fragments from c...

The Moon is an archive of impact cratering in the Solar System throughout the past 4.5 billion years. It preserves this record better than larger, more complex planets like the Earth, Mars and Venus, which have largely lost their ancient crusts through geological reprocessing and hydrospheric/atmospheric weathering. Identifying the parent bodies of...

Francesca McDonald, Dayl Martin, Natalie Curran and Abigail Calzada-Diaz summarize the research achieved by summer interns at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.

Most of the highest priority objectives for lunar science and exploration (e.g., NRC, 2007) require sample return. Studies of the best places to conduct that work have identified Schrö dinger basin as a geologically rich area, able to address a significant number of these scientific concepts. In this study traverses were designed for a robotic miss...

Introduction: Shoemaker's classic map of Meteor Crater [1] provides a clear picture of the continuous ejecta blanket, but the map is complete to only 1 crater radii and extends to only 1.75 crater radii in two lim-ited areas. No attempt was made to map discontinuous ejecta. He later suggested [2] that a Moenkopi ridge north of the crater was once c...

Traverse options for a robotic sample return mission to the northern portion of Schrödinger basin, addressing many NRC (2007) science goals and priorities.

Abstract outlines a derived model for the velocity of a rover as a function of the slope of lunar terrain. It can be used for more accurate mission planning.

Traverse options for a robotic and/or human assisted return sample mission to Schrödinger basin have been created to address important lunar scientific goals.

Analysis of solar irradiance data from LMMP for the period January 2018 through December 2021 for a potential robotic mission to Schrödinger Basin.

Determining the regolith history of lunar meteorites to see if they show a similar link between their formation age and their maturity, as Apollo samples do.