Annual report 2004

Annual report of the Cosmic Materials Space Research Group for 2004, from the yearbook Űrtevékenység Magyarországon (Space Activities in Hungary).

ELTE Faculty of Science / MTA Geonomy Committee – Cosmic Materials Space Research Group
Address: 1117 Budapest, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/a, Hungary

Source: Űrtevékenység Magyarországon 2004 (Space Activities in Hungary), yearbook. Publisher: MANT, Budapest.

Researchers

Programme organiser and head of the research group: Bérczi Szaniszló, associate professor.

Our activities and results

The space research activity of our group belongs to space physics among the main directions of the Space Research Scientific Council, and to astrophysics in the NASA database. Our four working groups are the following:

• Lunar rocks and meteorites group: petrographic microscopy, geochemistry with an electron microprobe and other methods of materials analysis
• Planetology group: geomorphology of Solar System bodies, surface mapping
• Hunveyor group: building the experimental educational Hunveyor space probe, combining robotics with instrumented planetary geology, space-research education
• Space research and geometry group: methods of geometry and computer graphics, interactive spatial-representation programs, modelling of motions in cosmic space

Geomorphology, planetology, planetary maps

Over the past year we continued to study the surface microenvironments of Solar System bodies, and as the seventh volume of our atlas series presenting the Solar System we published the Atlas of Roaming on Planetary Surfaces [Bolygófelszíni barangolások atlasza], which describes the lessons and experiments of the expeditions with astronaut-driven vehicles and with robotic rovers that landed on the Moon and Mars. We continued our lecture series within the Planetology I and II courses announced by the Department of Physical Geography of the ELTE Faculty of Science. Members of the group also took part individually, with several papers, in the LPI/NASA LPSC conference.

We continued our work on the topic initiated by Horváth András, the research of the Martian dark spots (DDS). Kereszturi Ákos and Sik András have also joined this research group. On the new MGS images we studied the seepages starting from the DDS. The details of this work are reported by the ESA-MAG working group. Our results were also presented at several conferences: the 35th LPSC in Houston, the COSPAR conference in Paris, the EGS conference in Nice, and the 4th European Exo-Astrobiology Conference held in Milton Keynes.

We continued the publication of the Central European series of planetary maps. This year the map of Mercury was completed under the editorship of Hargitai Henrik.

Space research and geometry

Our working group is preparing a patent application with a summary work that, based on the work done by Kabai Sándor with the Mathematica program, makes possible the production of optimal spatial structures (containing two kinds of elements), suitable also for building a space station, using elements designed with the help of computer graphics.

International cooperation

We reported on our work at several international and domestic conferences. The three most important were the 35th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, the COSPAR congress in Paris and the 4th European Exo-Astrobiology Conference held in Milton Keynes. Our research group presented 15 papers (NASA), 3 (COSPAR) and 2 (Exo-Astro-Bio) there. Our research group works with the following international contacts and partners:

• Department of Antarctic Meteorites, National Institute of Polar Research, Tokyo (Japan)
• Planetary Materials Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas (USA)
• Yamaguchi University, Dept. of Chemistry and Earth Science, Yamaguchi (Japan)
• Babeș–Bolyai University, Department of Mineralogy and Petrology, Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár), Transylvania, Romania
• Astrobiology Institute (Madrid, Spain)

Other activities

We presented our cosmic-material collections in several lectures at the University of Szeged, the University of Pécs, the University of West Hungary (Sopron), the Berzsenyi Dániel College, the Székesfehérvár faculty of computer science of the Budapest Polytechnic named after Kandó Kálmán, and, among the towns of the country, in Sopron, Csorna, Mosonmagyaróvár, Győr and Kiskunhalas. The doors are open to professional visitors and colleagues at the Tuesday-evening meetings of the Meteoritics and Planetology Subcommittee, and new university students are likewise welcome to join the Youth Space Research Group that builds the Hunveyor space probe.

Publications

Refereed journal

• T. Földi, Sz. Bérczi, E. Palásti (2003): Experimental Instrument on Hunveyor for Collecting Bacteria by Their Electrostatic Coagulation with Dust Grains (FOELDIX): Observation of Electrostatical Precipitated Coagulated Units in a Nutrient Detector Pattern. Acta Mineralogica et Petrographica, Szeged, XLIV. 19–22. (HU ISSN 0365 8006)

Books and book chapters

• Bérczi Sz., Hargitai H., Illés E., Kereszturi Á., Sik A., Földi T., Hegyi S., Kovács Zs., Mörtl M., Weidinger T. (2004): Concise Atlas of the Solar System (6): Atlas of Microenvironments of Planetary surfaces. ELTE TTK Kozmikus Anyagokat Vizsgáló Űrkutató Csoport, UNICONSTANT, Budapest-Püspökladány (ISBN 963 00 6314 XÖ, 963 86401 6 2)
• Bérczi Sz., Hargitai H., Horváth A., Kereszturi Á., Mészáros I., Sik A. (2004): Kis Atlasz a Naprendszerről (7): Bolygófelszíni barangolások. [Concise Atlas of the Solar System (7): Roaming on Planetary Surfaces] ELTE TTK Kozmikus Anyagokat Vizsgáló Űrkutató Csoport, UNICONSTANT, Budapest-Püspökladány (ISBN 963 00 6314 XÖ, 963 86401 5 4)

Conference papers

• Földi T., Bérczi Sz. (2004): Electromagnetic scrape of meteorites and probably columbia tiles. 35th LPSC, #1057, LPI, Houston.
• T. Földi, Sz. Bérczi (2004): Collecting bacteria together with aerosols in the Martian atmosphere by the foeldix experimental instrument developed with a nutrient detector pattern: model measurements of effectivity. 35th LPSC, #1059, LPI, Houston.
• S. Kabai, Sz. Bérczi (2004): Modelling planetary material’s structures: from quasicrystalline microstructure to crystallographic materials by use of Mathematica. 35th LPSC, #1081, LPI, Houston.
• S. Hegyi, B. Kovács, Gy. Imrek, L. Csapó, Sz. Bérczi (2004): Classroom teaching of space technology and simulations by the Husar rover model. 35th LPSC, #1093, LPI, Houston.
• L. Gimesi, Cs. Z. Béres, Sz. Bérczi, S. Hegyi, V. Cech (2004): Teaching planetary GIS by constructing its model for the test terrain of the Hunveyor and Husar. 35th LPSC, #1140, LPI, Houston.
• Mörtl M., Földi T., Hargitai H., Hegyi S., Illés E., Hudoba Gy., Kovács Zs., Kereszturi A., Sik A., Józsa S., Szakmány Gy., Weidinger T., Toth Sz., Fabriczy A., Bérczi Sz. (2004): Unusual guidebook to terrestrial field work studies: microenvironmental studies by landers on planetary surfaces (new atlas in the series of the Solar System notebooks on Eötvös University, Hungary). 35th LPSC, #1214, LPI, Houston.
• Bérczi Sz., Józsa S., Szakmány Gy., Kubovics I., Puskás Z., Fabriczy A., Unger Z. (2004): How we used NASA Lunar set in planetary and material science studies: textural and cooling sequences in sections of lava column from a thin and a thick lava-flow, from the Moon and Mars with terrestrial analogue and chondrule textural comparisons. 35th LPSC, #1246, LPI, Houston.
• Sz. Bérczi, A. Kereszturi, A. Horváth (2004): Stratigraphy of special layers – transient ones on permeable ones: examples from Earth and Mars. 35th LPSC, #1317, LPI, Houston.
• Gy. Hudoba, Zs. I. Kovács, A. Pintér, T. Földi, S. Hegyi, Sz. Tóth, F. Roskó, Sz. Bérczi (2004): New experiments (in meteorology, aerosols, soil moisture and ice) on the new Hunveyor educational planetary landers of universities and colleges in Hungary. 35th LPSC, #1572, LPI, Houston.
• Józsa S., Bérczi Sz. (2004): Analog sites in field work of petrology: rock assembly delivered to a plain by floods on Earth and Mars. 35th LPSC, #1608, LPI, Houston.
• A. Horváth, T. Pócs, T. Gánti, Sz. Bérczi, E. Szathmáry (2004): On the possibility of crypto-biotic-crust on Mars based on northern and southern ringed polar dune spots. 35th LPSC, #1914, LPI, Houston.
• Bérczi Sz., Fabriczy A., Földi T., Hargitai H., Hegyi S., Hudoba Gy., Illés E., Kovács Zs., Kereszturi A., Mörtl M., Sik A., Józsa S., Szakmány Gy., Weidinger T., Roskó F., Tóth Sz. (2004): Analog Site Studies in Planetary Science on Eötvös University, Hungary. 28th NIPR Symposium Antarctic Meteorites, Tokyo, p. 6.
• A. Horváth, T. Gánti, T. Pócs, Sz. Bérczi, E. Szathmáry (2004): Astrobiology on Mars. COSPAR Conference, 2004 July, Paris.
• T. Pócs, E. Szathmáry, Sz. Bérczi, A. Horváth, T. Gánti, Á. Kereszturi (2004): Criptobiotic Crust Types, as Earthy Analogues of Possible Martian Life Forms. 4. EANA Conference, 2004 November, Milton Keynes.
• A. Horváth, Sz. Bérczi, Á. Kereszturi, T. Pócs, A. Gesztesi, T. Gánti, E. Szathmáry (2004): Annual Change of Outflows from Dark Dune Spots in the Southern Polar Region of Mars. 4. EANA Conference, 2004 November, Milton Keynes.